Lone Gull Holdings, Ltd.

Embodiments disclosed herein include buoyant wave energy converters. In an embodiment, the wave energy converter comprises an upper chamber having a first fluid reservoir and a first gas pocket, and a lower chamber having a second fluid reservoir and a second gas pocket. An injection tube is between and fluidly coupled to the upper chamber and the lower chamber, where the injection tube is to impel a fluid from the second fluid reservoir into the first fluid reservoir when the upper chamber, the lower chamber and the injection tube oscillate about a waterline with the upper chamber adjacent to the waterline and the lower chamber below the waterline and vertically beneath the upper chamber. In an embodiment, an effluent tube is fluidly coupled to the upper chamber and the lower chamber, where the effluent tube is to return the fluid from the first fluid reservoir to the second fluid reservoir.

A pressure-regulating buoyant hydrodynamic pump is disclosed that floats adjacent to a surface of a body of water over which waves tend to pass. In response to wave-induced movements of the device, water is drawn into a mouth at a lower end of an injection tube, and water is ejected from a mouth at an upper end of the injection tube. The ejected water is deposited into an interior of the hollow buoy thereby augmenting a water reservoir therein. And water flows from the water reservoir to and through a water turbine, thereby energizing a generator, power electronics, and an electrical load. A novel water-turbine effluent buffering tube, or chamber, smooths pressure variations felt across the water turbine.

A computing apparatus that is integrated within a flotation module, the system obtaining the energy required to power its computing operations from waves that travel across the surface of a body of water on which the flotation module sets. Additionally, the self-powered computing apparatus employs novel designs to utilize its close proximity to the body of water and/or to strong ocean winds to significantly lower the cost and complexity of cooling their computing circuits.

Embodiments disclosed herein include a vessel that configured to float at a surface of a body of water. In an embodiment, the vessel comprises a buoy that is configured to float at the surface of the body of water, and a tube coupled to the buoy, where the tube extends down into the body of water. In an embodiment, the vessel further comprises a cavity at an end of the tube opposite from the buoy, where the cavity comprises an aperture that is at least partially along a plane that is non-orthogonal to a longitudinal axis of the tube, and where a bottom surface of the cavity comprises a tangent that is up to 20° from being orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the tube.

Disclosed are embodiments of a novel type of wave-powered propulsion adapted for use by buoyant vessels in order to provide or supplement their self-propulsion. An approximately vertical and semi-cylindrical propulsive shroud attached to a vessel interacts with a wave motion at and below the vessel in order to impart a thrust to the vessel.

Disclosed are embodiments of a novel type of wave-powered propulsion adapted for use by buoyant vessels in order to provide or supplement their self-propulsion. An approximately vertical and semi-cylindrical propulsive shroud attached to a vessel interacts with a wave motion at and below the vessel in order to impart a thrust to the vessel.

A computing apparatus that is integrated within a flotation module, the system obtaining the energy required to power its computing operations from waves that travel across the surface of a body of water on which the flotation module sets. Additionally, the self-powered computing apparatus employs novel designs to utilize its close proximity to the body of water and/or to strong ocean winds to significantly lower the cost and complexity of cooling their computing circuits.

A buoyant wave energy device is disclosed that incorporates an open-bottomed tube of substantial length in which is partially enclosed a first body of water that oscillates in response to wave action. The device incorporates a buoy to which an upper end of the tube is connected and inside of which is trapped a second body of water of substantial mass. A differential phase in the oscillations of the water trapped in the tube, and the oscillations of the buoy of augmented mass, result in the periodic compression of a pocket of air trapped at the top of the tube, and in the subsequent expulsion of pressurized air through a turbine, thereby generating electrical power.

Disclosed is an apparatus that adapts the rate of its computational work to match the availability of energy harvested from a stochastic energy source; and, with respect to some types of energy harvesting, regulates the rate of energy capture, the rate of energy conversion, and the rate of consumption of stored potential energy, through its alteration, regulation, and/or adjustment, of that same computational work load.

Disclosed is buoyant wave energy capture device, adapted to float adjacent to an upper surface of a body of water over which waves pass, and adapted to capture a portion of the radiated waves created by its own rising and falling in response to incident and/or passing environmental waves. A power take off mechanism combined with the disclosed wave energy capture device may be tuned to a specific wave frequency, and thereby optimally extract energy from a motion of a single frequency, even the wave energy capture device may be excited and/or energized by waves of any of a relatively broad range of frequencies, thereby increasing the power-generation and cost efficiencies of such devices relative to wave energy conversion devices of the prior art.