RESUMÉ

Brigantine "GRETHE" Stays'l Schooner "VALKYRIEN" by John Hanna

HANNA RESUMÉ

John Clark Hanna

Coos Bay, Oregon U.S.A.

wetgen@gmail.com

Mr. Hanna has been professionally engaged in the maritime, technical and industrial sectors for six decades. For the past ten years, his mission has been focused on designing practical wave and tidal energy power take-off systems.

In 1956, his first job was an apprentice draftsman at his family's business, Hanna Engineering Works (now Hanna Cylinders) in Chicago, IL. In 1958, he joined the U.S. Navy where he was a crew member and Aviation Electrician on Lockheed WV-2 early warning aircraft. He was honorably discharged in 1962.

From 1962 to 1964, he attended Santa Monica City College and the University of Hawaii where he majored in zoology and marine sciences. He left college to help rebuild the 58-foot schooner "Valkyrien" of Honolulu. For the next two years he served as engineer on three square-rigged tall ships including the brigantine "Grethe" out of Copenhagen, Denmark".

Mr. Hanna continued to work on sailing vessels in the late sixties and early seventies. In 1972, he served a two year apprenticeship under Dean T. Stevens, Master Shipwright with the San Francisco Maritime Museum. In 1974 he sailed to several atolls in the Marshall Islands, assisting Department of Energy scientists to survey the effects of atomic radiation fallout on the indigenous population and collect flora and fauna samples. In 1978 and 1979, he was employed by California State University, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories as Captain of their research vessel "Ed Ricketts". Throughout the 1980s, he worked as a Coast Guard documented mariner, shipwright and certified welder.

In 1980, Mr. Hanna founded a 501(c)(3) non profit organization named ECOM which received seed funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. ECOM employed University of California faculty and graduate students to assist commercial growers around Monterey Bay to develop non-chemical pest control strategies for strawberries, artichokes and Brussels sprouts. ECOM pioneered the concept of Integrated Pest Management which is now widely practiced.

In 1990, Mr. Hanna became a certified Special Inspector for Structural Steel and Welding with the International Code Council, certification No. 0857946-X5. In 1992, he attained certification No. 92010131 with AWS (American Welding Society) as a Certified Welding Inspector. From 1990 up to 2019, Mr. Hanna was continuously engaged as a special inspector on many large, high profile, multi-million dollar projects such as: Folsom Dam repairs; fabrication of large pressure vessels for the DoD chemical weapons disposal site in Pueblo, CO; the new Human Genome Laboratory at UC Berkeley; the UC Davis Medical Records Building and the new International Terminal at the San Francisco Airport. He was also an inspector on the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge.

In 2009, Hanna Wave and Tidal Power Drives was established after he designed an innovative wave and tidal energy conversion device called the Hanna Turbine (U.S. utility patent 8,358,026). In January of 2020, this patent was sold to a tidal energy developer in the U.K. In 2014, a second patent was granted for a mechanical, direct-drive wave energy converter called the Hanna MultiDrive (U.S. utility patent 8,745,981). He has also designed a low-wattage power drive, the Hanna Mono-radial Turbine, for charging batteries on small autonomous data collection buoys. In January, 2021, a provisional patent was issued for a new type of cross current tidal turbine that harvests bi-directional flows (see links below).

Mr. Hanna continued to work as a certified special inspector by the American Welding Society until 2019. He was engaged as an inspector or consultant on construction projects in the Pacific Northwest. He was contracted to Ocean Power Technologies as Quality Assurance Inspector for the fabrication of their 'PowerBuoy'. The contract with OPT went from Dec. 2010 to August 2012. Mr. Hanna's recent assignments have been with West Coast Contractors, Inc. of Coos Bay, OR to inspect welding at the Army Corps of Engineers dock in Coos Bay and also writing weld procedures and inspecting new construction on two large dams on the Snake River for the U.S. Dept. of Interior. In 2016, Mr. Hanna was contracted to Fred Wahl Marine Construction, Inc. in Reedsport, Oregon to inspect structural steel and welding for a new dock and haul out basin serving large west coast commercial fishing vessels. Additional biographical and project details can be viewed on Mr. Hanna's LinkedIn page.

Inspecting the SF/Oakland Bay Bridge, 2003 Building the turbine prototype

Another Hanna invention, the 'LightBoard' QA Inspector for Ocean Power Technologies 'PowerBuoy'

It is with great pleasure to announce the sale of my patent for the Hanna MultiDrive wave energy converter (US 8,745,981). The MultiDrive system is installed on buoys. The patent for my invention has been assigned to Ocean Motion Technologies, Inc. in San Diego, California.

The MultiDrive WEC is a dual PTO system that harvests wave action through the up and down movement of an internal float placed within a floating or submerged buoy. The lightweight float is connected to the patented direct drive. The mechanical PTO converts the float’s linear, bi-directional action into a one-way rotary force to spin multiple generators. It can also pump seawater for desalinization plants or provide water to drive onshore turbo-generators.

The float’s reciprocating motion acts like a piston, compressing air on the upstroke. This compressed air is channeled to become a second source of renewable energy. The air is directed through one or more self-rectified turbine PTOs. The turbine(s) can then provide power to the grid or generate low-voltage DC power to charge onboard batteries. The charged batteries will power electronic payloads or energize the field coils for the main generator(s) – thus eliminating the need for expensive permanent magnets.

The photo above shows two prototypes in my garage. On my left is the ‘open source’ Hanna Mono-radial self-rectified air turbine perched on top of an experimental bi-directional air pump that simulates wave action. The green structure is the proof-of-concept model for the MultiDrive PTO.

Another garage invention is shown below; the patented Hanna Wave and Tidal Turbine PTO (US 8,358,026). That patent was acquired by HydroWing, LTD. in Cornwall, UK and the proof-of-concept turbine is on display at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center in Newport, Oregon.

Over the years, skeptics have said “You’re one guy in his garage; you’re just a little fish in an ocean full of sharks.” No, I’m like the Remora fish, shadowing the big guys, going the same place they’re headed.

I’m grateful that these two marine renewable energy developers saw value in my garage inventions. Now their hard work begins. I wish them success raising capital and advancing the TRL. I’m also grateful for the support of Oregon State University and the Pacific Ocean Energy Trust.