Seatrec will collaborate with a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to demonstrate the technical feasibility and commercial applicability of a novel energy harvesting system that converts thermal energy from high-latitude air-sea temperature differences into electricity. This capability will extend the endurance and capability of observing system elements, reduce battery waste, and support efforts to monitor and predict remote, high-latitude environments such as the Arctic. The proposed Phase I effort will yield a detailed conceptual design for a rugged and clean energy source that could fundamentally alter the logistics and economics of Arctic observing system operations. The Seatrec and WHOI teams will collaborate to design a thermal engine optimized for the ~20C air-sea wintertime temperature differentials encountered in the maritime Arctic and scaled for integration with an advanced high-latitude ice-deployed buoy system. The proposed work will incorporate a combination of mechanical and electrical design work, thermodynamic analysis and numerical simulation. This conceptual design effort will proceed in parallel with ongoing (and separately funded) iterative improvement of Seatrecs patented thermal engine technology including feasibility demonstration using a functional laboratory prototype system. The WHOI team will provide detailed information about the host buoy and advise the Seatrec team regarding specific design considerations and special requirements for transport, field deployment and survivability in the Arctic environment.
Benefit: The proposed effort will demonstrate the feasibility of a novel clean energy source that could fundamentally alter the logistics and economics of high-latitude Navy observing system operations and accelerate efforts to understand and predict important processes and trends in critical environments such as the Arctic. The Seatrec air-sea thermal engine could prove useful for a variety of sensing or communications applications beyond oceanographic and meteorological research in the Arctic. In addition to supporting Navy operations and NOAA environmental observations, potential markets for this technology include governmental organizations tasked with environmental monitoring and stewardship (e.g. EPA, USGS, NASA), transportation safety and natural resource management (e.g. USCG, FAA, BOEM) and national security (DOD, DHS). We anticipate that improved monitoring capabilities facilitated by Seatrec's energy harvesting technology will also be of interest to the private sector in the oil and gas, defense, aquaculture and telecommunications industries. Appropriately scaled, and possibly utilizing air-groundwater or air-earth temperature differentials, the underlying technology could also support off-grid residential, governmental and commercial applications in remote inland areas. Seatrecs thermal engines provide a unique capability in certain environments: Unlimited power. The operational flexibility resulting from unlimited power has a price -- and to date this price has generally been higher than simply increasing the volume of energy stored aboard a vehicle or platform. Thus forms of stored energy (chemical batteries such as alkaline, lithium, Ni-Cd; seawater batteries, hydrogen fuel cells) have been the most relevant competitors to Seatrecs thermal engine technologies. However, when full lifecycle costs are considered, Seatrec expects to benefit from a growing awareness of environmental responsibility and increased emphasis on
Keywords: UUV, UUV, buoy, Thermal Energy, underwater power station, Arctic oceanography, Energy Harvesting
