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Re:A centrifugal spin on a 500-year-old air compressor design by labcomputer on Thursday May 06, 2021 @03:29PM (#27068027)
> this is basically a trompe

Is it though? They don't really explain how it works or show any diagrams, and they said it was "inspired by" the trompe. So I'm a bit confused on that point.

It really looks more like a mashup of a centrifugal compressor and a diffusion pump. One where water instead of oil is used as the working fluid.

Re:A centrifugal spin on a 500-year-old air compressor design by LorenPechtel on Friday May 07, 2021 @01:00PM (#27078097)
As I see it, the trompe has the problem of needing a lot of distance for gravity to operate it. This basically uses a centrifuge to increase the "gravity" and thus reduce the size.
Re:A centrifugal spin on a 500-year-old air compressor design by labcomputer on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @02:28AM (#27114859)
Ah yup. I was misremembering what a tromp was--I was thinking one of those cyclic pumps that uses water hammer (but to compress air rather than pump water).