Are you talking about air lift pumps?

No not specifically. What I have done is to design a pump on paper that uses stright air pressure to pump water from a well that does not use air lift principles or diaphrams.
What I am wondering is whether I am just reinventing the wheel. Are there any pumps out there in anyone's knowledge that uses these principles?

Best regards,
Lonnie Reed

Lonnie:

If you are using air, then don't you have electricity near by to fun the compressor?  The inefficiency of generating compressed air compared to 92+ percent effiency for electric motors would make air a poor choice when a submersible or line shaft pump could be used.

Just my thoughts...

Bob

All rotating pumps can be driven by a hydraulic or pneumatic drive. As the previous post points out, this is energetically inefficient.It may however be desirable in applications where it is required to have no electrical components in the area.

Dependent on the depth of the well you might try US Pump Co. they make an air actuated pump that lifts 34'.

The Chicago Industrial Pump Co. has what they call the Pitbull pump (www.pitbullpump.com) made for solids and slurries. Completely air operated--works like air padding a tanker trailer or rail car. The only moving parts are two check valves. I put a 4" model in a lime sump. It moved the rocks and pieces with no problem. Max flow was about 80 gpm and only used about 25 cfm of air.

Patrick