Leviathan Energy has been awarded a EUREKA grant of over €1 million to further develop and test its completely unique hydro power turbine in city pipes.
Leviathan’s Benkatina turbine makes hydro energy from right inside the pipes that run underneath cities (and up and down hills) carrying municipal waste water.
The company’s highly-efficient patent-pending hydroelectric turbine can make power in a wide range of conditions in carrying various kinds of liquids, including fresh and waste water, rain water and industrial run-off, and water flowing through gutters and drainage canals.
The award is to fund a prototype to be developed in partnership with two Italian companies, to be tested in the Alps in Northern Italy, Planet Energy News is reporting. Leviathan’s hydro turbine can be integrated into any existing or planned downhill flow system.
The partnering companies are ENCO Engineering Consultants SRL, an international civil engineering consultancy that does feasibility studies and testing, and Fontana SRL that manufactures heavy-duty industrial equipment. They might have an interest in a future product for an as yet untapped market.
“Fontana SRL and ENCO SRL, partners de facto in the hydroelectric power plant construction sector, have been looking for products suitable for their niche market and Leviathan’s represents a great opportunity for them to reach this market, which is still in an embryonic state,” the partners said in a statement.
The goal is to produce and then monitor production from a scale model able to produce 50 kilowatts per hour, with the idea of getting it to the huge European market. Forty EU countries are members of EUREKA, which is devoted to sharing industrial R&D among member nations to speed development of innovative technology. In 2000, Israel was invited to join the group as the only non-EU member.
In early tests it looks like Israel’s Leviathan turbine is able to very cost-effectively make electricity at an estimated $2,000 per KW, but so far only smaller prototypes have been installed. Their turbine now produces enough electricity to power the adjacent needs of the system in the national water company system operated by Mekorot, and a system has been sold to a city in the Philippines.
Municipal water supplies provide a surprisingly consistent and untapped resource of hydro-electric potential. Another very clever idea from Israel.
More on Israeli innovation
How Israel’s New Tech is Watering the Economy
Israeli Companies Winners in GE Ecovation Marathon
Israel’s Eliat Region Could be Middle East’s Cleantech Beta Site
