Trompe
A trompe is a water-powered gas compressor, commonly used before the advent of the electric-powered compressor. A trompe is somewhat like an airlift pump working in reverse.
Trompes were used to provide compressed air for bloomery furnaces in Catalonia[1] and the USA.[2] The presence of a trompe is a signature attribute of a Catalan forge, a type of bloomery furnace.
In Paris they were used for a time to compress air to drive the city's first electricity generation scheme, and in the Alps they were used in France and Switzerland to provide compressed air for early alpine tunnels.[3]
Trompes can be enormous. At Canadian Hydro Developers' Ragged Chute facility in New Liskeard, Ontario, water falls down a shaft 351 feet (107 m) deep and 9 ft (2.7 m) across to generate compressed air for mining equipment and ventilation.[4]
Operation
Trompes are very simple devices. A vertical pipe or shaft goes down to a separation chamber, a pipe coming away from that chamber allows the water to exit at a lower level, and another pipe coming from the chamber allows the compressed air to exit as needed.
Water rushing down the vertical pipe falls through a constriction. The constriction produces a lower pressure because of the venturi effect, and an external port allows air to be sucked in. The air forms bubbles in the pipe. As the bubbles go down the pipe they are pressurized proportionally to the hydraulic head, which is the height of the column of water in the pipe. The compressed air rises to the top of the separation chamber. The separation chamber has a compressed-air takeoff pipe, and the compressed air can be used as a power source.
The energy of the falling water entrains the air into the water, but that is not the energy that pressurizes the air, as is often incorrectly claimed. That energy is solely a derivative of the hydraulic head.
Large trompes were often situated at high waterfalls so that plenty of power was available. The Ragged Chute plant on the Montreal River near the town of Cobalt, Ontario, is a trompe and tourist attraction. It is now owned by Canadian Hydro and exists beside a modern hydroelectric plant.[4]
Compressed air from a trompe is at the temperature of the water, and its partial pressure of water vapor is that of the dewpoint of the water's temperature. If the water is cool, the compressed air can be made very dry by passing it through pipes that are warmer than the water. Often, ordinary outside air can warm the pipes enough to produce very dry, cool compressed air.
See also
References
- ↑ The Catalan process for the direct production of malleable iron and its spread to Europe and the Americas PDF by Estanislau Tomàs (retrieved March 23, 2010)
- ↑ Script error
- ↑ Script error
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ragged Chutes
External links
- Farga Rossell a catalan furnace in Andorra (retrieved April 2, 2011)
- Article in Mother Earth News (retrieved October 15, 2011)
- Ragged Chutes in Cobalt Ontario. Uses a 17-meter head. (previously retrieved August 27, 2009, as of May 19, 2010 cobalt.ca no longer has technical details of the chute)
- Cobalt Mining Legacy Ragged Chutes technical details (retrieved August 6, 2010)
- C. H. Taylor pioneer hydraulic compressor designer including Ragged Chutes in Cobalt Ontario (retrieved August 6, 2010)
- Illustrated Book by C.H. Taylor: Taylor Hydraulic Air Compressor (1897) (retrieved October 16, 2011)
- Trompe Catalan Furnace in San Juan Capistrano, California
- ca:Trompa d'aigua
