A seminar report on

OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements
For the award of the degree of


BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
In
ELECTRICAL ENGNIEERING
By
DEBI CHARAN GOND
( 1101214054 )

Under the guidance of
Mr S K GACHHAYAT, Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering







DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING




KONARK INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Affiliated to BPUT, RAURKELA
Approved by AICTE, New Delhi
BHUBANESWAR ORRISA 752050
2011-2015


CERTIFICATE


This is to certify that I am Debi Charan Gond bearing Regd No:-
1101214054 student of 7
th
semester, Branch: Electrical Engineering,
Konark Institute Of Science & Technology, Bhubaneswar have Submitted
seminar report on OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION, This is
required for the fulfillment for Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering
under BPUT,









Seminar Co-odinator Head of the Dept.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this opportunity to express my hearty thanks to all those who
individually as well as collectively helped me in the successful completion of
this seminar,

I would like to express my immense gratitude and sincere thanks to Ms.
Minakshi Singh, Whose co-operative guidance has helped me in the
successful completion of this seminar on Ocean thermal energy
conversion I am very thankful to Mr. SriNiwas Swain (HOD, Dept. of
Electrical) and Project coordinator Ms. Minakshi Singh for helping me to
complete the seminar successfully,

I express my deep sense of gratitude and appreciation to the entire faculty
members in Dept. of Electrical Engineering for their valuable and scholarly
guidance, constant supervision and timely advice and non teaching staff of
the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and my friends without whom my
endeavors wouldnt have been successful.
Name: Debi Charan Gond
Signature:
Branch: Electrical Engineering
Regd No: 1101214054
ABSTRACT
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is an energy technology that
converts solar radiation to electric power. OTEC systems use the ocean's natural
thermal gradientthe fact that the ocean's layers of water have different
temperatures to drive a power-producing cycle. As long as the temperature
between the warm surface water and the cold deep water differs by about 20C
(36F), an OTEC system can produce a significant amount of power, with little
impact on the surrounding environment.
The distinctive feature of OTEC energy systems is that the end products
include not only energy in the form of electricity, but several other synergistic
products. The principle design objective was to minimize plan cost by minimizing
plant mass, and taking maximum advantage of minimal warm and cold water
flows. Power is converted to high voltage DC, and is cabled to shore for
conversion to AC and integration into the local power distribution network.
The oceans are thus a vast renewable energy resource, with the potential to
help us produce billions of watts of electric power.




OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION
Oceans cover more than 70% of Earth's surface, making them the world's
largest solar collectors. The sun's heat warms the surface water a lot more than the
deep ocean water, and this temperature difference creates thermal energy. Just a
small portion of the heat trapped in the ocean could power the world.
I. INTRODUCTION TO OCEAN ENERGY:
Most people have been witness to the awesome power of the world's oceans.
For least a thousand years, scientists and inventors have watched ocean waves
explode against coastal shores, felt the pull of ocean tides, and dreamed of
harnessing these forces. But it's only been in the last century that scientists and
engineers have begun to look at capturing ocean energy to make electricity.

The ocean can produce two types of energy: thermal energy from the sun's
heat, and mechanical energy from the tides and waves. Ocean thermal energy is
used for many applications, including electricity generation. Ocean mechanical
energy is quite different from ocean thermal energy. Even though the sun affects
all ocean activity, tides are driven primarily by the gravitational pull of the moon,
and waves are driven primarily by the winds. As a result, tides and waves are
sporadic sources of energy, while ocean thermal energy is fairly constant. Also,
unlike thermal energy, the electricity conversion of both tidal and wave energy
usually involves mechanical devices.

II.OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION:
OTEC is a process which utilizes the heat energy stored in the tropical
ocean. The world's oceans serve as a huge collector of heat energy. OTEC plants
utilize the difference in temperature between warm surface sea water and cold deep
sea water to produce electricity.
Intensive Energy
The energy associated with OTEC derives from the difference in temperature
between two thermal reservoirs. The top layer of the ocean is warmed by the sun to
temperatures up to 20 K greater than the seawater near the bottom of the ocean.
OTEC energy is different from geothermal energy in that one cannot assume the
cold reservoir is infinite. The physical energy of two large reservoirs of fluid at
different temperatures is

in J/kg where r is the mass of warm water divided by the mass of cold water
entering the plant(1). For optimal performance, r is approximately 0.5. It is
assumed in this analysis that the specific heat of the two fluid reservoirs is an
average value over the often small temperature difference, but varying with salinity
in the case of seawater.
Thermal energy conversion is an energy technology that converts solar
radiation to electric power. OTEC systems use the ocean's natural thermal
gradientthe fact that the ocean's layers of water have different temperaturesto
drive a power-producing cycle. As long as the temperature between the warm
surface water and the cold deep water differs by about 20C, an OTEC system can
produce a significant amount of power. The oceans are thus a vast renewable
resource, with the potential to help us produce billions of watts of electric power.
This potential is estimated to be about 10
13
watts of base load power generation,
according to some experts. The cold, deep seawater used in the OTEC process is
also rich in nutrients, and it can be used to culture both marine organisms and plant
life near the shore or on land. OTEC produce steady, base-load electricity, fresh
water, and air-conditioning options.

