Energy From the Oceans

Ocean Thermal Electric Conversion

The oceans are a huge heat engine and have been absorbing solar energy for the last 4 billion years.

Temperature differences, caused by differences in insolation both in latitude and in depth.

More promising technology is OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Generation). This takes advantage of the fact that the ocean is an enormous heat engine.

This in fact is a "global solution" and represents a chance for the world to collaborate on various infrastructure and production facilities.

To wit:

On an average day, 60 million square kilometers (23 million square miles) of tropical seas absorb an amount of solar radiation equal in heat content to about 250 billion barrels of oil.

If less than one-tenth of one percent of this stored solar energy could be converted into electric power, it would supply more than 20 times the total amount of electricity consumed in the United States on any given day.

Physics of Heat Engines:

• efficiency = work done/energy input
• it can be shown that this is equivalent to
  efficiency (in %) = 1 - T1/T2 ; T1 < T2

  T is measured in Kelvins

• So, in principle any two reservoirs with different temperatures T1 and T2 can produce energy.

  Examples:

  • Boiling Water/Ice Water combination:
    eff = 1 - (273/373) = 27%

  • Solar Thermal Molten Salts/Water at Air Temperature combination:
    eff = 1 -(300/1000) = 70%
    
    
    
    Thermodynamic Constraints:
    • Systems are in equilibrium when they are at the same temperature

    • energy is conserved within a closed system

    • it is not possible to extract heat energy from a reservoir and perform work without transferring heat to a reservoir of lower temperature. In other words, all thermodynamic systems must tend towards equilibrium. Some energy goes towards performing work and some is lost as waste heat.

    To get the highest efficiency one wants to maximize the difference between T1 and T2 but in most natural environments nature doesn't really do this.

    Do this:

    

    

    

    Basic principle is that heat difference is used to condense a steam into a liquid then return it to be reheated.

    Since heat differences in the ocean will be smaller, then one must substitute ammonia for water as the working fluid.

    
    This 50-m high, 100-m diameter concrete facility is to generate 100 MW of electric power

    Example Calculations:

    • Surface Ocean temperature is 25 degrees C (298K)

    • At 500-700 meters depth the temperature is 5 degrees C (278K)

    • Efficiency = 1 - 278/298 = .067 (6.7%)

    • Power in cooling 1000 gallons of water per second by 2 degrees C is 32 MegaWatts (because water has such high heat capacity/storage)

    • using 6.7% efficiency would then yield 2 Megawatts (1/500 typical coal-fired plant)

    • But this is only for 1000 measly little gallons per second

    Possible Additional Benefits:

    • can also serve as a desalinization facility
    • Can produce mineral rich salts.
    • Spraying back of deep seawater onto the sea surface may help cultivate richer fishing grounds.
    • Can produce Hydrogen!

    OTEC Potential Sites:
    • Florida, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii
    • Indian Ocean
    • Northeast Australia, Indonesia and Mexico

    Above sites typically have thermal gradients higher then 22 degrees C

    Energy extracted comes from the cooling of the warmer water this is transferred to the ammonia which does the actual work of turning the turbine (as ammonia steam)

    Energy extracted proportional to the volume of water and the temperature it drops.

    Principal energy loss is when the warmer water meets the cooler water in the condenser.

    Review of OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion)

    • Thermal gradients of greater than 22 C can be exploited and used as a heat engine

    • Energy is derived from cooling warm surface water to the temperature of the water at approximately 500-1000 feet depth.

    • The maximum surface temperature of ocean water is 25 C and its minimum value is of course 0 C

    • efficiency is then 1 -(273+0)/(273+25) = 1 - 273/298 = 7%

    • Energy is derived from the cooling water via transfer to a working fluid such as ammonia which when mixed with warm water vaporizes to steam and powers a turbine

    • Ammonia returns (condenses) to liquid when mixed with cooler water at depth and then the cycle repeats itself

    • Since the volume of water in the oceans is huge, the capacity in just the Gulf Coast Waters alone is several 10's of Giga

      More on OTEC

      Hawaii Facility

      Ocean Power also comes in 3 other forms:

      • Wave Energy
      • Tidal Energy
      • Current Flow Energy

      The ocean is a huge reservoir for storing the energy of the sun that is incident on the earth. How huge is huge?

      Incident flux on ocean surface area is 10¹⁷ Watts or 100000 Terrawatts The planet is currently a 10 TW planet.

    Major currents are shaped by:
    • Temperature differences (driven mostly by tilt of earth's axis)
    • Prevailing wind patterns interacting with the surface waters (again driven mostly by tilt of earth's axis)
    • the rotation of the earth the Coriolis Force
    • shorelines of continental masses

    Tapping the Current for Energy:

    
    • Gulf current has 1000 times the flow of the Mississippi River(!)
    • Current averages about 5 mph
    • Density of water is higher as well
    • Its always there - no intermittency problem no need for energy storage
    • Build Turbines for underwater use
    • Anchor a foundation to the ocean floor
    • hundreds of miles long rigged with turbines
    • cables on ocean floor to shore deliver the electricity

    • An engineering challenge but there are few bad side effects from producing energy this way
    • Obviously the capital costs are huge in this case but this does represent a Large Scale Solution

    Wave Energy From the Oceans:
    

    

    

    Tidal Energy from the Ocean

    

    Extracts energy from the kinetic energy of the earth-moon-sun system.

    Variations in water level along coastlines can be used to drive turbines technology is the same as low-head hydro power

    Vertical tides on US coast range from 2 feet in Florida to more than 18 feet in Maine

    To enhance efficiency of turbines driven by tidal currents, it is desireable to build a damlike structure across the mouth of a tidal basin in order to direct the flow to a turbine

    Turbines designed for work at both high and low tide (inflow or outflow)

    Intermittent tidal flow is major problem. Tidal facility produces about 1/3 the electrical energy of a hydro facility of the same peak capacity

    Two tidal plants in the world:

    • 1 MW facility on the White Sea in Russia (1969)
    • 240-MW on the Rance River, St. Malo France (1967) has 750 meter long dike to impound tides that can be as high as 13 meters (!)
      

      

    Proposed New Facilities:

    • Phillipines
    • A serious commercial venture
    • Large Scale production in the UK

    Potential Sites in the US

    • Alaska ( Cook Inlet)
      

      

    • Bay of Funday (US-Canadian Border; NE Coast of US) most favorable site in the World would produce about 30,000 MW in total (1/2 for the US)
      Tidal difference in Bay of Fundy
      

    • A 1 MW demonstration plant has been built here - near Annapolis, Nova Scotia
    • Locally (New England) this is a potential important source of power but on national scale is just a few percent of our (insatiable) need for power

    Bottom Line: There aren't many favorable sites in the world for tidal power and the estimated capacity is 50 times smaller than the world's hydroelectric power capacity.