Atmocean Wave Rider Pump

Atmocean's original wave rider pump design focused on applications such as deep water pumps to bring cool water to the surface to the reduce the strength of hurricanes and to bring nutrient rich water to the surface to promote life in the photosynthetic zone. Since 2010, Atmocean redesigned their ocean pumps to convert wave action into electricity and for desalination processes. Since the system acts on waves and seawater to send pressurized seawater to shore, there is no risk towards the environment than what is often present when extracting energy from oil, nuclear, or natural gas.

Each pump is driven by a buoy rising and falling on passing waves, forcing water out each pump and into a collector line to bring water to the shore. These devices pump water with no extra energy needed. All the energy required is provided by the rising and falling waves. These pumps are designed for waves of 1-3 m in height. Buoys will submerge in waves greater than 3 m, acting as a self-protection mechanism while still using the maximum pump stroke of 3 m.

In the form of an array, a series of free-floating platforms called Variable Sea Anchors or “VSAs” are connected beneath the pump and provide drag to the rising buoys. The pumps located between the VSA and buoy are designed to take advantage of the resulting tension to pull in sea water and pump it towards shore. The entire array acts in series with five pumps along three separate strings to increase the volume and pressure of water being delivered on shore through a central pipe. The seawater is then run through an R/O system that takes advantage of the arriving pressure to desalinate the seawater with no external energy input. Pressurized seawater can also be directed to land based aquaculture.