Ocean Thermal Energy

Comment

Comment by Russ H. Robinson on November 17, 2012 at 1:28am

Aloha,

This is the last link sent to me by Guy Toyama (Exc. Director - Friends of NELHA) who died suddenly last Sunday.

Check it out.

http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/mnet/_repository/2011//nh3/pdf/Varley.pdf

A hui hou

Russ Robinson

Comment by Tom Bailey on November 16, 2012 at 11:04am

Well the election is over and we will be spared from constant TV ads.

Whether the person/party is in office that you wished - at this point is all about ending our political gridlock and let's get moving to solve huge problems!

We need to demand that our politicians COME TOGETHER!

We need to move forward with our energy issues.

Comment by Russ H. Robinson on November 10, 2012 at 2:26pm

What's up with Locheed Martin's pilot plant whose Titanium heat exchanger is being tested at NELHA near Kona Hawaii?

Comment by Russ H. Robinson on September 21, 2011 at 4:03am

Has anyone seen the paper by Lockheed Martin given at this years Ammonia conference that evaluates the coupling of OTEC with an ammonia production plant?

 

Russ Robinson - Pickens Plan  District Leader HI

Comment by Meredith Hugh Trimble on December 29, 2010 at 6:32pm

Aloha and Haouli Makehiki Haou!

Well, that is my best attempt at spelling the Hawaiian for Happy New Year.  Anyway, there was a post in the Huffington about UH at Manoa developing on an idea of a 'land based' OTEC plant.  The plant would exploit the average temperature difference between the windward side and the leeward side of the island chain (about 1 degree C).  I went to the UH website, but could find no reference to this, however.  Also, I think the idea of OTEC could be boosted by using geothermally warmed water in a rising column from the sea bed.  Commercial use of geothermal energy has been on-going on the big island of Hawaii (at Apuna), and there is exploratory work on Mauii, but Oahu is deemed as not viable.  I think the combination of OTEC and geothermal is another matter, though!

You may also know that UH has been involved in a hydrogen park project to produce hydrogen/fuel cell fuel.  Ammonia may be easier to convert ic engines to, but commercial use will probably need scrubbers to remove nitrous oxides from the stack gases.

Comment by Russ H. Robinson on December 25, 2010 at 11:26pm

Aloha,
Could someone answer these three questions for me?

1. There’s a 'kanaka' legend in Hawaii that there once was a plan to build a Lockheed (256 Mwe) OTEC plant off shore Oahu. Is this true?

2. Has any one ever of the heard the concept of coupling an ‘economic scale sized’ OTEC with an ammonia production facility to make motor fuel to replace “foreign oil” ?

3. Is there anyone in this group who is willing to work to get a seminar secession in next years Asian Pacific Economic Conference in Hawaii on OTEC.?

Russ Robinson -
Pickens Plan District Leader - Hawaii

Comment by Meredith Hugh Trimble on July 18, 2010 at 5:02pm

Another good way to ship blocks of energy to shore is by the use of stationary power batteries. One good technology for this is the zinc-chlorine battery, which stores the chlorine in a 'slush' of chlorine hydrate. Since this must be refrigerated when charging, the cold ocean water would be helpful. The company that developed it in the 1980's was Gulf Western Manufacturing. It was touted as an EV battery, but it was very sensitive to packaging geometry changes, and was really better as a stationary battery. I don't know who owns the patents on it, now that GW is no more. I worked in advanced EV group at GM, at the time they tried to sell us on it.

Comment by Meredith Hugh Trimble on July 7, 2010 at 7:03pm

Just a few random thoughts:
If a foaming agent is needed for 'air lift' concepts, I think we have found a use for the oil slick water recovered from the Deepwater Horizon spew!
If an 'open cycle' OTEC releases CO2 from colder water, that pretty well makes the case for closed cycle. Piping the working fluid to the colder depths has more attractiveness after this consideration, too.
A large, floating factory ship should also be able to use photovoltaic cells for start-up power, since the factory ship would have a lot of surface area. Hydrogen production is preferable to ammonia in case of a spill, etc. Also, the solar cells can be water cooled to add to the temperature gradient of the seawater. Additional start-up power would be available from the compbustion of the hydrogen, of course.

Comment by Jim Baird on May 21, 2010 at 9:10am

The calculation below states 1E+12 kilowatt hours = 1 terawatt-hour.

This is wrong. The correct correlation is 1E+9 kilowatt hours = 1 terawatt-hour therefore it would take the production of closer to 1000 TW of OTEC energy to maintain the oceans at their current temperature.

The global consumption of energy for 2006 was 15.8 TW according to the the United States Energy Information Administration so even if this was all generated using OTEC there would not be enough energy extracted from the ocean to maintain their current levels. To do this will require the desalination of some ocean water and sequestration of this water in the world's deserts.

This calculation does demonstrate however the energy potential that is being stored in the oceans.

The First Law of Thermodynamics) dictates that: Increase in internal energy of a system = heat supplied to the system - work done by the system so the only way this energy can be dissipated is by converting it to work.

The alternative was pointed out by Charles H. Greene Director, Ocean Resources and Ecosystems Program, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, et al. in a paper, A Very Inconvenient Truth, “the ocean’s thermal inertia makes its warming essentially irreversible for the next thousand years.”

Comment by Jim Baird on November 27, 2009 at 3:51pm

There are numerous non-carbon energy sources contending to gain a foothold in a carbon-constrained environment but OTEC uniquely has the potential to address the cause and most dangerous effect of Climate Change as well as the disparate needs of the rich and poor nations.

The poor need water to sustain their population and to grow crops for food, fuel, fibre and building materials. These crops in turn sequester CO2.

The rich need a remedy to sea level rise, which the insurance industry projected this week will cause $28 trillion damage to the world's largest coastal cities by 2050.

The Global Warming Mitigation Method (GWMM) is an OTEC based technology that leverages the potential of the water that would otherwise inundate coastal arrears to irrigate the world’s hot deserts. These in turn have the capacity to sequester as much as 15 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually and provide sustenance and industry to the poorest regions of the planet.

GWMM would develop 1 terawatt (TW) of electricity using OTEC, triple the output of the world’s current nuclear reactor fleet. Conversion of 1TW of the ocean’s heat to productive use will negate the potential for thermal expansion which is the principal driver for sea level rise over the coming century.

Nuclear is often, erroneously, touted as the only carbon-free, baseload energy source.

OTEC is baseload electricity without the waste and proliferation potential, with the benefit of sea level maintenance and the potential to sustain the planet. It is also a multi trillion dollar economic opportunity.

The projected capital cost to produce 1 TW of electrical energy using OTEC is estimated at $8.5 trillion, which is likely to come down as OTEC is scaled up. This is one third of the projected damage due to sea level rise and would be offset by the production of over $1 trillion in electrical power annually and the harvest of desert plantations.

According to the NUS Consulting Group’s International Electricity Report and Cost Survey of electricity rates for 2006-2007 global rates in $U.S. range between 3.56 and 22.89 cents/kwh. Taking the average 13.23 cents/kwh, which is roughly Germany's rate of 13.16cents/kwh for the period, there would be ((1TW*$.1323)/1000) * 24hrs * 365days = $1.16 trillion dollars worth of power generated per year.

Ocean Thermal can keep the world inhabitable for the little girl I am holding in the picture opposite, her cousins and their contemporaries. They deserve nothing less.

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