OTEC requires a temperature difference of about 36 deg F (20 deg C). This
temperature difference exists between the surface and deep seawater year round
throughout the tropical regions of the world. To produce electricity, we either use a
working fluid with a low boiling point (e.g. ammonia) or warm surface sea water,
or turn it to vapor by heating it up with warm sea water (ammonia) or de-
pressurizing warm seawater. The pressure of the expanding vapor turns a turbine
and produces electricity.
Plant Design and Location
Commercial OTEC facilities can be built on
Land or near the shore
Platforms attached to the shelf
Moorings or free-floating facilities in deep ocean water
Land-based and near-shore are more advantageous than the other two. OTEC
plants can be mounted to the continental shelf at depths up to 100 meters, however
may make shelf-mounted facilities less desirable and more expensive than their
land-based counterparts. Floating OTEC facilities with a large power capacity, but
has the difficulty of stabilizing and of mooring it in very deep water may create
problems with power delivery.
Commercial ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plants must be located
in an environment that is stable enough for efficient system operation. The
temperature of the warm surface seawater must differ about 20C (36F) from that
of the cold deep water that is no more than about 1000 meters (3280 feet) below
the surface. The natural ocean thermal gradient necessary for OTEC operation is
generally found between latitudes 20 deg N and 20 deg S.

III. TYPES OF ELECTRICITY CONVERSION SYSTEMS
There are three types of electricity conversion systems: closed-cycle, open-
cycle, and hybrid. Closed-cycle systems use the ocean's warm surface water to
vaporize a working fluid, which has a low-boiling point, such as ammonia. The
vapor expands and turns a turbine. The turbine then activates a generator to
produce electricity. Open-cycle systems actually boil the seawater by operating at
low pressures. This produces steam that passes through a turbine/generator. And
hybrid systems combine both closed-cycle and open-cycle systems.
Closed-Cycle OTEC
In the closed-cycle OTEC system, warm sea water vaporizes a working
fluid, such as ammonia, flowing through a heat exchanger (evaporator). The vapor
expands at moderate pressures and turns a turbine coupled to a generator that
produces electricity. The vapor is then condensed in heat exchanger (condenser)
using cold seawater pumped from the ocean's depths through a cold-water pipe.
The condensed working fluid is pumped back to the evaporator to repeat the cycle.
The working fluid remains in a closed system and circulates continuously.


The heat exchangers (evaporator and condenser) are a large and crucial
component of the closed-cycle power plant, both in terms of actual size and capital
cost. Much of the work has been performed on alternative materials for OTEC
heat exchangers, leading to the recent conclusion that inexpensive aluminum alloys
may work as well as much more expensive titanium for this purpose.
Required condensate pump work, w
C
. The major additional parasitic energy
requirements in the OTEC plant are the cold water pump work, w
CT
, and the warm
water pump work, w
HT
. Denoting all other parasitic energy requirements by w
A
, the
net work from the OTEC plant, w
NP
is
w
NP
= w
T
+ w
C
+ w
CT
+ w
HT
+ w
A

The thermodynamic cycle undergone by the working fluid can be analyzed without
detailed consideration of the parasitic energy requirements. From the first law of
thermodynamics, the energy balance for the working fluid as the system is
w
N
= Q
H
+ Q
C

Where w
N
= w
T
+ w
C
is the net work for the thermodynamic cycle. For the special
idealized case in which there is no working fluid pressure drop in the heat
exchangers,
Q
H
= T
H
ds
H
and
Q
C
= T
C
ds
C
so that the net thermodynamic cycle work becomes
w
N
= T
H
ds + T
C
ds
H C
Subcooled liquid enters the evaporator. Due to the heat exchange with warm sea
water, evaporation takes place and usually superheated vapor leaves the
evaporator. This vapor drives the turbine and 2-phase mixture enters the condenser.
Usually, the subcooled liquid leaves the condenser and finally, this liquid is
pumped to the evaporator completing a cycle.



