Patent ID: 8456027

Claim:
A hydro-mechanical system for generating power comprising: an upright elongated fluid vessel containing a fluid: a rotatable drive having a drive shaft mounted to the fluid vessel for providing a power output through the drive shaft; a pair of buoyancy vehicles that are located within a vehicle section of the vessel and are each coupled by a flexible coupling to the rotatable drive, each buoyancy vehicle defining an interior reservoir for receiving fluids and having upper and lower fluid ports located proximate to the upper and lower ends, respectively, of the buoyancy fluids for allowing the ingress and egress of fluids from the interior reservoir, the buoyancy vehicles each being movable within the vehicle section of the elongated vessel between a lowermost position of the vehicle section and an uppermost position of the vehicle section of the vessel, and wherein each of the pair of vehicles occupies one of the lowermost and uppermost positions when the other of the pair of vehicles occupies the other of the lowermost and uppermost positions, the movement of the buoyancy vehicles within the vehicle section driving the rotatable drive through the flexible coupling to provide the power output; a pressurized gas chamber for supplying pressurized gas to a charging station that is located at a position below the vehicle section of the fluid vessel and being in fluid communication with the fluid vessel at a lower end of the gas chamber; a pressurized gas source coupled to the pressurized gas chamber through a conduit having a one-way valve for introducing pressurized gas into the gas chamber, the one-way valve preventing gas from the pressurized gas chamber from flowing through the conduit towards the pressurized gas source after being introduced into the pressurized gas chamber; a pair of gas charging valves that are each fluidly coupled to the pressurized gas chamber and wherein each charging valve directly engages the lower end of one of the buoyancy vehicles to actuate the charging valve so that the charging valve is open for discharging pressurized gas from the pressurized gas chamber through the lower fluid port when the buoyancy vehicle is located at the lowermost position so that pressurized gas is introduced into the interior reservoir of the buoyancy vehicle through the lower fluid port, the gas charging valve closing when disengaged from the lower end of said one of the buoyancy vehicles; and a pair of release valves, each release valve being associated with one of the upper fluid ports, the release valve being actuated upon engagement with a release valve engagement member located at the upper end of the vehicle section so that the release valve is opened to facilitate discharging gas within the interior reservoir of the buoyancy vehicle through the upper fluid port when the buoyancy vehicle is located at the uppermost position, the release valve closing when buoyancy vehicle is lowered from the uppermost position.