TerraForce -
How it Works
Before diving into the technicalities, it is important to emphasise TerraForce's primary objective first.
This objective is simply to convert g-force into useful 24/7, cheap export electricity at utility scale and 96% Capacity Factor, giving mankind a realistic chance of reaching Net Zero.
U Tube Demonstration
It is widely assumed that converting G-force into useful energy is impossible, one reason being that it is a downward only acting force, so how can it be made to lift a mass?
The fundamental operating principle of TerraForce is that of a U tube with one column containing a heavy, miscible liquid and the other column water, as per examples.
How to convert g-force into GRAVITATIONAL POTENTIAL ENERGY. Illustrated is a simple U tube.
The red column is half filled with a water based miscible fluid which can be up to 3 SG (3 x weight of water)
The blue column is filled with water.
The two columns are separated by a closed valve.
What do you think will happen to the levels when the valve is opened?
Gravitational Potential Energy
No prizes for guessing that the heavier liquid would displace the water to a higher level.
But what caused this to happen? Prior to opening the valve the two liquids were ‘out of balance’ (more pressure on one side of the valve than on the other.)
G-force promptly acts to re-balance the two liquids, (pressures are then equalised.) Hence, the downwards only acting G-force has lifted a mass of water to a height.
The water column is now higher and has GRAVITATIONAL POTENTIAL ENERGY relative to the heavier liquid.
Where did this energy come from? Here’s the scientific answer
Scientific explanation: When a mass M is raised vertically to height h, the force due to gravity is Mg, hence the work done is Mgh and equals the GRAVITATIONAL POTENTIAL ENERGY.
To convert this potential energy into kinetic energy it is necessary to transfer water from the blue column into the heavier fluid in the red column, via a turbine generator, which converts the kinetic energy of the flowing water into mechanical or electrical power.
The heavier fluid is a Non-Newtonian mixture of water and sub-micron particles of ferrosilicon called Dense Media and widely used in mineral separation industries. The title Dense Media is somewhat misleading as it is a relatively free flowing slurry, up to 3 SG ( 3 x the weight of water)
Being miscible, the dense media offers no resistance to this flow, allowing the mixture to be magnetically separated and returned to its respective columns in a continuous operation.
The point at which water is extracted from the blue column is deliberately set below the static balance level, causing g-force to continuously displace water upwards in a failing attempt to rebalance the system, ensuring a continuous input of water to a height, or put another way, a continuous input of energy into the TerraForce system.
In ECS operation the dense media is circulated in a two column loop by a low head pump to maintain it in suspension, via rising and down- coming columns. This geometry ensures the maximum inlet pressure to the circulator, meaning it only has to maintain design media velocity and overcome pipe friction, calculated at 16% of gross electrical output.
The action of discharging low pressure water from the turbine into the down-coming column dilutes the media, resulting in an imbalance, which G-force attempts to correct by making the diluted media rise or 'backup'.
The effect of which will reduce the head of water available to the turbine and impose a back pressure on its discharge.
Combined the 'back-up' phenomenon will rapidly cause ECS to stall and cease generation.
ECS addresses this problem by utilising two 'back-up' tanks operated on a batch timing system, continuously alternating to prevent the diluted media in the down-coming column from rising and re-balancing.
Most readers of this article will have been educated to believe that it is impossible to harness useful energy from g-force and, so far it has not been achieved.
However, the TerraForce system exploits the brief period during which g-force is engaged in actually rebalancing, as the turbine discharge water dilutes the down comer dense media, reducing its specific gravity.
The introduction of the 'back-up' tank system prevents g-force from ever completing its rebalancing, hence, enabling the turbine water head and its unrestricted discharge to be maintained indefinitely, allowing full design generation.
Without this patented back-up system ECS would quickly rebalance, eliminating water flow across the turbine and making any useful generation impossible.
How TerraForce Converts G-Force into Export Electricity
System Schematic
BU1 & BU2 — Alternating backup tanks
Two open-to-atmosphere tanks on a valve timer. While one fills, the other empties, sustaining uninterrupted drive-head pressure with no pause in flow.
Col 1 — Dense media riser (3.0 SG)
Ferrosilicon slurry at 3.0 SG. Generates the large hydrostatic head at the base, the primary driving pressure of the system.
Col 2 / Manifold tank — Mixed phase (2.33 SG)
The lighter return downcomer (2.33 SG) creates the density differential between the two columns. The conical manifold tank collects 5–6 SG heavy media accumulating at the base pressure zone.
Circulator — Slurry pump
Circulates 3 SG dense media via the riser and downcomer, creating the hydrostatic base pressure in the manifold tank. This pressure is sufficient to drive a nominal 3 SG media feed onto the drum magnet, extracted from approximately 1m below the top of the manifold tank, without additional mechanical pumping.
Drum magnet separator
A permanent magnet drum extracts ferrosilicon from the water stream. Recovered media passes via the membrane chute and manifold tank back into Col 1. Two primary factors prevent gravitational equilibrium: (1) turbine feed water is extracted below its static balance point, keeping gravitational force active; (2) the back-up tank system prevents the lighter 2.33 SG column from rising and reducing feed water pressure
Col 3 + Water turbine & generator
Pressurised clean water descends under hydraulic head to the turbine at the base, producing the measured electrical output of the system.
Stage 1 of the TerraForce conversion system
Creating base pressure — the U-tube effect
Please refer to the schematic.
