Subsea electric generator

Submarine oil production activities require the operation of underwater hydraulic or electric equipment. The conventional solutions to the problem of power and signal transmission involve the use of complex umbilical cables connected to the surface. However, the complexity and inherent cost of acquisition and installation of these umbilical cables is very high, mainly in deep level oil wells. The authors describe how a thermoelectric generator, to be installed in production oil subsea wellheads, was therefore designed. A 1 W and a 10 W prototype were constructed and successfully tested.<>