"Our goal is to develop the first energy-autonomous ocean monitoring platform by innovatively integrating emerging energy collection and storage technologies," explains João Ventura, project leader and researcher at the University of Porto's Faculty of Sciences (FCUP), quoted in a statement from the institution.

The BEAT-IT project also includes researchers from the University of Porto's Faculty of Engineering (FEUP) and aims to combine three different technologies into a single system, all of which share the commonality of being "easily scalable and low-cost to produce and maintain."

According to FCUP, the goal of using these technologies in combination is to "prove that it is possible to collect, convert, and store energy in the marine environment itself, without the need for fossil fuels or external infrastructure."

Thus, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), which convert wave motion into electricity, and water evaporation-induced generators (WEIGs), which transform ambient heat into electrical energy, will be used. Storage will also be provided by seawater batteries that use ocean ions as an energy resource.

"These batteries extract sodium ions directly from the salt in seawater and can store the energy from wave motion collected by the TENGs, as well as the energy from water evaporation collected by the WEIGs," explains Joana Oliveira, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at FEUP.

According to FCUP, triboelectric nanogenerators "have demonstrated enormous potential for incorporation into floating buoys at sea and can be inserted inside the float," a "detail that is essential, as they can resist seawater corrosion and produce energy day and night."

In addition to continuous and sustainable monitoring, this project could support other areas such as aquaculture, coastal surveillance, and the so-called underwater internet of things, adds FCUP.

"The energy produced by the ocean can also be used to power all types of temperature or salinity sensors, for example, already used in aquaculture, or to detect unauthorized vessels in coastal surveillance," explains João Ventura.

Regarding the underwater internet of things, "the technology to be developed by FCUP and FEUP could be a source of energy to power real-time data transmission from the seabed," something "fundamental to making ocean research more sustainable."

This project, which is co-financed by the COMPETE 2030 program, has funding of €250,000 and runs until July 2028.