Device harvests energy from train tracks

Kingfish

Kingfish

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Device harvests energy from train tracks

There are more than 140,000 miles of train track in the U.S., many of them laid across lonely stretches of land with nary a power line in sight. Thankfully, there’s a new gadget to harvest energy from vibrations generated in the track by passing trains to power signal lights and other track-side devices.

The energy harvester could save more than $10 million in trackside power costs in New York state alone, according to its inventor, Stony Brook University professor of mechanical engineering Lei Zuo. It would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions there by about 3,000 tons, he added.

The device converts the irregular up-and-down vibration of a train track to a unidirectional rotation of a generator. The concept is similar to other energy-harvesting devices such as the energy-generating backpack, kneebrace, speed bump and pavers.

The global market for energy harvesters hit $700 million in 2011 and could pass $4 billion by 2021, according to market research firm IDTechEx. Zuo and colleagues have licensed their Mechanical Motion Rectifier-based Railroad Energy Harvester to Electric Truck/Harvest NRG for commercialization.

– via Gizmag, Newsday, and SUNY
Click to expand...

Interesting. I presume the effect from harvesting would actually reduce the vibration.
~KF
 
So maybe we should all ride rigid ebikes and put that energy backpack on our bikes? :D

I'm surprised there is that much energy in vibrating train tracks. Neat.
 
Thinking out loud, the best use would be on one-way downhill tracks where the benefit of gravity is working with the load. On uphill grades and possibly level – the advantages may be offset by the increase in cost of driving the train: Considering that there is no free lunch… no such thing as perpetual motion, capturing vibrational energy may add cost & drag – however slight to the system. Sort of like underinflated tires or in the extreme… like pedaling an ebike without the benefit of power. :wink:

Imagine the railroad bed with the ties moving up and down from weight: They move because the soils are weak. When I was a young engineer living at the north end of Santa Clara, California within a stone’s throw of the CalTrain tracks, at night when all were asleep and dead-quiet you could feel the bow and aft wave of the incoming train shake the home with a slight tremor. The reality is that the majority of the populace lives on top of a saturated aquifer. If were interested in capturing that effect over and over along the length of moderately level track then I suspect that it would result in increased drag against the system. However on a downhill grade, the recovery could be used as a braking mechanism.

It seems to me that there are other vibration-related recovery applications out there utilizing Piezoelectricity. Perhaps we could tap into the stress and strain forces at play on bridge crossings, or by using acoustical dampening walls beside airports and even launch pads…

Passively energized, KF
 
One thought that comes to mind is the recapture of the sonic welding. The vibration joins the objects then becomes electricity again. Obviously some heat loss, I wonder just how efficient you could get.
 
No doubt about it, some track moves up and down an alarming amount.

In junior high, we used to get really baked, then go sit under a small wooden train bridge nearby as the train went over it. First timers invariably ran when they saw the bridge deflecting under the load. Almost unbelievable watching those 12x 12 beams bend like rubber.
 
Kingfish said:
Device harvests energy from train tracks

There are more than 140,000 miles of train track in the U.S., many of them laid across lonely stretches of land with nary a power line in sight. Thankfully, there’s a new gadget to harvest energy from vibrations generated in the track by passing trains to power signal lights and other track-side devices.

The energy harvester could save more than $10 million in trackside power costs in New York state alone, according to its inventor, Stony Brook University professor of mechanical engineering Lei Zuo. It would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions there by about 3,000 tons, he added.

The device converts the irregular up-and-down vibration of a train track to a unidirectional rotation of a generator. The concept is similar to other energy-harvesting devices such as the energy-generating backpack, kneebrace, speed bump and pavers.

The global market for energy harvesters hit $700 million in 2011 and could pass $4 billion by 2021, according to market research firm IDTechEx. Zuo and colleagues have licensed their Mechanical Motion Rectifier-based Railroad Energy Harvester to Electric Truck/Harvest NRG for commercialization.

– via Gizmag, Newsday, and SUNY
Click to expand...

Interesting. I presume the effect from harvesting would actually reduce the vibration.
~KF
Click to expand...
I call BS. The amount of up and down vibrations to produce this kind of electriciy though a generator is huge. I could see them figuring out how to light up an LED but nothign like they are talking.
 
Arlo1 said:
I call BS. The amount of up and down vibrations to produce this kind of electriciy though a generator is huge. I could see them figuring out how to light up an LED but nothign like they are talking.
Click to expand...
So it’s safe to say that you have little experience with piezoelectronics? :)

Thirty years ago we studied piezos as an energy resource for a particular client. Clever technology was just beginning to emerge at that time, adapting from telecommunications into other areas - including self-powered remote sensors. Vibration exists on multiple wavelengths all the time, and it’s for us to plumb the reservoir of opportunity and adapt it to our world. Twenty years ago I read a promising report of harnessing window vibration to passively feed emergency power in skyscrapers. That’s pretty wild when you consider the bottled up real estate nearly ready for market.

Think about it this way: The sound of our voice can power a phone from one end of the a battleship to the other without additional supplement. Literally, it’s called “Sound-powered phones”. That’s really old technology wherein our voice agitates carbon-crystals in the microphone which converts our voice to power. Piezos are more solid-state and compact, and the applications are bidirectional and employed in your smartphone to your audio speakers to guitar pickups to acoustic dampening.

It’s really an incredible field with so much more potential. I’d encourage more involvement and adaptation as it’s a fantastically underutilized energy source. That’s why created the post: It’s a really interesting adaptation and I am quite curious how those of them called “they” will do it.

With open mind, KF
 
What I'm saying kingfish is the amount of energy in sound and vibrations its super small. No matter how efficient the pizo is it still can't make the power they are claiming. My guess is its just another company looking for money.
 
Kingfish said:
Imagine the railroad bed with the ties moving up and down from weight: They move because the soils are weak. When I was a young engineer living at the north end of Santa Clara, California within a stone’s throw of the CalTrain tracks, at night when all were asleep and dead-quiet you could feel the bow and aft wave of the incoming train shake the home with a slight tremor. The reality is that the majority of the populace lives on top of a saturated aquifer. If were interested in capturing that effect over and over along the length of moderately level track then I suspect that it would result in increased drag against the system. However on a downhill grade, the recovery could be used as a braking mechanism.
Click to expand...

Trains are powered by electric motors that are powered by generators powered by diesel. ISome manufacturers are experimenting with regen. Also, via a flywheel, think.
 
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