A review on front end conversion in ocean wave energy converters

Abstract

Harvesting the energy from ocean waves is one of the greatest attractions for energy engineers and scientists. Till date, plenty of methods have been adopted to harvest the energy from the ocean waves. However, due to technological and economical complexity, it is intricate to involve the majority of these energy harvesters in the real ocean environment. Effective utilization and sustainability of any wave energy harvester depend upon its adaptability in the irregular seasonal waves, situation capability in maximum energy extraction and finally fulfilling the economic barriers. In this paper, the front end energy conversions are reviewed in detail which is positioned in the first stage of the wave energy converter among other stages such as power take off (PTO) and electrical energy conversion. If the recent development of these front end energy conversion is well known then developing wave energy converter with economic and commercial viability is possible. The aim of this review is to provide information on front end energy conversion of a point absorber and emphasize the strategies and calamity to be considered in designing such kinds of devices to improve the energy harvesting competence. This will be useful to the engineers for speeding up the development of a matured point absorbing type wave energy converter.

Key words： wave energy converter; point absorbers; power take off (PTO); front end energy conversion

References

1 Clément A, McCullen P, Falcão A, Fiorentino A, Gardner F, Hammarlund K, Lemonis G, Lewis T, Nielsen K, Petroncini S, Pontes M-T, Schild P, Sjöström B-O, Sørensen H C, Thorpe T. Wave energy in Europe: current status and perspectives. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2002, 6(5): 405–431

2 Pelc R, Fujita R M. Renewable energy from the ocean. Marine Policy, 2002, 26(6): 471–479

3 Murray R. Review and analysis of ocean energy systems development and supporting policies. Report by AEA Energy & Environment on the behalf of Sustainable Energy Ireland for the IEA’s Implementing Agreement on Ocean Energy Systems, 2006

4 Langhamer O, Haikonen K, Sundberg J. Wave power—sustainable energy or environmentally costly? A review with special emphasis on linear wave energy converters. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010, 14(4): 1329–1335

5 Zabihian F, Fung A S. Review of marine renewable energies: case study of Iran. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2011, 15(5): 2461–2474

6 Hagerman G. Wave energy resource and economic assessment for the state of Hawaii. SEASUN Power Systems, for DBEDT, Final Report. 1992

7 Drew B, Plummer A R, Sahinkaya M N. A review of wave energy converter technology. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part A, Journal of Power and Energy, 2009, 223(8): 887–902

8 Martinelli L, Ruol P, Cortellazzo G. On mooring design of wave energy converters: the seabreath applications. In: Proceedings of 33rd Conference on Coastal Engineering. Santander, Spain, 2012, 1–6

9 Vicente P C, de O. Falcão A F, Gato L M C, Justino P A P. Dynamics of arrays of floating point-absorber wave energy converters with inter-body and bottom slack-mooring connections. Applied Ocean Research, 2009, 31: 267–281

10 Fitzgerald J, Bergdahl L. Rigid moorings in shallow water: a wave power application. Part I: experimental verification of methods. Marine Structures, 2009, 22(4): 809–835

11 Falnes J. A review of wave-energy extraction. Marine Structures, 2007, 20(4): 185–201

12 Al-Habaibeh A, Su D, McCague J, Knight A. An innovative approach for energy generation from waves. Energy Conversion and Management, 2010, 51(8): 1664–1668

13 Ahn K K, Truong D Q, Tien H H, Yoon J I. An innovative design of wave energy converter. Renewable Energy, 2012, 42: 186–194

14 Lindroth S, Leijon M. Offshore wave power measurements—a review. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2011, 15(9): 4274–4285

15 Nazari M, Ghassemi H, Ghiasi M, Sayehbani M. Design of the point absorber wave energy converter for Assuluyeh Port. Iranica Journal of Energy and Environment, 2013, 4(2): 130–135

16 Rahm M. Ocean wave energy. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations. The Faculty of Science and Technology, Uppsala University, 2010

17 Grilli S T, Grilli A R, Bastien S P. Small buoys for energy harvesting: experimental and numerical modelling studies. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference. Hawaii, USA, 2011

18 Hicks D C, Pleass C M. Physical and mathematical modeling of a point absorber wave energy conversion system with nonlinear damping. Hydrodynamics of Ocean Wave-Energy Utilization, 1986, 113–124

