This is a past event.

Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar

Yi Chao, Ph.D., CEO and Founder, Seatrec, Inc.

Speaker Bio:
With a Ph.D. in oceanography from Princeton University, Dr. Chao have worked more than 20 years for NASA to study ocean from space and with computer models. The technology to harvest energy from temperature differences in the environment was developed at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Seatrec is a spinoff from California Institute of Technology to commercialize this patented technology.

Seminar Abstract:
This presentation will describe a patented technology to harvest energy from temperature differences in the environment. There are significant temperature differences between the surface warm waters and cold waters at depth. During the Arctic winter, air is more than 20 o C colder than water below the ice. By using Phase Change Materials (PCMs), the thermal energy associated with temperature differences can be converted to volume expansion when PCMs go through a phase change from solid to liquid or liquid to gas. The mechanical energy associated with the volume expansion is then used to spin a hydraulic motor that is coupled with an electrical
generator to produce electricity. Although the efficiency for ocean thermal energy conversion is low and the energy output is much smaller compared to other renewable energy such as solar, wind or waves, it is often sufficient to power robots and sensors for persistent monitoring, especially in remote areas where grid power is not available, and battery recharging operations are too expensive.
This thermal energy harvesting technology has been applied to power a new autonomous profiling float that can charge its battery by the energy converted from the vertical temperature difference in the ocean. With enough PCMs, the float would harvest more energy than required to sustain the float operation almost indefinitely. Such an energy-positive infiniTE (infinite Thermal Energy) float can profile between the surface and 1,000 meters as frequent as every six hours. The extra energy can be used to power sensors and a Linux-based computer for onboard data processing. Early use cases include weather/hurricane forecast, soundscape monitoring and seabed mapping.
My journey and experience transitioning from a scientist working in a NASA laboratory to an entrepreneur in a startup company to commercialize this patented technology will also be discussed.