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Subsea electric generator

Conference Paper · November 1993

DOI: 10.1109/OCEANS.1993.326086 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 SUBSEA ELECTRIC GENERATOR
J. P.von der Weid, J. A. P. da Silva
Center for TelecomunicationsStudies, Pontificia U n i v e r s i W Catblica - Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
A. L. Gama
Department of Mecha~calEngineering, Universidade Federal Fluminense - Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
A. C. Sant’Anna
CENPES SEMEC PETROBRAS - Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Abstruct - A thermoelectric generator to be installed in
production oil subsea wellheads waa designed. A 1W
and a 1OW prototypes were constructed and
succearlully tested
I. INTRODUCTION
Submarine oil production activities require the
operation of underwater hydraulic or electric equipment.
The conventional solutions to the problem of power and
signal transmission involve the use of complex umbilical
cables connected to the surface. However, the complexity
and inherent cost of aquisition and installation of these
umbilical cables is very high, mainly in deep level oil
wells, so that a great effort is being made to reduce the
cable complexity. Further development leads to the
scenario of independently powered cableless equipment,
connected to the SUrEace by the transmission and
-on of control signals through the water.
Electric generating and storage units for subsea
applications must consider the power and operating cycle
of the wellhead control system. In the case of self
contained control system, we considered the very low duty
cycle operation of 250W hydraulic pumps for Christmas
Tree valve actuators, the operation of a hydroacoustic
“munication system and the low power continuous
consumption of the control electronics. The operation of a
low power generator may supply the needed total energy
provided that the mean energy c o w o n is laver than
the generator power and that accumulators are usBC1 to
store the energy generated during the sleeping time of
the control system.
several different possibilities for subsea power
generation had been proposed, some using the produced oil
as energy source. This energy may come from the crude
oil flux, pressure or even from its temperature
difference to the surrounding water environment.
Other proposed methods involve the mechanical energy
stored in water currents or eletrochemical processes using
the sea water as electrolytic medium. Closed cycle diesel
engines, nuclear powered reactors or fuel cells have also
been p r o m [11[31[41.
The temperature difference between the produced
oil and the suffoundl’ng sea water can be converted into
electric energy by low power thermoelectric generators
based on the Seebeck effect or in the Rankine cycle [1][3].
In this work we present the basic concepts involved in
the design of a thermoelectric generator as well as the
results obtained with 1W and 1OW prototypes using
Peltier Cells as basic generating elements. These units are
made of semiconductorJunctionsplaced between aluminum
oxide plates, generating an electric current or voltage
between their terminal leads which is proportional to the
heat flow between the plates.
11. THERMAL ANALYSIS
Thedesignofa thermoelectric generator has to
consider some basic requirements. First of all, the
disturbance of the crudeoil flow must be reduced to a
minimum, so that any modifcation of the internal cross
section of the oil duct should be avoided. This requirement
imposes a generator with a circular geometry, with the
same internal diameter as the crude oil duct, connected in
series with a section of the Wet Christmas Tree at the
wellhead. Thus the Peltier elements, of plane geometry,
must be adapted to the cylindrical geometry of the tube by
means of a fixation interface with high thermal
conductivity. The exposure to the high external pressure
and corrosion of the structure are also features of
fi”ental importance in the generator design.
Because the Peltier elements can only support a
lixnited compressive stress, a high thermal conductivity
rigid structure must be inserted between the Peltier
elements and the surrounding water. In our case, this
structure consisted of a copper plate and thermally
insulating suppom at each side of a Peltier element. The
protection against waterpenetration and corrosion is
guaranteed by an appropriate encapsulating resin.
The basic configuration of the thermoelectric
generator is depicted in figure 1. Here, the heat reservoir

11- 172 0-7803-1385-2/93/$3.00 1993 IEEE

 TkPdticrdancnt was p l a c c d a t t h e b o t t o m , ~ t h e
staidas steel block and a cold source. Thermoclarplcs
wcrealsoiastaki at eacb side of the Peltiereiement,
andtkwhdtsctvpwastbermallyinnrlatedfrom the
ewironmmt The heat flux across the Peltier element
was k m w v n b y m e a s u r i a g t h t t e ~ d r o p a c r o s s t h e
stainlcssstctl block,wbosethermalc" . 'tyisknown,
so that tk lbermal conductivity of tbc Peltier element
could be d k d y h m the temperatute drop
bdwam its faoes. As tk power -by thePeltier
elemnt was varied, by changing a nsistorconnectcd
to tk electric termiaais of the Peltier element,its
thamal nsistaaCe varied, changmg fi.om R = 2.13 CMr
atopcncircuittoR,= 1.72 O C / w ontheshort circuit
condition. Thcmnditionofinterest cormponds to the
maximum electric power generated, for which the thermal
\

Radius Position rcsistamX is R p = 1.85 'W.

