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Chap 2
Chap 2
9
10 Chapter 2
Rio de Janeiro
Walvis Bay
Buenos Aires
Observing station
Current measurement
Figure 4. The Meteor made observations of water mass movement, water temperature, salinity
and plankton at 310 observing stations, as well as obtaining 14 bottom profiles and making a
number of balloon observations.
Iron
Aluminum
Nickel
Tin
Copper
Zinc
Lead
Gold
Silver
Mercury
Tunicates
Metal Refinery
Figure 5. Some marine organisms accumulate metals: tunicates concentrate out vanadium.
dArsonval, a French physicist, was the first person to think of exploiting the
oceans energy.
It is well known that the waters in deep seas and lakes are warmed up
only near the surface in summer, while their deeper parts remain cool.
Unfortunate accidents sometimes happen when someone dives into a lake in
the mountains: deceived by the temperature at the surface into believing the
water is warm, they are shocked by the cold deeper down, and die of a heart
attack. Generally sea-waters in tropical zones also have a significant
temperature difference between their surface and their depths; there, it is
constant throughout the year because of the high atmospheric temperature all
year round.
In 1881, Dr. dArsonval proposed generating electricity using the
temperature difference between the sea surface and its lower depths which,
in tropical zones, is about 30 degrees Celsius. This was a unique idea, and
at first it drew some public attention; but 1881 happened to be the year the
first thermal power plant started operation in the United States. No one
believed that a temperature difference of only thirty degrees could generate
electricity like the high temperatures that were used, by burning coal, to
produce the steam to drive the turbines in a power station. No one even
attempted to experiment with this idea.
It would probably be best to explain here how electricity can be
generated by exploiting the oceans temperature difference. It is actually
quite a simple principle.
Ocean Water and Its Wonderful Potential 13
Generally water boils at 100 degrees Celsius, but this happens only
when the atmospheric pressure is exactly 1, on land near sea level. At the
summit of a high mountain like Mt. Fuji (3,776m), the rarity of the atmosphere
means that the atmospheric pressure is only 0.62, and water boils at only 86
degrees. Therefore, because the water temperature does not go high enough,
rice cannot be cooked well at the top of Mt. Fuji.
This means that water could boil and turn to steam at, say, 30 degrees
Celsius if atmospheric pressure was sufficiently low. Electricity would be
generated if that steam was sent to a turbine to turn a generator. On land near
sea level, the air in a chamber could be reduced to create low pressure, and
then water in the chamber would boil. But the steam made in this way would
turn the turbine only once. The turbine would turn continuously only if such
a condition could be repeatedly produced.
For this purpose, the steam must be turned into water again after turning
the turbine, so that it can be boiled over again. It is easy turning steam into
water. In winter, the water vapor in a warm room is condensed by contact
with the cold glass of a window, and water drops drip down the window.
This is the same principle: air containing water vapor should be cooled
down.
Dr. dArsonval thought that generation of electricity would be possible
by utilizing warm sea-water for boiling water, and cool deep ocean water
(DOW) for cooling it down. In other words, the solar energy stored up in sea-
water could be exploited in the form of electricity.
It is a common misconception that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius
everywhere, since we live normally under conditions of one atmospheric
pressure. The idea of generating electricity by temperature difference seems
strange, because we often do not consider the effects of pressure differences.
It is another misconception that every liquid boils at 100 degrees Celsius. At
one atmospheric pressure, ethyl-alcohol, for example, boils at 78 degrees
14 Chapter 2
Celsius, ammonia at 33.5 degrees Celsius below zero, and propane at 42.1
degrees Celsius below zero.
Dr. dArsonvals idea received attention again in the twentieth century.
In one Italian journal a scientific paper entitled Utilization of Solar Heat
appeared: it discussed the utilization of the temperature difference in lake
water. In a deep lake in northern Italy, there is a 16-degree temperature
difference in summer, since its surface temperature rises to 24 degrees
Celsius, while the temperature at the bottom remains at 8 degrees Celsius. A
cost estimation was made for operating an electric generator of 14,000
kilowatts, utilizing such a temperature difference. This would be the first
attempt to estimate the cost of thermal difference generation.
Another paper was published by an American engineer in the journal
Engineering News. In this paper, he discussed the problem of the insufficient
density of the steam produced by sea-water in order to turn a generator. It
is certainly true that steam produced under low pressure is poor, just like air
at high altitudes. Thus, compared with steam produced at a pressure of one
atmosphere, such steam would require an enormous turbine for generating
the same amount of power.
Therefore, in this paper he proposed using some other high vapor
density liquid rather than water in a low pressure chamber. Since high vapor
density liquid turns into a heavy gas, he proposed using propane or ammonia.
Water turns into only 0.337 grams of vapor when it boils at 32 degrees
Celsius under low pressure in a one-liter flask, while on the other hand, the
respective figures for methane, ammonia, propane, and fluorine (i.e.,
chlorofluorocarbon) are 0.64 grams, 0.69 grams, 1.81 grams, and 4.55 grams
under the same conditions. Even air turns into 1.16 grams.
In other words, such liquids are boiled with warm sea-water to produce
vapors heavier than steam, and once these vapors have done their job of
turning a turbine, they are condensed back into liquid form by cold sea-
water. This cycle of boiling, condensing and then boiling again uses sea-
water indirectly on some other substance. It is known as a closed cycle,
and has been successfully developed. A cycle that actually turns water into
steam is called an open cycle.
French newspaper: Paris Presse. With the press in other countries taking
up the story, the worlds attention was attracted.
