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...
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2020
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ftucl:oai:eprints.ucl.ac.uk.OAI2:10117591 2023-12-24T10:10:30+01:00 Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring Peters, NJ Oppenheimer, C Jones, B Rose, M Kyle, P 2020-12-01 text https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117591/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117591/ eng eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117591/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117591/ open Antarctic Science (2020) Antarctica Seebeck effect thermoelectric generator volcanic monitoring Article 2020 ftucl 2023-11-27T13:07:34Z 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 Antarctica Ross Island University College London: UCL Discovery Antarctic The Antarctic Ross Island Seebeck ENVELOPE(-150.767,-150.767,-85.733,-85.733) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University College London: UCL Discovery |
op_collection_id |
ftucl |
language |
English |
topic |
Antarctica Seebeck effect thermoelectric generator volcanic monitoring |
spellingShingle |
Antarctica Seebeck effect thermoelectric generator volcanic monitoring Peters, NJ Oppenheimer, C Jones, B Rose, M Kyle, P Harnessing Erebus volcano's thermal energy to power year-round monitoring |
topic_facet |
Antarctica Seebeck effect thermoelectric generator volcanic monitoring |
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, NJ Oppenheimer, C Jones, B Rose, M Kyle, P |
author_facet |
Peters, NJ Oppenheimer, C Jones, B Rose, M Kyle, P |
author_sort |
Peters, NJ |
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 (CUP) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117591/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117591/ |
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 Antarctica Ross Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Science Antarctica Ross Island |
op_source |
Antarctic Science (2020) |
op_relation |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117591/1/harnessing-erebus-volcanos-thermal-energy-to-power-year-round-monitoring.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10117591/ |
op_rights |
open |
_version_ |
1786216977276076032 |