Symbiotic offshore energy harvesting and storage systems

Slocum, Alexander H.

doi:10.1016/j.seta.2014.10.004

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…As shown for seawater uranium harvesting, the production cost of the extracted metal has the potential to be significantly decreased by combining the system with an offshore wind turbine, while also doubling the resource harvested per square meter of ocean. The symbiotic approach of sharing structure and maintenance equipment/personnel among multiple collocated energy systems to reduce capital and operating costs could also be applied to other current and proposed offshore structures to increase offshore energy profitability [63]. Future work on this project may consider applying unused offshore hydrocarbon production platforms as energy harvesting and mineral production hubs, and even as support for aquaculture efforts [64].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A symbiotic approach to the design of offshore wind turbines with other energy harvesting systems

et al. 2018

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The capital cost of a 5 MW floating wind turbine (FWT) runs as high as $20.7 million, leading to an energy cost of $0.20/kWh, four times that of natural gas [1]. Although a single type of energy harvesting device may be too expensive to deploy, if it can operate symbiotically with others, the combined cost of energy might be acceptable. In this study, we show that attaching a wave energy converter (WEC) to the FWT may simultaneously produce an average of 240 kW wave power, reduce the WEC levelized cost of energy by 14% by eliminating redundant components, and reduce the FWT tower lifetime equivalent fatigue stress by 23% by reducing platform motion. Furthermore, the offshore wind turbine may also serve as a structure for the harvesting of valuable elements from seawater, such as uranium, lithium, and cobalt. The major cost drivers for the harvesting of uranium from seawater have been identified to be those associated with the mooring and deployment of the metal adsorbing polymers [2, 3]. In the case of uranium, a symbiotic system coupled with an offshore wind turbine was found to reduce the seawater uranium production cost by at least 11% [4, 5, 6].

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A symbiotic approach to the design of offshore wind turbines with other energy harvesting systems

et al. 2018

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“…Beyond just searching for better solutions of a particular type, substantial increases in cost effectiveness may be achieved through symbiotic approaches such as combining harvesting of food and minerals along with energy. 141 For example, solar power systems take up large areas of land and require water for periodic cleaning. Added value can be obtained by growing high value crops that do better in the shade in the solar collection field, such as coffee and many types of vegetables.…”

Section: Vi2 Symbiotic Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A generalized approach for selecting solar energy system configurations for a wide range of applications

Doron

Karni

Slocum

2019

MRS Energy & Sustainability

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“…While a 28-day exposure cycle may harvest more uranium in a shorter time, it also requires more re-uses than the 42-day exposure cycle and thus is likely to be more costly in the operation/logistics. However, novel adsorbent deployment/elution processes such as a symbiotic offshore energy harvest system (Slocum, 2015) may significantly reduce the cost of operation/logistics and thus favor the short-term cycle/high frequency re-use approach.…”

Section: Figure 19 Total Harvestable Uranium (G/kg) Vs Cumulative Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigations Into the Reusability of Amidoxime-Based Polymeric Uranium Adsorbents

Kuo¹,

Gill²,

Strivens³

et al. 2016

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Significant advancements in amidoxime-based polymeric adsorbents to extract uranium from seawater are achieved in recent years. The success of uranium adsorbent development can help provide a sustainable supply of fuel for nuclear reactors. To bring down the production cost of this new technology, in addition to the development of novel adsorbents with high uranium capacity and manufacture cost, the development of adsorbent re-using technique is critical because it can further reduce the cost of the adsorbent manufacture. In our last report, the use of high concentrations of bicarbonate solution (3M KHCO3) was identified as a cost-effective, environmental friendly method to strip uranium from amidoxime-based polymeric adsorbents. This study aims to further improve the method for high recovery of uranium capacity in re-uses and to evaluate the performance of adsorbents after multiple re-use cycles. Adsorption of dissolved organic matter (DOM) on the uranium adsorbents during seawater exposure can hinder the uranium adsorption and slow down the adsorption rate. An additional NaOH rinse (0.5 M NaOH, room temperature) was applied after the 3 M KHCO3 elution to remove natural organic matter from adsorbents. The combination of 3 M KHCO3 elution and 0.5 M NaOH rinse significantly improves the recovery of uranium adsorption capacity in the re-used adsorbents. In the first re-use, most ORNL adsorbents tested achieve ~100% recovery by using 3 M KHCO3 elution + 0.5 M NaOH rinse approach, in comparison to 54% recovery when only 3 M KHCO3 elution was applied. A significant drop in capacity was observed when the adsorbents went through more than one re-use. FTIR spectra revealed that degradation of amidoxime ligands occurs during seawater exposure, and is more significant the longer the exposure time. Significantly elevated ratios of Ca/U and Mg/U in re-used adsorbents support the decrease in abundance of amidoxime ligands and increase carboxylate group from FT-IR analysis. The impact of the length of seawater exposure cycle in adsorbent re-use was evaluated by comparing the adsorption capacity for a common adsorbent formulation (ORNL AI8 formulation) under different exposure cycle (28 days and 42 days). Adsorbents with a 28 days seawater exposure cycle had higher recovery of uranium capacity than adsorbent with 42 days of seawater exposure. Under different cumulative seawater exposure time, the adsorbent with 28 days seawater exposure cycle also had less amidoxime ligands degradation than the adsorbent with 42 days seawater exposure cycle. These observations support the negative impact of prolonged seawater exposure on amidoxime ligands stability. Recovery of uranium capacity in re-uses also varies across different adsorbent formulations. Among three different ORNL adsorbents tested (AI8, AF8, AF1-DMSO), AI8 had the best recovery in each re-use, followed by AF8 and then AF1-DMSO. This demonstrates that continuing efforts on developing new adsorbents with high capacity and stability is critical.

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Symbiotic offshore energy harvesting and storage systems

Cited by 19 publications

References 6 publications

A symbiotic approach to the design of offshore wind turbines with other energy harvesting systems

A symbiotic approach to the design of offshore wind turbines with other energy harvesting systems

A generalized approach for selecting solar energy system configurations for a wide range of applications

Investigations Into the Reusability of Amidoxime-Based Polymeric Uranium Adsorbents

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