Practical application of a sea-water battery in deep-sea basin and its performance

Stable power supply is essential for various long-term sea floor geophysical observations. Due to a simple structure and a large energy capacity, sea-water batteries have been developed and used for such observations. However, the characteristics of sea-water batteries have not been well known in the case of installations at depths more than 5000 m in deep-sea basin. In 2000, a sea floor borehole broadband seismic observatory was installed in the northwestern Pacific basin where the water depth is 5577 m. For electric power supply, a Sea-Water Battery (SWB) system with monitoring and control was developed and used. The SWB system consists of four sea-water battery cells, a DC/DC converter, the Power Control System, the Data Logger, and an accumulator. The conditions of the SWB system were recorded more than 1 year, and the monitoring data was recovered. The SWB system generated enough power for the observation system consuming power of 6 W in average and continued to supply power for at least 5 years. From the monitoring data, the SWB can supply up to the long-term average of at least 13 W. The energy density is estimated to be 318 Wh kg⁻¹. The sea-water battery is useful for application of long-term power consumption even in the deep-sea basin.