uses NASA technology to charge while you work

If space observation is an enormous task, the exploration of the seabed can also be considered a titanic work. This hostile environment is difficult to address both in military and scientific terms. Technology is still trying to find a way to reach the most extreme depths of the oceans, while other of its great challenges are in the future. use of renewable energy to extend missions as much as possible.

Military and private research projects are striving to develop different options with which to keep equipment in the water for a long time to discover what is considered the last unexplored frontier of this world. The key is in recharge the battery while driving with a lightweight system that allows creating mappers and submersibles that work tirelessly like space satellites and their use of solar panels.

With this goal set, in the Indian Ocean near the Hawaiian coast, a curious device has been outlining the seabed three times a day without rest since the beginning of the year. This is the infinitiTE robotic float developed by the Seatrec company that uses a renewable energy generation system through ocean temperature changes.

Based on NASA technology this solution offers a constant energy source, allowing the equipment to operate indefinitely and without high costs. Currently many marine sensors rely on batteries that, when depleted, can only be abandoned or recharged from a boat and some points can be weeks away. “In the open sea, that ship costs about $50,000 a day and burns tons of diesel fuel,” explains NASA as part of this project.

From solid to liquid

The InfiniTE float is powered by clean, renewable energy using thermal changes in seawater. The key is in the change of state from solid to liquid of water. A concept that is similar to the steam engine by using the expansion of water to convert it into steam and rotate the engine.

There are many substances like water that expand as they are heated, that is, when changing from solid to liquid or from liquid to gas, they are known as phase change materials (PCM) and are used to release or absorb energy in equipment heating or cooling systems.

The expansion of the PCM generates pressure that can be captured to generate electricity. This phenomenon is what Seatrec takes advantage of in its new generation technologies. For example, When the volume of the material changes, it drives a pressurized fluid through a motor, converting hydraulic energy into electricity.

When immersed in the cold waters, the surrounding water cools and freezes the material, which expands, activating the motor. Upon rising to the surface, the material melts again with the rise in temperature, restarting the process in an infinite circle.

The team chose a common paraffin-based material for this technology. The selected element has a melting point of 10 degrees Celsius, while the average temperature of the ocean is 4.44 degrees. “For example, a moored profiler can be significantly larger than SL1 or SLG and provide a 10-fold or even 100-fold increase in power output to power sensors and charge propeller-driven autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs),” the company says. .

Up to 2,000 meters

Yi Chao, founder and CEO of Seatrec, He developed the idea during the 15 years he worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).. Although similar to the steam engine, Yi Chao was inspired by a more modern technology, space technology. To calibrate NASA’s Aquarius instrument that maps the oceans from Earth orbit, the JPL team distributed robotic floats, an experiment that draws on a long history of innovations and that sparked the interest of this scientist.

After various tests, Chao obtained the exclusive license of the invention from the California Institute of Technology, which manages JPL and founded Seatrec in 2016. Since then he has participated in other projects such as the manta ray that Northrop Grumman engineers presented to NASA. This marine drone also includes a type of energy capture technology developed by Seatrec to extend its activity underwater.

To test his invention, in January 2024, a float was deployed near Kona Hawaii with the intention of understanding the oceanic processes that influence the intensity of hurricanes. The device, according to the company, performs a profile every 6 hours at a depth of 1,000 meters. At the moment, the company’s website registers 623 profiles in which you can see the journey taken by this float on the Hawaiian coast.

CTD sensor You can make up to 3 background profiles each day, although the company offers on demand a version capable of reaching a depth of 2,000 meters. Even reaching further into the seabed is not the only objective that the company has set.

In the future, the company hopes develop a power plant that would circulate a material changing from liquid to gas in the ocean, creating an order of magnitude more energy, to recharge more marine robots. For this project, Seatrec has a subsidy from the US Navy with which they intend to deploy a power plant in the Arctic ice, taking advantage of the difference between water temperatures and the much colder air above the ice.