SBIR Phase I: Capsule Pipeline for Reservoir De-silting and for Mining

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响是支持水库清淤。这个国家有许多水坝和水库来生产低成本的电力。然而，每年洪水带来的沉积物消耗了水坝的储存能力，必须清除。例如，胡佛大坝只有90英尺深。同样，约有1430座大坝面临因洪水而坍塌或溢出的风险，如加州的普拉多大坝和莫哈韦大坝，2020年密歇根州的两座大坝坍塌，导致城镇被淹，数千居民流离失所。 传统的疏浚成本为每立方码20 -70美元，这对恢复这些大坝的储存能力构成了重大障碍。该项目将通过从泥浆转换为胶囊技术，将成本降低到每立方码8美元。回报将是从较低的沉积物积累中恢复的1%的电力容量。这也可以保护涡轮机免受侵蚀。该SBIR第一阶段项目推进了解决沉积物积累的系统的转换。拟议的项目代表了移动压制煤原木的技术的延伸。沉积物首先从50-200英尺深的地方被泵到海岸。它们在沉淀池中脱水，多余的水返回水库。脱水后的沉积物被装入大型塑料胶囊，并被送往距离大坝约30英里的专用管道。由于胶囊是流线型的，它需要很少的水来通过流体动力支撑在管道中。为此，开发了一种新的天然气燃烧胶囊泵;这种液体活塞泵发动机每天可以泵送高达6000万加仑;它也很紧凑，不需要复杂的锁和泵旁路系统。它可以很容易地搬迁到新的地点，并使用低成本的天然气。这种从泥浆到胶囊管道技术的转变代表了一种具有成本效益的方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impacts of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to support reservoir de-silting. The nation has a number of dams and reservoirs to produce low cost-electricity. However, sediments transported every year by floods consume the storage capacity of dams and must be removed. For example, the Hoover Dam is full to a depth of only 90 ft. Similarly, some 1430 dams are at risk of collapsing or overflowing from floods, such as the Prado Dam and Mojave Dam in California, and two dams collapsed in Michigan in 2020, flooding towns and displacing thousands of residents. Traditional dredging costs $20-70 per cubic yard and poses a major barrier to restoring the storage capacities of those dams. This project will reduce the cost to $8 per cubic yard by switching from a slurry to a capsule technology. The payback would be in the 1% power capacity restored from lower sediment accumulation. This could also protect turbines from erosion. This SBIR Phase I project advances translation of a system to address sediment accumulation. The proposed project represents an extension of technologies to move pressed coal logs. The sediments are first pumped to shore from a depth of 50-200 ft. They are dewatered in settling ponds and excess water is returned to the reservoir. The dewatered sediments are then packed into large plastic capsules and sent to a dedicated pipeline some 30 miles away from the dam. Since the capsule is streamlined, it needs little water to be supported in the pipeline by hydrodynamic forces. For this purpose, a new natural gas fired capsule pump is developed; this liquid piston pump engine can pump up to 60 million gallons per day; it is also compact and does not need a complex system of locks and pump bypasses. It can be easily relocated to a new site and operates on low-cost natural gas. This transition from slurry to capsule pipeline technology represents a cost-effective method.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.