Energy storage systems for wave energy converters and microgrids

The thesis initially gives an overview of the wave industry and the current state of some of the leading technologies as well as the energy storage systems that are inherently part of the power take-off mechanism. The benefits of electrical energy storage systems for wave energy converters are then outlined as well as the key parameters required from them. The options for storage systems are investigated and the reasons for examining supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries in more detail are shown. The thesis then focusses on a particular type of offshore wave energy converter in its analysis, the backward bent duct buoy employing a Wells turbine. Variable speed strategies from the research literature which make use of the energy stored in the turbine inertia are examined for this system, and based on this analysis an appropriate scheme is selected. A supercapacitor power smoothing approach is presented in conjunction with the variable speed strategy. As long component lifetime is a requirement for offshore wave energy converters, a computer-controlled test rig has been built to validate supercapacitor lifetimes to manufacturer’s specifications. The test rig is also utilised to determine the effect of temperature on supercapacitors, and determine application lifetime. Cycle testing is carried out on individual supercapacitors at room temperature, and also at rated temperature utilising a thermal chamber and equipment programmed through the general purpose interface bus by Matlab. Application testing is carried out using time-compressed scaled-power profiles from the model to allow a comparison of lifetime degradation. Further applications of supercapacitors in offshore wave energy converters are then explored. These include start-up of the non-self-starting Wells turbine, and low-voltage ride-through examined to the limits specified in the Irish grid code for wind turbines. These applications are investigated with a more complete model of the system that includes a detailed back-to-back converter coupling a permanent magnet synchronous generator to the grid. Supercapacitors have been utilised in combination with battery systems for many applications to aid with peak power requirements and have been shown to improve the performance of these energy storage systems. The design, implementation, and construction of coupling a 5 kW h lithium-ion battery to a microgrid are described. The high voltage battery employed a continuous power rating of 10 kW and was designed for the future EV market with a controller area network interface. This build gives a general insight to some of the engineering, planning, safety, and cost requirements of implementing a high power energy storage system near or on an offshore device for interface to a microgrid or grid.

Research and design of high-speed advanced analogue front-ends for fibre-optic transmission systems

In the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of large, warehouse-scale data centres which have enabled new internet-based software applications such as cloud computing, search engines, social media, e-government etc. Such data centres consist of large collections of servers interconnected using short-reach (reach up to a few hundred meters) optical interconnect. Today, transceivers for these applications achieve up to 100Gb/s by multiplexing 10x 10Gb/s or 4x 25Gb/s channels. In the near future however, data centre operators have expressed a need for optical links which can support 400Gb/s up to 1Tb/s. The crucial challenge is to achieve this in the same footprint (same transceiver module) and with similar power consumption as today’s technology. Straightforward scaling of the currently used space or wavelength division multiplexing may be difficult to achieve: indeed a 1Tb/s transceiver would require integration of 40 VCSELs (vertical cavity surface emitting laser diode, widely used for short‐reach optical interconnect), 40 photodiodes and the electronics operating at 25Gb/s in the same module as today’s 100Gb/s transceiver. Pushing the bit rate on such links beyond today’s commercially available 100Gb/s/fibre will require new generations of VCSELs and their driver and receiver electronics. This work looks into a number of state‐of-the-art technologies and investigates their performance restraints and recommends different set of designs, specifically targeting multilevel modulation formats. Several methods to extend the bandwidth using deep submicron (65nm and 28nm) CMOS technology are explored in this work, while also maintaining a focus upon reducing power consumption and chip area. The techniques used were pre-emphasis in rising and falling edges of the signal and bandwidth extensions by inductive peaking and different local feedback techniques. These techniques have been applied to a transmitter and receiver developed for advanced modulation formats such as PAM-4 (4 level pulse amplitude modulation). Such modulation format can increase the throughput per individual channel, which helps to overcome the challenges mentioned above to realize 400Gb/s to 1Tb/s transceivers.

AuxAg1-x alloy seeds: A way to control growth, morphology and defect formation in Ge nanowires

Germanium (Ge) nanowires are of current research interest for high speed nanoelectronic devices due to the lower band gap and high carrier mobility compatible with high K-dielectrics and larger excitonic Bohr radius ensuing a more pronounced quantum confinement effect [1-6]. A general way for the growth of Ge nanowires is to use liquid or a solid growth promoters in a bottom-up approach which allow control of the aspect ratio, diameter, and structure of 1D crystals via external parameters, such as precursor feedstock, temperature, operating pressure, precursor flow rate etc [3, 7-11]. The Solid-phase seeding is preferred for more control processing of the nanomaterials and potential suppression of the unintentional incorporation of high dopant concentrations in semiconductor nanowires and unrequired compositional tailing of the seed-nanowire interface [2, 5, 9, 12]. There are therefore distinct features of the solid phase seeding mechanism that potentially offer opportunities for the controlled processing of nanomaterials with new physical properties. A superior control over the growth kinetics of nanowires could be achieved by controlling the inherent growth constraints instead of external parameters which always account for instrumental inaccuracy. The high dopant concentrations in semiconductor nanowires can result from unintentional incorporation of atoms from the metal seed material, as described for the Al catalyzed VLS growth of Si nanowires [13] which can in turn be depressed by solid-phase seeding. In addition, the creation of very sharp interfaces between group IV semiconductor segments has been achieved by solid seeds [14], whereas the traditionally used liquid Au particles often leads to compositional tailing of the interface [15] . Korgel et al. also described the superior size retention of metal seeds in a SFSS nanowire growth process, when compared to a SFLS process using Au colloids [12]. Here in this work we have used silver and alloy seed particle with different compositions to manipulate the growth of nanowires in sub-eutectic regime. The solid seeding approach also gives an opportunity to influence the crystallinity of the nanowires independent of the substrate. Taking advantage of the readily formation of stacking faults in metal nanoparticles, lamellar twins in nanowires could be formed.

Modelling and control of a floating oscillating water column

A novel numerical model of a Bent Backwards Duct Buoy (BBDB) Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Wave Energy Converter was created based on existing isolated numerical models of the different energy conversion systems utilised by an OWC. The novel aspect of this numerical model is that it incorporates the interdependencies of the different power conversion systems rather than modelling each system individually. This was achieved by accounting for the dynamic aerodynamic damping caused by the changing turbine rotational velocity by recalculating the turbine damping for each simulation sample and applying it via a feedback loop. The accuracy of the model was validated using experimental data collected during the Components for Ocean Renewable Energy Systems (CORES) EU FP-7 project that was tested in Galway Bay, Ireland. During the verification process, it was discovered that the model could also be applied as a valuable tool when troubleshooting device performance. A new turbine was developed and added to a full scale model after being investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics. The energy storage capacity of the impulse turbine was investigated by modelling the turbine with both high and low inertia and applying three turbine control theories to the turbine using the full scale model. A single Maximum Power Point Tracking algorithm was applied to the low-inertia turbine, while both a fixed and dynamic control algorithm was applied to the high-inertia turbine. These results suggest that the highinertia turbine could be used as a flywheel energy storage device that could help minimize output power variation despite the low operating speed of the impulse turbine. This research identified the importance of applying dynamic turbine damping to a BBDB OWC numerical model, revealed additional value of the model as a device troubleshooting tool, and found that an impulse turbine could be applied as an energy storage system.