Open-Cycle OTEC
The open cycle consists of the following steps: (i) flash evaporation of a
fraction of the warm seawater by reduction of pressure below the saturation value
corresponding to its temperature (ii) expansion of the vapor through a turbine to
generate power; (iii) heat transfer to the cold seawater thermal sink resulting in
condensation of the working fluid; and (iv) compression of the non-condensable
gases (air released from the seawater streams at the low operating pressure) to
pressures required to discharge them from the system.


This process being iso-enthalpic,
h
2
= h
1
= h
f
+ x
2
h
fg

Here, x
2
is the fraction of water by mass that has vaporized. The warm water mass
flow rate per unit turbine mass flow rate is 1/x
2
.
The low pressure in the evaporator is maintained by a vacuum pump that also
removes the dissolved non condensable gases from the evaporator. The evaporator
now contains a mixture of water and steam of very low quality. The steam is
separated from the water as saturated vapour. The remaining water is saturated and
is discharged back to the ocean in the open cycle. The steam we have extracted in
the process is a very low pressure, very high specific volume working fluid. It
expands in a special low pressure turbine.
h
3
= h
g

Here, h
g
corresponds to T
2
. For an ideal adiabatic reversible turbine,
s
5,s
= s
3
= s
f
+ x
5,s
s
fg

The above equation corresponds to the temperature at the exhaust of the turbine,
T
5
. x
5,s
is the mass fraction of vapour at point 5.
The enthalpy at T
5
is,
h
5,s
= h
f
+ x
5,s
h
fg

This enthalpy is lower. The adiabatic reversible turbine work = h
3
-h
5,s
.
Actual turbine work w
T
= (h
3
-h
5,s
) polytropic efficiancy

The condenser temperature and pressure are lower. Since the turbine exhaust will
be discharged back into the ocean anyway, a direct contact condenser is used. Thus
the exhaust is mixed with cold water from the deep cold water pipe which results
in a near saturated water, That water is now discharged back to the ocean.
h
6
=h
f
, at T
5
. T
7
is the temperature of the exhaust mixed with cold sea water, as the
vapour content now is negligible,

There are the temperature differences between stages. One between warm surface
water and working steam, one between exhaust steam and cooling water and one
between cooling water reaching the condenser and deep water. These represent
external irreversibilitys that reduce the overall temperature difference.
The cold water flow rate per unit turbine mass flow rate,

Turbine mass flow rate,
Warm water mass flow rate,
Cold water mass flow rate
Hybrid OTEC System
Another option is to combine the two processes together into an open-
cycle/closed-cycle hybrid, which might produce both electricity and desalinated
water more efficiently. In a hybrid OTEC system, warm seawater might enter a
vacuum where it would be flash-evaporated into steam, in a similar fashion to the
open-cycle evaporation process.

The steam or the warm water might then pass through an evaporator to vaporize
the working fluid of a closed-cycle loop. The vaporized fluid would then drive a
turbine to produce electricity, while the steam would be condensed within the
condenser to produced desalinated water
IV. OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
OTEC offers one of the most benign power production technologies, since
the handling of hazardous substances is limited to the working fluid (e.g.,
ammonia), and no noxious by-products are generated. OTEC requires drawing sea
water from the mixed layer and the deep ocean and returning it to the mixed layer,
close to the thermo cline, which could be accomplished with minimal
environmental impact. Aquaculture is perhaps the most well-known byproduct of
OTEC. Cold-water delicacies, such as salmon and lobster, thrive in the nutrient-
rich, deep, seawater from the OTEC process. Micro algae such as Spirulina, a
health food supplement, also can be cultivated in the deep-ocean water.
Wave energy systems also cannot compete economically with traditional
power sources. However, the costs to produce wave energy are coming down,
Once built, however, wave energy systems (and other ocean energy plants) should
have low operation and maintenance costs because the fuel they use sea water is
free. Like tidal power plants, OTEC power plants require substantial capital
investment upfront. Another factor hindering the commercialization of OTEC is
that there are only a few hundred land-based sites in the tropics where deep-ocean
water is close enough to shore to make OTEC plants feasible.
V. BENEFITS OF OTEC

We can measure the value of an ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plant
and continued OTEC development by both its economic and no economic benefits.
OTECs economic benefits include the:
Helps produce fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol
Produces base load electrical energy
Produces desalinated water for industrial, agricultural, and residential uses
Is a resource for on-shore and near-shore Mari culture operations
Provides air-conditioning for buildings
Provides moderate-temperature refrigeration
Has significant potential to provide clean, cost-effective electricity for the
future.
Fresh Water-- up to 5 liters for every 1000 liters of cold seawater.
Food--Aquaculture products can be cultivated in discharge water.


