Titanium Foil-Sealed Thermoelectric Generator for Seafloor Hydrothermal Vent

The seafloor hydrothermal activity observation equipment needs a stable electric power supply; this study explored the thermoelectric generator (TEG) as the in-situ power supply method. The TEG can utilize the considerable temperature difference of the hydrothermal vent to supply electricity for the observation system. Aiming to decrease the cold side thermal resistance and obtain a compact structure, we used the titanium foil combined with the O-ring as the sealing component. The pressure test result shows the titanium foil can withstand high pressure up to 25MPa without leakage. Furthermore, a numerical simulation was conducted to evaluate the temperature distribution of the TEG. To reduce heat loss, we use the polyetheretherketone (PEEK) material as the insulting heat layer at the surface of the TEG. The simulation results show that adding the thermal insulation layer can increase the hot side temperature by 4.9-7K. The pool power generation results show that the novel structure TEG can realize 22W output at the hot fluid temperature of 467K. This work provides a novel sealing method for the seafloor equipment for corrosion-resisting and low thermal resistance features