FLYWHEEL SYSTEM WITH PARALLEL PUMPING ARRANGEMENT

摘要

A flywheel energy storage system (200), includes two pumps (218, 224) arranged in parallel for simultaneously drawing-off and absorbing substantially all of the gases that evolve from a flywheel assembly during high speed operation. A water sorbent (224) has the primary purpose of pumping water vapor and a getter pump (218) has the primary purpose of pumping active gases. The parallel pumps, i.e., the water sorbent (224) and getter pump (218) are disposed in a gas storage chamber (214) that is separate from the main housing (202) of the flywheel system. A drag pump (216) pumps evolved gases from the main housing (202) to the gas storage chamber. Since the water sorbent has a relatively fast pumping speed as compared to the getter pump, getter material used with the getter pump degrades at a substantially slower rate thereby reducing the cost of using the getter pump.