OTECs no economic benefits, which help us achieve global environmental goals,
include these:
Promotes competitiveness and international trade
Enhances energy independence and energy security
Promotes international sociopolitical stability
Has potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions resulting from burning
fossil fuels.
In small island nations, the benefits of OTEC include self-sufficiency, minimal
environmental impacts, and improved sanitation and nutrition, which result from
the greater availability of desalinated water and Mari culture products
VI. DISADVANTAGES
OTEC-produced electricity at present would cost more than electricity
generated from fossil fuels at their current costs. The electricity cost could
be reduced significantly if the plant operated without major overhaul for 30
years or more, but there are no data on possible plant life cycles.
OTEC plants must be located where a difference of about 40 Fahrenheit (F)
occurs year round. Ocean depths must be available fairly close to shore-
based facilities for economic operation. Floating plant ships could provide
more flexibility.



VII. APPLICATIONS
Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) systems have many applications
or uses. OTEC can be used to generate electricity, desalinate water, support deep-
water Mari culture, and provide refrigeration and air-conditioning as well as aid in
crop growth and mineral extraction. These complementary products make OTEC
systems attractive to industry and island communities even if the price of oil
remains low.



The electricity produced by the system can be delivered to a utility grid or
used to manufacture methanol, hydrogen, refined metals, ammonia, and similar
products. The cold [5C (41F)] seawater made available by an OTEC system
creates an opportunity to provide large amounts of cooling to operations that are
related to or close to the plant. Likewise, the low-cost refrigeration provided by the
cold seawater can be used to upgrade or maintain the quality of indigenous fish,
which tend to deteriorate quickly in warm tropical regions. The developments in
other technologies (especially materials sciences) were improving the viability of
mineral extraction processes that employ ocean energy.
VIII. CASE STUDY: (INDIA)
Conceptual studies on OTEC plants for Kavaratti (Lakshadweep islands), in
the Andaman-Nicobar Islands and off the Tamil Nadu coast at Kulasekharapatnam
were initiated in 1980. In 1984 a preliminary design for a 1 MW (gross) closed
Rankine Cycle floating plant was prepared by the Indian Institute of Technology in
Madras at the request of the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Resources. The
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) was formed by the governmental
Department of Ocean Development in 1993 and in 1997 the Government proposed
the establishment of the 1 MW plant of earlier studies. NIOT signed a
memorandum of understanding with Saga University in Japan for the joint
development of the plant near the port of Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu).
It has been reported that following detailed specifications, global tenders
were placed at end-1998 for the design, manufacture, supply and commissioning of
various sub-systems. The objective is to demonstrate the OTEC plant for one year,
after which it could be moved to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands for power
generation. NIOTs plan is to build 10-25 MW shore-mounted power plants in due
course by scaling-up the 1 MW test plant, and possibly a 100 MW range of
commercial plants thereafter.

CONCLUSION
OTEC has tremendous potential to supply the worlds energy. It is estimated
that, in an annual basis, the amount solar energy absorbed by the oceans is
equivalent to at least 4000 times the amount presently consumed by humans. For
an OTEC efficiency of 3 percent, in converting ocean thermal energy to electricity,
we would need less than 1 percent of this renewable energy to satisfy all of our
desires for energy.

OTEC offers one of the most compassionate power production technologies,
since the handling of hazardous substances is limited to the working fluid (e.g.,
ammonia), and no noxious by-products are generated. Through adequate planning
and coordination with the local community, recreational assets near an OTEC site
may be enhanced. OTEC is capital-intensive, and the very first plants will most
probably be small requiring a substantial capital investment. Given the relatively
low cost of crude oil and of fossil fuels in general, the development of OTEC
technologies is likely to be promoted by government agencies. Conventional power
plants pollute the environment more than an OTEC plant would and, as long as the
sun heats the oceans, the fuel for OTEC is unlimited and free.





REFERENCE
1. D. H. Johnson, Energy, Vol. 8, No. 20, pp. 927-946 (1983).
2. Claude G. (1930), "Power from the Tropical Seas" in Mechanical Engineering,
Vol. 52, No.12, 19, pp. 1039-1044.
3. Nihous G.C. and. Vega L.A (1991), "A Review of Some Semi-empirical OTEC
Effluent Discharge Models", in Oceans 91, Honolulu, Hawaii. [The OTEC
effluent models are summarized]
4. Ocean Thermal Corporation. (1984a), Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
(OTEC) Preliminary Design Engineering Report. Prepared for U, S, Department of
Energy, Washington, D.C.
5. Ocean Data Systems Inc. (1977). OTEC Thermal Resource Report for Hawaii
Monterey, CA: Ocean Data Systems, Inc.