Nanogenerator Harvests Ocean-Wave Energy

"There seem to be no limits to the ingenious ways that designers are devising to harvest energy or take existing approaches and exploit and enhance them," writes the site Electronic Design:A research team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has developed a contact-separation mode triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with a simple structure for harvesting wave energy and powering marine sensors and transmitters.Although this isn't the first cylindrical TENG (C-TENG) - several models are already in use - the PNNL team maintains that this design overcomes weaknesses of those existing ones. Long-time Slashdot reader RoccamOccam writes that "triboelectrification is the process by which two originally uncharged bodies become charged when brought into contact and then separated."The key is a new mechanism for wave-driven energy-harvesting "TENGs" that can convert the low-amplitude, low-frequency ocean waves into high-frequency mechanical motion for more effective power generation. This new TENG must be able to operate and be triggered by any wave conditions, even in the middle of the ocean where waves have uniform or random low amplitude and frequency. The researchers tested their process in a 12-meter-long water tank (with "adjustable wave height and frequency," according to the article). The patent-pending device "sustainably powered up an array of 27 LEDs and was able to charge up a capacitor up to 1.8 V for driving an acoustic transmitter."

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