The thermal resistances related to the heat
Figure 1- Variation of -et with radius exchange at the iMer(Ri)andovter(R,)interfaceare
position in a section ofthe thermoeletric generator. given by:
is the crude oil flowing in the central section at a
temperatUreT, and the cold reserVairisthesumwnding
seawaterata tetnperature T,. The innercylindcr
represents the oil duct, whereas the outer part isthe
copper rcfrigerahon plate. The multielement st" in
the middle part r e p m a Peltier element. Because the
electric power generated is proportional to the square of where A i aad A, are the area of theinternal and
t h e t e m p c " ~ e r e m x b e t m e n t h e t w o taotsofthe external interfaces, and h and h ,are theconvective
pcltier elmrent, it is importanttokeepthat di!T&enceat heat exchange coefficients of tk inner and outer
a maximumvalue, acoording to the operat~onalconditions. interfaces. These &cients depend on the flow
The graph in figure 1 sbrwsschematically the conditions of the crude oil and the sea water, as well as on
radial variationof the temperature along the generator. theirthermal properties at the temperatures ofoperation.
The total tern- drop AT from the crudeto the
water is disvibuted along the Merent elements of the
generator. A first drop fiom the inner to the outer part is
due to the convective thermalresisbeceoftheoil-tube
interface. It is followed by a small decrease due to the
Haat
Source
-
finite thermal conductivity of the oil duct, a more
important temperature drop ATp Over the Peltier element,
Stainless
and a another small decrease at the copper plate. A final
drop occurs at the copper-water interface, due to its
Steel Bkck -
convective thermal resistance. Thermocouples
Thetemperawedrop ATp over a Peltierelanent
can be calculatedbyconsideringthethermalcircuit
connecting the hot oil to the cold water. The analysis . . of
QPPec
Plates \
-
theheat transfer problem requiresthecharaaenzauon of
the thermal properties of the Peltier elements under
different opefating conditions, as well as a modding of
the flow conditions of the oil and the surrounding water.
The thermal conductivity of the Peltier elements was
measured with the experimental set-up described in figure -
Figure 2 Experimental set-up for the measurement
2. A heat source was placed on top of a stainless steel of Peltier Cells' t h e d conductivity .
block, with a thermocouple installed at each extremity.

