Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring
Year-round monitoring of Erebus volcano (Ross Island) has proved challenging due to the difficulties of maintaining continuous power for scientific instruments, especially through the Antarctic winter. We sought a potential solution involving the harvesting of thermal energy dissipated close to the...
Published in: | Antarctic Science |
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Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2021
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Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529067/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529067/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-yearround-monitoring/F2EB23A9F6D2C598B2F72A389754BE84 |
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:529067 2023-05-15T13:41:45+02:00 Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring Peters, Nial J. Oppenheimer, Clive Jones, Bryn Rose, Michael Kyle, Philip 2021-02 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529067/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529067/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-yearround-monitoring/F2EB23A9F6D2C598B2F72A389754BE84 en eng Cambridge University Press https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529067/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf Peters, Nial J.; Oppenheimer, Clive; Jones, Bryn; Rose, Michael; Kyle, Philip. 2021 Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring. Antarctic Science, 33 (1). 73-80. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102020000553 <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102020000553> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2021 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102020000553 2023-02-04T19:51:26Z Year-round monitoring of Erebus volcano (Ross Island) has proved challenging due to the difficulties of maintaining continuous power for scientific instruments, especially through the Antarctic winter. We sought a potential solution involving the harvesting of thermal energy dissipated close to the summit crater of the volcano in a zone of diffuse hot gas emissions. We designed, constructed and tested a power generator based on the Seebeck effect, converting thermal energy to electrical power, which could, in principle, be used to run monitoring devices year round. We report here on the design of the generator and the results of an 11 day trial deployment on Erebus volcano in December 2014. The generator produced a mean output power of 270 mW, although we identified some technical issues that had impaired its efficiency. Nevertheless, this is already sufficient power for some monitoring equipment and, with design improvements, such a generator could provide a viable solution to powering a larger suite of instrumentation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Science Ross Island Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic The Antarctic Ross Island Seebeck ENVELOPE(-150.767,-150.767,-85.733,-85.733) Antarctic Science 33 1 73 80 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Year-round monitoring of Erebus volcano (Ross Island) has proved challenging due to the difficulties of maintaining continuous power for scientific instruments, especially through the Antarctic winter. We sought a potential solution involving the harvesting of thermal energy dissipated close to the summit crater of the volcano in a zone of diffuse hot gas emissions. We designed, constructed and tested a power generator based on the Seebeck effect, converting thermal energy to electrical power, which could, in principle, be used to run monitoring devices year round. We report here on the design of the generator and the results of an 11 day trial deployment on Erebus volcano in December 2014. The generator produced a mean output power of 270 mW, although we identified some technical issues that had impaired its efficiency. Nevertheless, this is already sufficient power for some monitoring equipment and, with design improvements, such a generator could provide a viable solution to powering a larger suite of instrumentation. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Peters, Nial J. Oppenheimer, Clive Jones, Bryn Rose, Michael Kyle, Philip |
spellingShingle |
Peters, Nial J. Oppenheimer, Clive Jones, Bryn Rose, Michael Kyle, Philip Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring |
author_facet |
Peters, Nial J. Oppenheimer, Clive Jones, Bryn Rose, Michael Kyle, Philip |
author_sort |
Peters, Nial J. |
title |
Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring |
title_short |
Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring |
title_full |
Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring |
title_fullStr |
Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring |
title_full_unstemmed |
Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring |
title_sort |
harnessing erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529067/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529067/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-yearround-monitoring/F2EB23A9F6D2C598B2F72A389754BE84 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-150.767,-150.767,-85.733,-85.733) |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic Ross Island Seebeck |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic Ross Island Seebeck |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Science Ross Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Science Ross Island |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529067/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf Peters, Nial J.; Oppenheimer, Clive; Jones, Bryn; Rose, Michael; Kyle, Philip. 2021 Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring. Antarctic Science, 33 (1). 73-80. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102020000553 <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102020000553> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102020000553 |
container_title |
Antarctic Science |
container_volume |
33 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
73 |
op_container_end_page |
80 |
_version_ |
1766157177508069376 |