Location: Olhão, Algarve - Portugal
Technology: Air turbine based PTO
Type of Intervention: Pre-design
Timeframe: 2018-2019
Summary of Work:- Pre-design of Power Take-off unit
- Budgeting analysis of 6 different options
The goal of the BlueCAO project is designing a wave energy converter (WEC) platform, of the Oscillating Water Column type, to support offshore aquaculture farms. It must be able to provide energy and feed storage to an autonomous feeding system, which should require low frequency refilling operations; aiming at cost reduction and increase of the competitiveness of sustainable offshore aquaculture exploitation.
The participation of KYMANER in this project consisted of the comparative analysis of six different Power Take Off units (PTO), with a total rated power between 75kW and 120kW. The analysis was done from a qualitative and a budgeting perspective, that included the costs associated with Design, Materials, Fabrication and Transport to the installation site. Three Wells air turbines were compared with three impulse air turbines based PTOs. In view of the performance potential, in a wide range of operation conditions and cost effectiveness, an impulse turbine with fixed multi-rows of guide vanes was selected as the best fit for purpose.