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News Release from: Saft Lithium Battery Division | Subject: HEL 14-1920 batteries
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 01 April 2003
Lithium batteries power submarine
seismic network
Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology is now operating the first node of a seismic network on the floor of the Ionian Sea with power from Saft's primary lithium batteries.
Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) is now operating the first node of a seismic network installed on the floor of the Ionian Sea with power from Saft's primary lithium batteries A Saft 14V 2000Ah primary lithium battery pack is providing power for 200 days of autonomous operation for the first node of a seismic network installed on the floor of the Ionian Sea, over 2km beneath the surface
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 3 Feb 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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The aim of the network, being set up by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (Geofisica), is to improve its seismic monitoring compared to its core infrastructure, which was previously totally land-based.
The submarine nodes are being built by Tecnomare (the ENI group's marine engineering company).
Their functions include listening for tectonic activity at various frequencies and hydroacoustic transmission of the data back to a surface ship.
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Saft's new "Primary Lithium Battery Selector Guide" has been produced to help electrical and electronic product designers select the most appropriate primary lithium power source for any application.
Lithium primary cell gives a 12% capacity boost
Saft's new LS 33600C primary lithium cell has a nominal capacity of 18.5Ah, 12 per cent higher than Saft's existing high-capacity D-size lithium cell.
The first node with its Saft HEL 14-1920 battery was deployed in October 2002 at a depth of 2105m, where the water pressure is 210 atmospheres (20,265kN/m2).
After many weeks of testing Tecnomare reported the node to be a great success, particularly highlighting the reliable operation of the battery at this extreme depth.
Development and reliable operation of marine observatories - especially those running for as long as a year at depths of 4km - will depend completely on the availability of enabling technologies, such as battery power, underwater communications capability, materials, electronics and so on.
In the initial phase of this project the node is completely autonomous, but it will later be linked back to shore by an undersea cable connection.
The Saft batteries will then provide power backup for basic functions including data acquisition and local data storage.
Earthquakes are quite common in the regions near what INGV calls the SN-1 node.
Among the most recent and destructive was one at Syracuse in 1990 - as well as Catania (1693) and Messina (1908) that destroyed the two cities.
Geologists and tectonic specialists note that for the last 85 million years, the African plate has been moving up under the Eurasian plate at the rate of one cm a year.
The particular shape of the Italian peninsula makes it difficult to ensure effective monitoring of the principal marine seismogenetic structures with only a land-based network.
The Italian researchers are now planning further submarine nodes to increase their ability to detect seismic activities.
The node weighs 1500kg at surface level - and 800kg when submerged on the seafloor 25km offshore of Sicily.
Along with its four Saft lithium-thionyl chloride batteries (with more than four hundred LS 33600C cells) its components include five significant devices: a three-component broadband seismometer operating at 100Hz; a prototype gravitometer, at 1Hz; a hydrophone at 80Hz; a three-component current meter at 2Hz; and a sensor that makes conductivity (salinity), temperature and depth/pressure readings. Request a free brochure from Saft Lithium Battery Division ...
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