Publication: Experimental evidence of the viability of thermoelectric generators to power volcanic monitoring stations
| dc.contributor.author | Catalán Ros, Leyre | |
| dc.contributor.author | Garacochea Sáenz, Amaia | |
| dc.contributor.author | Casi Satrústegui, Álvaro | |
| dc.contributor.author | Araiz Vega, Miguel | |
| dc.contributor.author | Aranguren Garacochea, Patricia | |
| dc.contributor.author | Astrain Ulibarrena, David | |
| dc.contributor.department | Ingeniaritza | eu |
| dc.contributor.department | Institute of Smart Cities - ISC | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Ingeniería | es_ES |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-11-09T11:16:24Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-11-09T11:16:24Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020 | |
| dc.description.abstract | 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. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This research was funded by the Spanish State Research Agency with FEDER–UE funds under grant number RTC-2017-6628-3. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of FPU Program of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (FPU16/05203) and the Official School of Industrial Engineers of Navarre with the scholarship Fuentes Dutor | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.3390/s20174839 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1424-8220 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/38609 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en |
| dc.publisher | MDPI | en |
| dc.relation.ispartof | Sensors 2020, 20, 4839 | en |
| dc.relation.publisherversion | https://doi.org/10.3390/s20174839 | |
| dc.rights | © 2020 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. | en |
| dc.rights.accessRights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Thermoelectric generator | en |
| dc.subject | Volcano surveillance | en |
| dc.subject | Power supply | en |
| dc.subject | Geothermal | en |
| dc.subject | LoRa | en |
| dc.subject | Autonomous | en |
| dc.subject | Heat pipe | en |
| dc.title | Experimental evidence of the viability of thermoelectric generators to power volcanic monitoring stations | en |
| dc.type | info:eu-repo/semantics/article | |
| dc.type.version | Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa | es |
| dc.type.version | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion | en |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
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