This is the first part of the TerraForce conversion system. We couple this hydrodynamically to a large heavy water-miscible fluid, called 'Dense Media', to impose a significant pressure on the base.
We now have a U-tube effect with this dense media, at 3 × the weight of water (3 SG) in one column and water only in the other column.
This U-tube effect is shown as the dense media being pump-circulated in Column 1 riser and Column 2 downcomer (coloured red and brown). The water column is a combination of water from the magnetic separator, the turbine infeed and Column 3 turbine discharge pipe (coloured blue).
Downwards-acting g-force immediately re-balances the two columns, lifting water to a height and in so doing, effectively behaving as if it were an upwards-acting force. The displacement action also creates the gravitational potential energy explained above.
All of these are normal hydrodynamic actions in full accordance with the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics.
By way of explanation, dense media is a mixture of fine ferrosilicon powder in water. Water will pass through it unhindered, but it does need to be kept circulating at 3 m/sec for system requirements and also to prevent the ferrosilicon fines from settling out of suspension.
This media circulation requires some pump electricity to overcome pipe friction and provide the flow velocity, but this will amount to only 15% of the gross electrical generation.
So far TerraForce has reversed the downwards action of g-force and created a reservoir of gravitational potential energy. The next step is to convert this potential into kinetic energy.
TerraForce does this by diverting water from the pressurised magnet tank into the turbine generator, converting it into kinetic energy and finally electricity. Discharge water is transferred back to the top of the unit where it can re-enter at atmospheric pressure.
Simultaneously, the level in the water column will drop, causing it to go out of balance with the dense media column. This has the immediate effect of causing g-force to force more water back in, to re-balance the two columns.
However, it cannot re-balance as long as there is a water outflow through the turbine, hence ensuring a continuous feed of water to a height and the maintenance of pressure and flow to the turbine.
Stage 2 of the TerraForce conversion system
Converting kinetic energy into electricity and returning the water
Having converted the kinetic energy into electricity, TerraForce now has to continuously return the lower-pressure water back to the starting point.
This is achieved by using a type of turbine that will operate against the back pressure created by the need to return the discharge water to the top where it can be re-introduced via the back-up tanks.
Discharge water flows into Column 2 downflow and into the manifold tank, which is fitted with an airlock, to maintain optimal pressure on the circulator, ensuring minimum energy use.
Stage 3 of the TerraForce conversion system
Magnetic separation & maintaining the density differential
The manifold tank receives the media-water mixture which has now been diluted. The pressure in the manifold tank is adequate to displace a regulated feed of mixture onto the drum magnet located in an airlock within the magnet pressure vessel tank.
Here the ferrosilicon is magnetically separated from water and falls under gravity to re-join the media in the manifold tank for continuous recirculation in Cols 1 and 2. Clean water is discharged, under pressure from the magnet tank, into the turbine for continuous recirculation.
When adding turbine discharge water to media in Column 2 the density of the mixture is diluted, reducing its pressure on the manifold airlock.
This has the effect of the airlock pressure forcing the entire Column 2 to rise or 'back up' while still flowing into the manifold. Left unchecked this unavoidable phenomenon would rapidly reduce the effectiveness of the turbine and cause it to stall.
The solution was found by interposing two cone-bottomed tanks operated by timed valves to fill and empty on a timed batching cycle, preventing the backup in Column 2 from ever creating turbine stall conditions. It has been very successful in practice.
TerraForce has been developed and tested over a long period, involving the construction of numerous bespoke test rigs. The latest is to TRL5 standard, 10m high and equipped with all the components of an operational unit, save for the actual turbine generator due to scale. However, accurate assessment of its nominal performance can be made by pressure and flow measurements.
Dense Media Use
We can borrow technology from the extractive industries, who use what’s called ‘Dense Media’ on a large scale to separate valuable minerals from rock or worthless gangue materials.
Dense Media is a mixture of water and fine particles of a dense compound that can be magnetically attracted.
Magnetite, a type of iron ore, is used to make 2sg media and Ferrosilicon (man-made) for 3sg media.
Water will obviously flow through water unimpeded and the media is easily recovered for re-circulation by inexpensive ferrite permanent magnets statically mounted inside a stainless steel drum, rotating at 60 rpm. The ferrite magnets provide adequate flux over 270 degrees arc to capture 20mm-25mm thickness of ferrosilicon cake at 20% water content. This cake falls off under gravity as it enters the 90 degree arc section with no magnetic flux, and rejoins the riser column at the manifold tank.
As an example of how TerraForce utilises dense media to convert gravitational potential energy into export electricity the following formula can be used.
Assume 100m height of media column at 3 SG with 2 cu.m.sec circulation rate.
Formula, 9.81g x 100m x 3SG x 2 cu. m.secs x 70% Efficiency = 4120kW gross electricity, generated by the conversion of 7178kW of g force.
Terraforce will use circa 30% of this gross electrical generation in maintaining dense media circulation and separation, overcoming friction losses, ancillaries etc to export 4120 kW x 70% = 2884kW
With a Capacity Factor of 100% (reducing to 96% per 50 week year allowing for maintenance) x 24hrs x 350days this equates to an annual output of 8400hrs x 2.884 MWhrs = 24,225MWhrs
UK Gov quote the average price paid by industrial consumers in 2025 was £170.89 per MWhr equating to a annual gross revenue of £4,139,810 from one medium sized TerraForce unit.
