here is a simpler concept that also may work.

How are you going to perform work...e.g connecting a load?

Perpetual motion without the possibility or strength to perform work is very uninteresting.
Just see the Finsrud device. Motion that goes on for weeks or month but the slightest vibration that
induces a "load" on the system will stop it. It's good for a Art purpose but useless for anything else.

Exactly, Perpetual motion should only belong as a novelty unit in some museum for people to gander at on a tour attraction. it will serve no other purpose but to boggle peoples minds in wonderment.

it may be possible to place a small coil around the capillary tube to make a little bit of energy but I think that if lenz law is greater than the capillary force then it would stop but if the capillary force was purposely made stronger than the Lenz force do to the coil size and winding density and how far the coil is placed to the capillary tube. Lenz law will always tend to slow up the ferrofluid passing through a coil that is on a load.

I think this device would work but it would be terribly inefficient because of the speed at which the Capillary action takes place.

the ferrofluid would become magnetized so we do know that if it flows through a coil it should generate some energy. though minuscule.

however, you might be able to use a paddle wheel generator on the slope side to get a little more energy out of the system.

I am more into Isotope Betavoltaics Solar Cells than anything else because 30 years as an Electrical and Mechanical engineer and being a 2 years chemist has led me in the best direction.

I do tend to try to help people solve things that science says is impossible from time to time just for novelty.

Jerry

something I always tell myself before I settle on something is, will it work in space?

I would love to see if Capillary action is possible in near zero gravity. if so, would it flow faster or would it not work at all.

I have my scientific guess on this but it would still be a cool experiment.

I always tend to research energy that would work for spacecraft, if it is good enough for the spacecraft it is good enough for Earth.

I always try my best to design a concept that has absolutely no moving mechanical parts or the least possible and try to keep energy production concepts on a solid state and or state of the art scientific principle.

anything else is just novel to me, maybe even primitive in some ways.

but that is just me.
Jerry

Doesn't ferromagnetic fluid harden in a magnetic field?

Yes it does and this is the final nail in the coffin on this idea.

Here's a video of a magnet confining a ferromagnetic fluid while without the magnet it will pour.  http://www.freesciencelectures.com/video/ferromagnetic-liquid/

Lot of great videos on this site.

nice design, i was playing with some capillary action with water. It is a bastard