Hydro Alternative Energy Receives Patent Approval for Its Underwater Turbine Design

Hydro Alternative Energy, Inc. ("HAE" or the "Company"), an emerging independent power provider, announces that, after almost 4 years of research, development, legal and technical work, it has received from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a Notice of Allowance ("NOA") for its Patent application number US 13/679,268, which originally was filled on November 2012. The NOA clearly states "The Application Identified above has been examined and is allowed for issuance as a Patent. Prosecution on the Merits of the applications is closed".

Image courtesy: HAE

Mark Antonucci, the HAE's CEO and Chairman, was quoted saying: "This single action from the US Patent and Trademark Office, constitutes one of the most important milestones within the long term strategic planning of the company. Our international expansion ranging from the pending acquisition of the Run-of-the-River project in Panama to our developing Oceanus^TM project in South Africa shows our determination in staying true to our focus of harnessing water currents to produce electricity. The completion of this milestone will allow the company to protect its technology and proprietary designs, if necessary, with contractors and sub-contractors and will enable us to proceed without the risk of losing value in our inventions and technology."

HAE's Hydrokinetic Energy Conversion System with buoyancy and ballast controls to harness underwater currents for the generation of electrical power, the ("System"), has a combination of an inline turbine coupled to an electrical generator and a radial water flow shroud channeling water current flow about the inline turbine, a ballast and buoyancy system comprising of a plurality of circumferential hydrofoils with a primary circumferential hydrofoil disposed proximal of the turbine, the remaining circumferential hydrofoils are disposed downstream the primary circumferential hydrofoil, each hydrofoil having an inboard flow acceleration surface adapted to accelerate water flow through the shroud and downstream away from the turbine.

Image courtesy: HAE

The System has circumferential hydrofoils defining secondary circumferential hydrofoils; a plurality of struts mounting the turbine on or about the axial centerline of the primary circumferential hydrofoil; a plurality of shroud braces mounting the primary circumferential hydrofoil to an adjacent secondary circumferential hydrofoil and mounting other adjacent secondary circumferential hydrofoils to each other. The System has a plurality of ballast chambers defined in interior spaces of some or all of the circumferential hydrofoils, each ballast chamber having a gas intake port and a water ballast output port, the ballast port permitting the ingress or egress of ambient water as ballast for the ballast defining circumferential hydrofoils.

The System has a source of compressed air provided to the radial shroud along with a plurality of valves intermediate to the source of compressed air and the ballast chambers, the valves controlling the flow of air into the ballast chambers and the release of air from the ballast chambers; and a control system with sensors as control inputs monitoring depth or elevation above an ocean floor, pitch, yaw and roll of the radial shroud, the control system generating valve control commands to respective valves to inject or release air to and from corresponding ballast chambers in respective ballast defining circumferential hydrofoils.

Mark Leber, Chief Technology Officer of the company was very excited and was quoted saying: "This Patent allowance by the US Patent and Trademark Office is the first of a series of Patents filings that will define and protect HAE's proprietary underwater turbine design. This technology will allow for the extraction of power from underwater ocean currents and provide for a natural and clean source of electricity without any environmental disruption or pollution." HAE's business model provides for utilizing its own proprietary technology, identifying and locating existing and new technologies, and, when appropriate, partnering with others, for its power development and generation needs.