Submarine Power Cable Filler Channel for Hydrogen Transport
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing submarine power cables face challenges in transporting both electricity and hydrogen efficiently, as designs that incorporate hydrogen transportation reduce mechanical strength and require significant production line reconfiguration, especially when installed at significant depths.
Innovation Solution
A submarine power cable design featuring a plurality of power cores with an insulation system and a filler profile that includes a fluid channel for transporting hydrogen, maintaining mechanical strength and allowing for minimal production line adaptation, with the fluid channel being integral to the filler profile and capable of transporting hydrogen gas or liquid hydrogen.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If tubular conductors are used for hydrogen transport, then hydrogen transportation capability is improved, but mechanical strength of conductors deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cable is divided into separate functional components: solid conductors for electricity and a separate filler profile with fluid channel for hydrogen transport. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function without compromising the other, resolving the contradiction between hydrogen transportation capability and conductor mechanical strength.
Solution Approach 2:
A filler profile acts as an intermediary structure that provides the fluid channel for hydrogen transport without being part of the electrical conductor system. This mediator enables hydrogen transportation while leaving the conductors intact for electrical function, avoiding the mechanical strength deterioration that would occur if conductors themselves were made tubular.
2Adaptability or versatility
If tubular conductors are used for hydrogen transport, then hydrogen transportation capability is improved, but cable installation reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the hydrogen transport function into a dedicated filler profile rather than using the conductors themselves, the conductor structure remains solid and robust. This segmentation ensures that the conductors maintain their mechanical integrity and reliability when suspended at significant depths, while still enabling hydrogen transportation through the separate filler profile.
3Adaptability or versatility
If separate hydrogen tube is added to power cable, then hydrogen transportation capability is improved, but production line complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The filler profile with integrated fluid channel is combined with the existing power cable structure during the same extrusion process. This merging of functions into a single integrated component allows hydrogen transportation capability to be added without requiring separate assembly steps or substantial reconfiguration of the production line, as the filler profile is extruded together with the cable insulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The filler profile serves multiple functions: it provides structural support to maintain cable shape, fills void spaces between power cores, and contains the fluid channel for hydrogen transport. This multi-functionality allows a single component to deliver multiple benefits, adding hydrogen transportation capability without proportionally increasing production line complexity.
4Ease of manufacture
If filler profile with fluid channel is used, then hydrogen transportation is enabled with minimal production line adaptation, but cable structure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The fluid channel is integrated directly into the filler profile structure during a single extrusion process. This merging of the fluid channel with the existing filler material allows hydrogen transportation capability to be incorporated with minimal production line adaptation, while the filler profile itself maintains a relatively simple geometric form that does not significantly increase overall cable structure complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A submarine power cable including: a plurality of power cores, each including a conductor, and an insulation system arranged around the conductor, wherein the insulation system includes an inner semiconducting layer arranged around the conductor, an insulation layer arranged around the inner semiconducting layer, an outer semiconducting layer arranged around the insulation layer, an outer layer arranged around the plurality of power cores, and a filler profile arranged in a space between two of the power cores and the outer layer, and a fluid channel arranged inside the filler profile, wherein the fluid channel extends along the entire length of the filler profile for transporting fluid from one end of the submarine power cable to an opposite end of the submarine power cable.