Patent ID: 7216483

Claim:
A buoyancy-utilizing generating set provided with a vertically standing cylindrical tower in which a liquid is stored, a conveyor extended vertically in the shape of a loop in the interior of the tower so that the conveyor can be vertically turned, a plurality of buckets arranged on an outer side of the conveyor at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor so that openings of the buckets face in a direction opposite to the direction in which the conveyor turns, a supply means adapted to supply a gas in the form of bubbles into a bucket positioned on a portion of the side of the conveyor which is turned upward in the interior of the tower, through a downwardly directed opening of the same bucket, and a generator connected to a rotary shaft supporting the conveyor rotatably, the side of the conveyor on which the bucket is provided being turned upward by utilizing the power by which the gas supplied by the supply means into the bucket positioned on the lower portion of the side of the conveyor which is turned upward in the interior of the tower is moved up with the bucket in the liquid stored in the interior of the tower as the gas receives the buoyancy of the liquid, the generator connected to the rotary shaft rotated in the turning direction of the conveyor being rotated in accordance with the turning of the conveyor, wherein: the supply means includes a gas supply means for sending a compressed gas into an interior of a front end-closed pipe provided in a lower portion of the interior of the tower, a plurality of holes, said holes having an opening of about several microns to several hundred microns and said holes being located at a substantially uniform density in a circumferential wall of said front-end closed pipe adapted to turn the gas sent from the gas supply means into the interior of the pipe into a plurality of uniform micron-sized bubbles and send out the bubbled gas into the liquid in the interior of the tower, a gas introduction nozzle adapted to collect the plurality of uniform micron-sized bubbles of the gas sent out from the plurality of holes in the circumferential wall of the pipe into the bucket positioned on the lower portion of the side of the conveyor which is turned upward in the interior of the tower, and means for directing the plurality of uniform micron-sized bubbles into the bucket position in a lower portion of the side of the conveyor without causing leakage of the bubbled gas around an exterior of said bucket.