Alternative Energy from the Ocean

Employing the oceans for energy is still a very young science although the use of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion is not new - dating back as it does to 1881. 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. Cost is the main stumbling block that OTEC has yet to face and therefore providing it a hard time implementing on an extensive and sensible level. It is difficult to get the costs down to a reasonable level because of the processes presently used to drive OTEC. Some people claim that the localised environmental damage they cause offsets any global benefits these plants may bring.

Two date only three forms of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion techniques are available:

“Closed Cycle OTEC” uses a low-boiling point liquid such as, for example, propane to act as an intermediate fluid. Warm sea water is pumped into the Ocean Thermal Energy Plants reaction chamber which heats up the gas (propane) to the point where it turns into a liquid. When vapors from the intermediate fluid push the engine’s turbine, electricity is then generated. Cold sea water then reverses the process, reducing the temperature of the liquid, turning it back into a gas.

OTEC

It is already taken that intermediate fluid is used in closed cycling and even though there is no such thing involved in the Open Cycle, still, “Open Cycle Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion” isn’t that poles apart from closed cycling. In this kind of OTEC format, the main driver of the engine’s turbine is the sea water itself. Warm surface water is converted into a low pressure vapor by in a vacuum. The power to drive the turbine is within the low-pressure vapor when released in a focused area. To cool down the vapor and create desalinated water for human consumption, the deeper ocean’s cold waters are added to the vapor after it has generated sufficient electricity.

Since the “Hybrid Cycle Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion” is yet to be explored, it will remain to be just a theory and nothing more unless acted upon. It seeks to describe the way that we could make maximum usage of the thermal energy of the ocean’s waters. Even in this theory form, Hybrid Cycling already has two separate methods. Strangely, the first method uses the closed cycle system to provide power to create the vacuum that is used in the open cycle method. 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.

To treat chemicals is another contributing feature of using a closed cycle OTEC plant aside from the fact that it can generate electricity. 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. There is clearly quite an array of products and services that we could derive from this alternative energy source.