Focus

Research on extracting renewable energy from the natural water cycle (i.e., “blue energy”). Currently, energy extracted from stores of water held back by dams is the single greatest source of renewable electricity globally.

Highlights

• Penn State researchers are working in several areas related to blue energy, such as conventional hydroelectric dams, tidal energy, and salinity gradient energy, but these efforts are currently disconnected.
• Penn State is in a position to lead large scale research efforts related to capturing blue energy from non-traditional sources.

Goals

• Develop a center at the University to centralize researchers from a range of disciplines to tackle large-scale funding opportunities and problems.

Overview

The natural water cycle generates an enormous amount of renewable potential energy that can be converted to electricity. Conventional hydroelectric dams currently produce ~70% of all the renewable electricity created globally (44% in the U.S.). Conventional high-head, hydroelectric power uses turbines within large-scale dams to produce electricity. While conventional hydroelectric dams have been optimized for well over a century, other sources of power from moving water remain less developed (e.g., low-head water flows, wave energy, hydrokinetic energy, and tidal basins).

As funding opportunities emerge for these unconventional hydroelectric sources, a research team with a wide range of expertise is necessary to address relevant problems. For example, generating electricity from oceanic waters requires research on how to remotely service/repair devices, how to optimize performance in dynamic conditions, and how to account for environmental, ecological, and social factors.

Research into water as an energy storage medium is emerging as an important topic. With the introduction of intermittent renewable energy sources into the electrical power grid, energy production and consumption need to be decoupled in time. Presently, 96% of global electricity storage is accomplished by pumping water uphill to store energy, and allowing it to flow through a turbine to produce electricity. Research in this area requires optimization analyses combined with assessment of ecological impacts.

Currently, researchers are working on converting salinity gradients into electricity using electrochemical cells. Natural salinity gradients between freshwater and seawater at coasts contain enough energy to supply ~40% of the global electrical demand. Current work is focusing on maximizing power densities and energy recovery efficiencies.

Current Status of Blue Energy Research at Penn State

To date, research in water-based energy processes has occurred primarily as small, independent efforts across campus. Research at the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) and in the College of Engineering (COE) include:

• Turbine hydro device design for increased efficiency
• Reduction in operation and maintained costs of conventional turbines through reduced manufacturing costs, system health monitoring, and advanced material design
• Pumped-storage
• International standards development for design, testing and characterization of resources and device performance
• Workforce development through education
• Evaluation of environmental/ecological impacts of and mitigation measures for dams.
• Technologies to harvest energy from new sources, such as salinity gradients, using electrochemical systems.
• Systems modeling to understand macro-level water-energy interdependencies over time and space.

Funding for these projects has come primarily from the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and industries. Forming a center that brings a diverse range of faculty together will be particularly useful in working with industrial partners. Past and current industry partners that have worked with Penn State on water power research include GE, Ecomerit technologies, Verdant Power, ORPC, Cardinal Engineering, and Composite Technology Development, Inc.

Strategic Planning

Penn State is uniquely positioned to serve as a hub of multidisciplinary research in blue energy. Presently, researchers at Penn State are leaders in conventional hydroelectric power, which includes collaborations with several industry partners and the researchers at national labs in the Department of Energy. Penn State also has researchers who are leaders in fields relevant to blue energy, such as material sciences, energy engineering, and ecology. What is needed is a concerted effort to bring these diverse faculty together to address multidisciplinary problems relevant to emerging funding opportunities and industry needs.

To address this need, we propose to draft a new intercollegiate center focused on blue energy research. The vision of this center is to create a hub of faculty to efficiently target large-scale funding opportunities from the Department of Energy and to provide a resource hub for existing and new industry partners. To organize this center, we propose funds ($20k) to write the center proposal.

As a first step towards this vision, a workshop will be organized at the 2019 Energy Days to bring faculty with relevant skillsets together to target large funding opportunities. The workshop will be led by the COE and ARL, Professors John Cimbala and Arnold Fontaine. At the start of the Spring 2019 semester, messages will be sent out to relevant Centers, departments, and faculty to recruit potential collaborators.

List of Participants

• Primary Contact
  • Christopher Gorski
• Participants
  • Arnold Fontaine
  • John Cimbala
  • Xiaofeng Liu
  • Caitlin Grady

Relevant Courses

• ME 400 – Thermodynamics of Propulsion and Power Systems
• ME 408 – Energy Systems
• ME 422 – Principles of Turbomachinery
• EGEE 438 – Wind and Hydropower Energy Conversion