Power Generation During Buoy Operations

"A new Sea Water Activated Power System (SWAPS ¿ trademark pending) for marine buoys has been demonstrated in the laboratory during a Phase I SBIR program. The passive system, without electronics or moving parts, is based on a commercially availablehydrogen/air, proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell that converts hydrogen directly to electricity. Hydrogen is generated by a chemical reaction of seawater with a hydroreactive material at the seawater temperature. The energy capacity of the system canbe tailored to produce from a few to several hundred kWh. The power generation system is designed for long-term operation without maintenance and produces power continuously on-demand. About 1.4 kWh of electrical energy is produced by SWAPS per kg of therechargeable reagent, at approximately $3/kWh. Byproducts of SWAPS are environmentally benign. This power system can also be used in various other low-power marine applications. The Phase I efforts include a low-risk design of an integrated prototype ofthe buoy power source to supply six (6) months of continuous electrical power at an average load of ~ 35 W. The range of possible power production is from zero to the maximum power output of the fuel cell. It is anticipated that the NAVY will gain fromthis R&D effort a new type of seawater ¿activated, low electrical power source with an energy density of ~ 1.2 kWh/kg of the system weight. This unit can easily be adapted as an electrical pow