II-173
 Typical tempefdtures of the water at the wellheads
of most of the b*lzilian offshore oil fields are below 10 C
sothat we can uscthistempaaturtasanupperlimitfor
the aperation of the gcnmatoraswtllas for laboratory
tests. The water current velocity was considered to be of
theorder of 0.2m/s, also a r " b k f i g u r e g i v i n g a
lower bound condition of operation. Considering the
generator as a cylinder, the Reynolds number for the
water flow across it in thtseconditionswillbe ofthe wder
of 17,000, w~theprandtl'smunberprwillbe 10. By
using theChurchill8tBerastein correlation [2] for the
water flow across a cylinder, the Nus#lt's numbs
beoomes:
where do is the external diameter of the cylinder and K, is
the thermalconductivity of the sea water. It follows
that the external convective heat exchange coefficient
will be approximately equal to h = 920 W/m' C.
The flow conditions and thermal properties of the
crude oil are strongly dependent on the particular field
and well considered.In most cases, the temperature of the
crude is above 60 OC . The Reynolds' number can vary
from 210 to 3 0 0 0 , whereas the P " s number range
from 250 to 2,700. In these conditions for a laminar flow
(Re<2,000)theNwclt's number is constant, so thatwe
have:
(4)
where. K is the thermal conductivity of the oil, and do is
the diameter of the inner interface.
For a turbulent flow, (Re>2,000) we use the
Dim-Boelter correlation [2] so that the convective heat
exchange d c i e n t becomes flow dependent:
The trmpcrature drop ATp ovtr the Peltier
elementscan thcn becal-by inserting these
parameters into the thermal circuit equat~ons.A
fundamentalfeatureinthis calculusis the geometric
arrangement of the Peltier cells over the cylinder. This
arrangement represents the perailel Bssociation of equal
thermal resistances, which are the Peltier elements, between
the hot and cold reservoirs.The greater the number of
elements per unit length of tubing, the smaller the total
thermal resistance between the inner and outer parts of the
generator, with a temperature drop correspondingly
11- 174
smaller. The calculations weredone by consideringan
uniform distribution of cells and varying the numberN
of Pclticr elements on a circumference of the cylinder.
The thmnal conductivity of the e n c a p " g resin and
supports were considered in the circuit equations, as well
as the thermal resistivity of the metals involved.
Figure 3 presents thedependence of the
fraaional temperaturedrop ATp I AT asafunctionof
the Reynolds' number of the crude oil flow considering
four Peltier cells per section of the tube. It can be seen
that witha turbulent oil flow and a typical total
temperature drop of 50°C the Peltier elements will
operatewith a temperature drop beCwaen15OC and 25
O C, dcpuxhng on the flow coILditioILs. Of course, the
operation of the tbmnoelcatic generator with the oil flow
inthe laminar regime canbearcluded.Hapefully,thisis
not a condition normally found in production wells.
Figure 4 shows the & ' of the concentration of
Peltier elcmentsoverthe~eCtinttmpetaturcdrop ATp/
AT. Given the dimcnsionsoftheseduncnts,upto 10
Peltier cells could be placedalongthe circunference of
the oil duct although this last case is somewhat theoretical,
becauseno roomwould beleft for wiringthe electric
circuit. Dcmasing theconcentration of Peltierelements
will incteaSe the &ciency of the Peltier cells, but the
drawhckisalossin compactaess. A figure of meritfor
theperformanceof a thermoelectric generator placed
in-line with the oil duct is the electric power generated per
unit length. The nonnab& . c5icimcy, definedasthis
figure of ~ i s p ~ i n F i g u n 5 a s a f u n c t i o n othe f
Number N of cells in a Section of the gencrator for
W a n t oil flow conditions. It can be seen that although
the drop AT, dacrtases with N, the
ILofmaliZcd &cicncy increases, reaching a maximum
between 6 and 10 cells per section, depending on the
flow conditions. Near the maximum the normalized
ef€iciency cuvc is quite flat,so that any number between 6
and 10 cells would be equivalent, according to th~s
simulation. Howevcr, the greater the number of Peltier
cells, the greater theredundancy and reiiabilityofthe
g e n e r a t o r , s o t h a t t h e " u m allowed number should
be used.
It shouid be said that the petEDrmance of the
generator is StrOnglydepenQentonthe convcm've heat
exchange d c i c n t between the crude and the production
line. Because thethermal coDductryl * 'ty and heat
oftheoil are verysmall, this coefl6cientissmallanda
limiting factor for the generator. However, it is well
known that water is often pnscnt in the crude,so that
thenalamditionsmaybemuchbetter than those
supposeci hen.
 1 , , III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
a
2 N.4
0.8 - The experimental conditions of operation of a
E?
3 single Peltier cell were simulated in a laboratory test in
CI
(D
8 0.6 . which hot and cold water flows reproduced the
?
0
temperature and the convective heat exchange
coefficients for the inner and outer interfaces of the
0.4 -
0 generator. Ttus test could be compared to the
c
0
'g 0.2 .
calculated fract~onaltemperature difference and electric
m power generated. For a total temperature drop of AT=50
L I P , , j C we obtained AT = 35 c, in an remarkable
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 agreement with the theoretical calculation for N=l
Reynolds' Number shown in Figure 4. Figure 6 shows the dependence of the
electric power generated by the cell with the resistive load
Figure 3 - Fractional temperature drop ATPIAT connected to it. Maxunum generated power is obtained
as a function of Reynolds' Number. with a 3 ohm loa4 which means that this is the internal
resistance of the cell. The maximum electric power
1 generated by a single cell in the best con&tions is of the
P order of 300mW and lOOmW in the worst case. Ttus
e means that ten cells are needed to generate 1W and a
0.8
hundred cells would be needed to supply 1OW in the worst
f
c
0 case conditions.
0.6 The 1W prototype was constructed as a d o n of a
2 4" steel duct with eight Peltier cells connected in
5 0.4
(D
parallel. It was conceived to represent a Section of the full
0 1OW generator so that laboratory tests could be done in a
c
0 small pressure chamber with low power heat sources. A
3 02
thermistor was placed in contact with the steel tube and
E
U another in contact with the external copper plate, so that
0 the temperature drop over the Peltier elements could be
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1
Number of elements per section measured. A four terminals lOOOm waterproof connector
was used, with two terminals for the common and positive
Figure 4 - Fractional temperature drop ATPI AT leads of the generator and the two others for the
as a w o n of Peltier elementsconcentration. thermistors.
The efficiency of the prototype was tested at
atmospheric pressure, in a water container, and then in a
1.1 pressure chamber for water tightness and integnty at
1 - pressures up to 1250 psi, equivalent to a depth of
g 0.9 - 1000m. We observed that the power generatedbythe
-5 0.8 - Re - Zoo0
eight element generator was higher than expected fiom
our theoretical simulation, but h s was probably due to the
Q, 0.6 - dif€iculty in reproducing the exact conditions of heat
U
exchange at the interf&xs. The performance of the 1W
prototype was also tested under high pressure, simulating
the field conditions of operation. The prototype was
placed in a high pressure chamber filled with a
refrigerated water, and the inner tube was filled with hot
0 - ' .. . ' ' ' ' ' oil. A heat source and a small pump were used to simulate
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 the heat exchange conditions at the inner interface, whereas
Number of cells per section only the fire convective flow was involved in the external
intefice. Only the temperature drop over the Peltier
Figure5-Efficiency of the Thermoelectric elements was monitored in this experiment, and the
Generator with the number of Peltier elements result is shown in Figure 7. Although the heat exchange
per section.