19 Hadano K, Koirala P, Ikegami K. A refined model for float energy conversion device. In: Proceedings of the 17th International and Polar Engineering Conference. Lisbon, Portugal, 2007

20 Smith A. Searaser. 2013-12-11

21 Salter S. Pelamis wave. 2013-12-11

22 Waldron T, Hench S, William S. Neptune wave power. 2013-12-11

23 Elbae L. Dexawave blue ocean energy. 2013-12-10

24 Grey S. AWS ocean. 2013-12-11

25 Hadano K, Saito T, Hashida M. Experiment on the energy gain of floats-type wave generator. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference. Stavanger, Norway, 2001, 638–645

26 Taneura K, Nakano K, Koirala P, Hadano K. On the resonance characteristics of the float type wave power generation device. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2011, 6(3): 542–553

27 Heikkinen H, Lampinen M J, Böling J. Analytical study of the interaction between waves and cylindrical wave energy converters oscillating in two modes. Renewable Energy, 2013, 50: 150–160

28 Valério D, Beirão P, Sá da Costa J. Optimisation of wave energy extraction with the Archimedes Wave Swing. Ocean Engineering, 2007, 34(17–18): 2330–2344

29 Simply Blue Energy. WEC with reference frame. 2013-12-11

30 Berggren L, Johansson M. Hydrodynamic coefficients of a wave energy device consisting of a buoy and a submerged plate. Applied Ocean Research, 1992, 14(1): 51–58

31 Columbia Power Technologies, Inc. Manta WEC. 2013-12-11

32 Beatty S J. Analysis and development of a three body heaving wave energy converter. Dissertation for the Bachelor’s Degree. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 2003

33 Orazov B, O’Reilly O M, Savaş Ö. On the dynamics of a novel ocean wave energy converter. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 2010, 329(24): 5058–5069

34 Mekhiche M, Edwards K A. Ocean power technologies power buoy: system-level design, development and validation methodology. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Marine Energy Technology Symposium. Seattle, WA. 2014

35 Amarkarthik A, Chandrasekaran S, Sivakumar K, Sinhmar H. Laboratory experiment on using non-floating body to generate electrical energy from water waves. Frontiers in Energy, 2012, 6(4): 361–365

36 Faizal M, Ahmed M R, Lee Y H. A design outline for floating point absorber wave energy converters. Advances in Mechanical Engineering, 2014: 1–18

37 Neils S E, Hansen K. Heave type wave energy converter. 2013-12-11

38 Wave Roller. Extracted from web site. 2013-12-11

39 BioPower Systems. Sway type WEC. 2013-12-11

40 Sustainable Energy Research Group, University of Southampton. Anaconda wave energy converter. 2013-12-11

41 Dalton G J, Alcorn R, Lewis T. Case study feasibility analysis of the Pelamis wave energy convertor in Ireland, Portugal and North America. Renewable Energy, 2010, 35(2): 443–455

42 Hazlett B, Inculet I, Inculet D. Electric power generation by ‘Surfing’ water waves. Renewable Energy, 2009, 34(11): 2510–2514

43 Kanki H, Arii S, Furusawa T, Otoyo T. Development of advanced wave power generation system by applying gyroscopic moment. In: Proceedings of the 8th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, Uppsala, Sweden, 2009

44 Bracco G, Giorcelli E, Mattiazzo G. ISWEC: a gyroscopic mechanism for wave power exploitation. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 2011, 46(10): 1411–1424

45 Ogai S, Umeda S, Ishida H. An experimental study of compressed air generation using a pendulum wave energy converter. Journal of Hydrodynamics, 2010, 22(5): 290–295

46 Schlemmer K, Fuchshumer F, Böhmer N, Costello R, Villegas C. Design and control of a hydraulic power take-off for an axi-symmetric heaving point absorber. In: Proceedings of European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference. Southampton, UK, 2011

47 Lin Y G, Tu L, Zhang D H, Liu H W, Li W. A study on dual-stroke pendulum wave energy conversion technology based on a water/oil integrated transmission system. Ocean Engineering, 2013, 67: 27–34

48 McCabe A P, Bradshaw A, Meadowcroft J A C, Aggidis G. Developments in the design of the PS Frog Mk 5 wave energy converter. Renewable Energy, 2006, 31(2): 141–151