What Is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion?
October 7th, 2008
Alternative Energy from the Ocean
Although by modern standards ‘Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion’ is relatively old, it was discovered back in the late 19th century, it is still relatively unknown and a barely used branch of energy generation. With the development of this piece comes forth the fact that the only operating experimental OTEC plant is sheltered in no other place in the planet but to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. OTEC is a potential alternative energy source that needs to be funded and explored much more than it presently is but it is the expense that is the greatest problem. Energy from the ocean would be very clean burning and not add pollutants into the air but reducing costs is the main problem. Unintentionally, due to the disruptive effects that most of our current technologies give out to our environment and society, setting up OTEC plants can not avoid inflicting damages to any locality.
There are three kinds of OTEC:
“Closed Cycle OTEC” uses a low-boiling point liquid such as, for example, propane to act as an intermediate fluid. The Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plant pumps the warm sea water into the reaction chamber and boils the intermediate fluid. rotates large turbines. Once this process has been completed, the resultant liquid is converted back to it’s gas state by using cold sea water to cool it.
There is no quite big difference between the “Open Cycle Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion” and the closed cycling but there is no intermediate fluid used in the Open Cycle. All that is used with this system is the sea water itself. Warm surface water is converted into a low pressure vapor by in a vacuum. When low-pressure vapor is released in a focused area, it will then have the control to drive the turbine. Once sufficient energy has been created, the now desalinated water is pumped to much lower ocean depths where it is cooled and ready to be used for people to drink.
“Hybrid Cycle Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion” is really just a theory for the time being. Bringing about the notion that we could make maximum usage of the ocean waters’ thermal energy is just the main purpose of the theory. Even in this theory form, Hybrid Cycling already has two separate methods. The first involves using a closed cycling to generate electricity which is, in turn, used to create the vacuum environment needed for open cycling. The incorporation of two open cyclings which can produce twice the amount of desalinated, potable water as compared to that of just one open cycle is the main concept of the second component.
In addition to being used for producing electricity, a closed cycle OTEC plant can be utilized for treating chemicals. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plants both open cycling and close cycling kinds, are also able to be utilized for pumping up cold deep sea water which can then be used for refrigeration and air conditioning. Fish farming is also a benefit of using the water surrounding these plants as well as other mariculture and aquaculture studies. Perhaps you can see why this energy source has so many people interested as it has more than one benefit and much more research is required into the other possibilities it has.