11- 175
 conditions were not controlled, it can be seen that a
gemral a g r e e " between the calcula!ions and laboratory
tests wasobtakd
The low prototype was canstruded with twelve
sections, each one with the samc geomtry as the 1W
prototype. Two thermistors wenalsoplaccdasinthc1W
prototype, in order to control the temperature drop over
the Peltier cells, and the same 4-pin connector was
used.Twoflangeswereplaccdattbeudrcmities ofthe4"
tube, according to the API/6AspccS&n. The 1OW
protolypc was coILctivcd to be inserted in a 4" produaion
line, with a total length equal to 1,3m An wdernal
!"wasbuilt t o p r o t e c t t h e ~ h u r t ~
plates against mechanicaichocLsduringtransportand
installation, and protection anodeswerealsoinstalled
10 20 30 40 so
Temperature Drop ( % )
agiunstc"by the seawater.
Initiallaboratory tests wen madeby using hot ancl
cold air flowstogumatca tempe"dmpcwcr the
Peltier elements. The electric powcr generated witb the -
Figure 7 Power generated by the 1W prototype as
temperaturedropthat could berealizedduringthetest a function of the temperature drop over the
leads to the conclusion that the prototypewillprobably Peltier elements.
supply the specificated 1OW under field conditions. A
more realistic test in a field laboratory is under way, with IV. CONCLUSION
the generator placed in the sea at 20m depht and with a hot
oil flow simulating the crude. In conclusion, a subsea thermoelcctxic generator was
designed andconstructed.Thegumator uses the
temperature difference between the crude and the
s u " h g water and the Seebcck effea to convert it into
electric power. A 1W and a 1OW prototypes wcre
constNcvdand s u c a s f d y tested. The e x p e r h a a l
results indicate that the theoretic1 approach is correct and
350 r 1 that very conservative parameters were used. It is
AT1 =41C expected that the generator will be able to produce 1OW
An== electric power for almost all conditiolls found in &shore
AT3 = Mc
AT4 = 2 s fields.

REFERENCES

(1)W. P. Dixon, "A subsea power source for offshore

oil production", Proceedings of the IEEE Conf. Oceans'75
p. 726, 1975.
0' I
30 40 50 (2)J. P. Holman, Heat Transfer, McGraw Hill,1983.
0 10 20
Resistwe Load ( n )
(3) J. J. Miers, C.H.Holm and R.McAllister, Ocean and
Underwater Engineering Handbook, McGraw Hill, 1969.

Figure 6 - Dependence of the elecvic power (4) R Rawlings, "Selection and application of power
generated by the Peltier element with the sources for subsea control systems", Underwater
resistive load C O M ~ Cto~it.
C!~ Technology, 1 1, 2, 1985.

11- 176

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