Seafloor Methane Plume Capture and Conversion for Persistent Operations

The use of undersea systems for military applications has experienced rapid growth in recent years as they play an increasingly vital role in Navy operations such as Mine Hunting, Battlespace Awareness, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), and Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment (IPOE). As these operational demands increase, undersea system endurance will impose additional constraints on the types of missions that can be performed due to high costs associated with deployment and recovery operations for systems with limited endurance. As a result, the US Navy has a critical need to improve endurance for these undersea systems by developing seabed power generation capabilities enabling continuous operation for months or years at a time. Naturally occurring benthic gas seeps on the seafloor represent an intriguing, abundant energy source that may be exploited to fill this critical need. However, very little research has focused on finding, quantifying, capturing, and converting the available resources to provide usable electrical power output for Navy seabed systems. An innovative system design is needed to unleash the potential of this energy source to greatly extend the endurance of current and future undersea systems.