Design testing of the hydrobox energy converter

Aerial view of water with foam

SME Scotstream Generation Ltd. developed a water energy converter, the Hydrobox, an evolution of the traditional waterwheel which greatly improves the amount of energy generated.

Jointly funded by the University of Glasgow EPSRC IAA and Energy Technology Partnership, Dr Kiran Ramesh from the James Watt School of Engineering undertook a systematic study of the design using computational fluid dynamics. An iterative process was used to study and improve the design resulting in an increase in the efficiency to 77%, compared to the 27% efficiency of the original design.

  • IAA support helped to leverage additional ETP funds for the collaboration.
  • The design has been licensed for deployment in India on the Clean Ganges Project (in partnership with Scottish Development International).
  • Further work on refinement of the design and adapting it for specific applications are ongoing.

Links