Design and prototyping of a novel lightweight wave energy converter (WEC) for marine energy harvesting and self-powered marine monitoring

This project will develop and prototype a new class of lightweight, high-performance wave energy converters for short-duration deployment and installation in smaller-scale applications. It is anticipated that the size of the wave energy converter will be in meter or submeter scale, the weight is in kilogram level or less, while the output power will be 5~10 W/m3 or 50~100 mW/kg. The novel energy harvester has the potential to become a convenient and efficient tool for powering marine sensors and other detection and navigation systems. This Phase I project aims to enhance the output performance of the wave energy converters and reduce the costs of materials and manufacturing by optimizing structural design and developing new models. The wave energy converters will employ triboelectric nanogenerator technology to harvest low-frequency wave energy from arbitrary wave directions for powering ocean sensors and circuits. The proposed design and technology are expected to result in at least five times the enhancement of energy harvesting performance compared to previous triboelectric nanogenerator-based wave energy converters using rigid balls and structures. During this Phase I research, the research team will: 1) design and optimize the structures, materials, and interface properties of the wave energy converters, 2) prototype an integrated self-powered buoy system with the developed wave energy converter and sensing components, and 3) perform the validation tests of the buoy system for water quality monitoring under lab testing (water tank) conditions. In the future Phase II research, a more advanced and optimal device and network-level model with data processing and fusion capability will be developed and validated for potential commercialization transition. It is anticipated that the novel high-performance energy harvesting device will provide a promising solution to the large-scale deployment of low-cost, continuous, and self-powered monitoring buoy systems for months or even years, without follow-up needs of intervention or maintenance, for marine observation, scientific study, power take-off (PTO) systems, and many others.