Infinite Power, Deeper Insights
Back in 2016, Breakout Labs funded Seatrec, a spinout from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, because its unique approach to harvesting renewable energy from the ocean held great promise for our ability to survey the environment. Seatrec designs and manufactures power systems that generate electricity from naturally occurring temperature differences in ocean waters. This renewable energy is used in deep water oceanographic research equipment such as floats, gliders, and autonomous and unmanned underwater vehicles (AUVs and UUVs).
Since our initial funding, Seatrec has honed their energy harvesting system, completed various sea trials, won multiple prizes and is intending to close their first equity financing in October. These funds will allow Seatrec to accelerate their product release, increase their commercial sales revenue, and develop an underwater charging station.
The Armchair Oceanographer
Despite having a Ph.D. in Oceanography from Princeton, Dr. Yi Chao jokingly refers to himself as an “armchair oceanographer” because he is prone to seasickness. Undaunted, he turned his passion for studying the ocean skyward and pioneered satellite technology at NASA to measure the salinity of the ocean from outer space. At NASA, he was also inspired by the oceanographic legend, Henry Stommel, who envisioned a network of floats powered by the sea. That vision inspired Yi to start Seatrec and develop a solution that could provide insights on subsurface ocean data on a scale and frequency similar to what satellite technology did for the Earth’s surface.
Plain Sailing
Seatrec’s technology allows floats to achieve longer lifetimes, more frequent sampling and greater sensor payloads than traditional battery systems. Because Seatrec converts temperature differences into energy to recharge batteries, their technology also greatly reduces the battery waste which plagues single-use systems.
Seatrec offers a family of energy harvesting technologies to power underwater robots, platforms, and sensors in support of ocean research, national defense, and commercial industries.
The company’s first product, the SL1, transforms the growing array of robotic probes currently deployed in the global ocean as part of an international observing network. These probes profile ocean characteristics like salinity and temperature at different depths. The SL1 can dramatically extend float lifetime, increase profiling rates, reduce cost per profile, and support energy-intensive sensors for biogeochemical and acoustical studies.
In fact, Seatrec completed its second sea trial before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and powered a Sea-Bird Scientific Navis float with two Seatrec SL1 energy harvesting modules, to profile depths of 1000 meters. This is a major milestone to demonstrate a market-ready profiling float that can be 100 percent powered by naturally occurring temperature differences in the ocean. Although oceanographic research has been impacted by the pandemic, Seatrec has been able to resume production of their Navis-SL1 autonomous profiling floats.
Seatrec is also currently developing an energy harvesting system for use on gliders (SLG). The modular system will retrofit to existing gliders with only minor changes to existing glider architecture or sensor payload, and will dramatically increase endurance while decreasing operations and maintenance costs. Field trials are expected in early 2021, with a product release to follow shortly thereafter.
Making Waves
In April, Seatrec won two of the eleven Powering the Blue Economy™: Ocean Observing Prizes, sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Seatrec was awarded a $10,000 prize for creating a green energy solution for persistent ocean observation to power profiling floats and underwater gliders. Competitors were asked to submit novel concepts and ideas to integrate ocean observing sensors and platforms with marine energy systems. Seatrec’s technology — creating energy for the ocean, by the ocean — was an ideal fit. Watch the full video submission here.
Seatrec won a separate award in collaboration with the global aerospace and defense technology company, Northrop Grumman. The two companies partnered on the Mission Unlimited UUV Station, an underwater charging station that powers and transfers data from unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV). The Mission Unlimited UUV Station design will increase the endurance and range of any existing UUV and reduce the data latency between collection and analysis. The proposed solution will also increase the types of data that can be collected by providing the increased power needed to support improved spatial coverage, greater temporal resolution, and additional sensor modalities. Here’s a quick video on how the station works.
Most recently, Seatrec received a DARPA Award for developing deep-sea robots that can study climate change and support the blue economy. In this endeavor, Seatrec subcontracted Northrop Grumman to help commercialize fast-diving, autonomous robots powered by aluminum fuel. Read more here.
In addition to these awards, Seatrec has also received some media attention. Silicon Republic added the company to their list of emerging startups who are building promising marine-focused solutions. The Los Angeles Business Journal recognized Seatrec for riding the investment wave in LA. Jeremy Hsu interviewed CEO Yi Chao for IEEE Spectrum on the challenges of recharging ocean floats and gliders at sea. Yi was also recently featured on Ocean Science Radio, along with Senior Engineer Michael Zedelmair, to chat about Seatrec’s game-changing technology. Have a listen.
If you’re interested in learning more, contact info@seatrec.com.
