GreenValve: hydrodynamics and applications of the control valve for energy harvesting

Energy harvesting from dissipation processes during flow control is a challenge for many different applications. Common usage of many plants and systems requires control valves to dissipate overpressures. GreenValve is an innovative control device designed to control the flow and harvest the energy that is normally wasted during the throttling process. A vertical axes water turbine resides within the valve body to improve regulation efficiency and recover part of the energy that would be dissipated. In the present work, GreenValve and the results of an experimental campaign to characterize its functioning are discussed. Then some real scenarios have been considered as potential applications. Regulation as a function of time has been considered to calculate the instantaneous energy dissipated through the throttling process and evaluate case by case the amount of harvestable energy. At the end some considerations on the effectiveness of the GreenValve are presented.