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

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是支持水库的清淤。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，胡佛大坝的蓄水深度仅为90英尺。同样，约有1430座大坝面临洪水倒塌或溢出的风险，如加利福尼亚州的普拉多大坝和莫哈韦大坝，以及2020年密歇根州的两座大坝倒塌，淹没了城镇，迫使数千名居民流离失所。传统的疏浚成本为每立方码20-70美元，对恢复这些水坝的储存能力构成了主要障碍。该项目通过将泥浆技术转换为胶囊技术，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1%的电力容量。这也可以保护涡轮机免受侵蚀。这个SBIR一期项目推进了一个系统的翻译，以解决沉积物堆积问题。拟议中的项目代表了移动压煤原木技术的延伸。沉积物首先从50-200英尺的深度被泵到岸上。它们在沉淀池中脱水，多余的水返回到水库。脱水后的沉积物被装入大型塑料胶囊，然后输送到距离大坝约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水动力在管道中支撑。为此，研制了一种新型燃气胶囊泵；这种液体活塞泵发动机每天可以泵出6000万加仑；它也很紧凑，不需要一个复杂的锁和泵旁路系统。它可以很容易地搬迁到一个新的地点，并使用低成本的天然气。这种从泥浆到胶囊管道技术的过渡代表了一种经济有效的方法。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.