Catalán Ros, Leyre

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Catalán Ros

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Leyre

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Ingeniería

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ISC. Institute of Smart Cities

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Study of the degradation of heat exchanger materials in the acidic environment of Teide National Park
    (2019) Catalán Ros, Leyre; Pérez Artieda, Miren Gurutze; Berlanga Labari, Carlos; Garacochea Sáenz, Amaia; Rodríguez García, Antonio; Domínguez, Vidal; Montañez, Ana Carolina; Padilla, Germán D.; Pérez, Nemesio M.; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería
    Supplying power to volcanic monitoring stations constitutes a challenge due to both the access difficulties and the acidic environment associated with volcanoes. ELECTROVOLCAN project is developing thermoelectric generators that make use of the temperature of the available fumaroles to directly supply electricity to the stations in a robust, compact and reliable way. The main element of thermoelectric generators are the thermoelectric modules, based on Seebeck effect. Nonetheless, since the efficiency of these modules increases with the temperature difference between their sides, the introduction of heat exchangers becomes essential. The present study analyses the behavior of different materials used in the construction of the heat exchangers in the acidic environment of Teide National Park.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Experimental evidence of the viability of thermoelectric generators to power volcanic monitoring stations
    (MDPI, 2020) Catalán Ros, Leyre; Garacochea Sáenz, Amaia; Casi Satrústegui, Álvaro; Araiz Vega, Miguel; Aranguren Garacochea, Patricia; Astrain Ulibarrena, David; Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería
    Although there is an important lack of commercial thermoelectric applications mainly due to their low efficiency, there exist some cases in which thermoelectric generators are the best option thanks to their well-known advantages, such as reliability, lack of maintenance and scalability. In this sense, the present paper develops a novel thermoelectric application in order to supply power to volcanic monitoring stations, making them completely autonomous. These stations become indispensable in any volcano since they are able to predict eruptions. Nevertheless, they present energy supply difficulties due to the absence of power grid, the remote access, and the climatology. As a solution, this work has designed a new integral system composed of thermoelectric generators with high efficiency heat exchangers, and its associated electronics, developed thanks to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Thus, the heat emitted from volcanic fumaroles is transformed directly into electricity with thermoelectric generators with passive heat exchangers based on phase change, leading to a continuous generation without moving parts that powers different sensors, the information of which is emitted via LoRa. The viability of the solution has been demonstrated both at the laboratory and at a real volcano, Teide (Canary Islands, Spain), where a compact prototype has been installed in an 82 C fumarole. The results obtained during more than eight months of operation prove the robustness and durability of the developed generator, which has been in operation without maintenance and under several kinds of meteorological conditions, leading to an average generation of 0.49W and a continuous emission over more than 14 km.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    The promising combination of thermoelectric generators with IoT technologies for autonomous monitoring systems
    (2019) Garacochea Sáenz, Amaia; Catalán Ros, Leyre; Casi Satrústegui, Álvaro; Gubía Villabona, Eugenio; Astrain Ulibarrena, David; Ingeniaritza; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación
    Monitoring stations becomes essential in any volcanic system in the world but, because of their remote location, both the electricity supply and the communications represent a technological challenge. The present work studies the feasibility of an autonomous volcanic monitoring system powered by thermoelectric generators for one of the monitoring stations of the Teide National Park (Canary Island), where temperatures of 80°C at few centimeters from the surface are found. The stable generation and robustness of thermoelectricity in combination with a new communication system based on LoRa (a low power wireless technology) make this solution a good alternative.