The British journal The Engineer reported on November 20, 1926:
The wheel of an ordinary Laval turbine, 15cm. diameter, was
mounted with its spindle vertical inside a glass flask and arranged
to drive a tiny dynamo. The bottom of the glass contained lumps
of ice, and air could be exhausted from it by a vacuum pump
connected to the upper portion. Another flask, containing 25 litres
of water at a temperature of 28 degree Celsius, was provided with
an outlet in the form of a pipe which entered the first flask and
terminated in a nozzle just above the blading of the turbine wheel.
When the system was exhausted of air the water in the second flask
boiled, its vapour passing away through the pipe and driving the
turbine wheel. After leaving the wheel the vapour was condensed
by the ice in the bottom of the flask. It is said that the turbine wheel
was driven by this means at a speed of 5000 revolutions per minute,
and enough power was obtained from the dynamo to light three
little electric lamps for eight to ten minutes, after which the water
had been cooled to 20 degree Celsius or so by its evaporation and
apparently refused to boil any longer.
This was the first successful experiment to produce electricity from a
small thermal difference. Although it was really a primitive one, it aroused
public interest in thermal difference power generation, which came to be
called in English Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, or OTEC. Generation
ceased soon after the experiment was stopped, but it could have continued if
16 Chapter 2
Vacuum pump
Generator Nozzle
Steam
Lamps Turbine
Ice
the warm water had kept its temperature and cooling had been done
continuously with cold water. This is the principle of the open-cycle model:
supplying warm water continuously to produce steam (the vaporizer) and
cold water to condense the steam back to water (the condenser) (Figure 9).
At a press conference after his experiment, Professor Claude provided
the following figures: The surface temperature of tropical seas is generally
Water vapor
Evaporator
Discharge
Figure 9. An open-cycle
Ocean Water and Its Wonderful Potential 17
Turbogenerator
Condenser
Fresh water
Condenser Discharge
Liberia Ghana
Abidjan
Gulf of Guinea
Warm water
To Abidjan lagoon
Figure 11. Abidjan, the capital of the West African nation of Cte dIvoire, is located about
6N and 4W.
Figure 12. Abidjan Project, intake pipe. For scale, see a person standing at bottom right.
pump up cold DOW through a tunnel, thereby avoiding the use of unstable
intake pipes. But he was obliged to abandon this idea, brilliant though it was,
for reasons of cost and the great risks involved in tunnel construction. He
also had to revise output from the originally planned 40,000 kilowatts to a
less ambitious 15,000.
Cold water would be pumped up from 430 meters deep; for this, a pipe
four kilometers (4,000 meters) long would be necessary (Figure 12). He
planned to connect sections of metal pipe with durable rubber joints, and
suspend his pipeline in the sea with special floats. Forty-two tons of 30-
degree Celsius surface water and 14 tons of 8-degree Celsius deep water
would have to be pumped up every second to achieve the target of 15,000
kilowatts. To meet this condition, it was estimated that 4,000 kilowatts
would be required for pumping up the water, and 1,000 kilowatts for
removing gases from the air and sea-water.
The generator turbine was to be 14.25 meters in diameter and to operate
at 332 revolutions per minute (Figure 13). Professor Claude also hoped to
condense 14,000 tons of water per day by cooling the steam that had turned
the turbine, and by preventing it from mixing with sea-water, produce the
added bonus of usable fresh water. He also thought of extracting salt,
magnesium and bromine from condensed warm water after evaporation, and
to use the remaining cold water for cooling. The pumping system for cold
water would take up 55% of the construction cost.
The French government was interested in Professor Claudes project
and offered it joint support and promotion: in 1948 an organization named
Energie des Mers (Energy from the Seas) was set up. This organization
Ocean Water and Its Wonderful Potential 21
Turbine Generator
Evaporator
Evaporator
Flow of water
vapor Warm
surface
water
Italian engineers Dornig and Boggia. This ignorance, he claimed, had been
fortunate, for he might not have embarked on his attempts if he had known
someone else was already concerned. A well-trodden path, he said, is not
attractive to an inventor.
There is an important message here for all scientists.
set up a plan to build an OTEC plant in the Pacific island Republic of Nauru,
and in 1973 surveyed the geographical features of the planned site, sea
conditions and climate. The fact that the power generated was actually used
for normal purposes means that this was the worlds first practical OTEC
power plant. The story will be described later.
Japan was badly hit by the oil shock, or energy crisis, of 1973, in which
the price of oil soared after concerted action by the oil-exporting countries.
The following year the Sunshine Project was started up by the Industrial
Technology Agency of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
(MITI) to develop new energy sources.
This project was initiated by the government to examine alternative
energy sources to fuel and atomic energy and to exploit any viable ones. A
Figure 16. #2 experimental closed-cycle OTEC generator at the Institute for Comprehensive
Electronic Technology
Ocean Water and Its Wonderful Potential 25
decision was made to utilize solar energy, geothermal energy, coal energy
and hydrogen energy, and to research and develop technology for exploiting
them. Other potential energy sources remained as subjects for
comprehensive study. These were new energy sources whose immediate
practicality was not clear, but which appeared to have potential for the
future.
OTEC was classified for comprehensive study at this early stage of
the Sunshine Project since it was considered an unrealistic idea. However,
serious research was started because it was included in the project. Many
Imari #3, completed in 1985, currently Saga Universitys main experimental generator
Imari #3 turbine, using ammonia as its working fluid. The generator is at back right.
Figure 17
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Keahole Pt
Island of Hawaii
Figure 18. Hawaii, the largest volcanic island of the Hawaiian Islands
Ocean Water and Its Wonderful Potential 27
Diesel generator
for starter Cold water pump
Turbine generator
Figure 19. Mini-OTEC. The water intake pipe is located in the ships bottom, and cannot
be seen in this figure.
cycle, and Nos. 3 to 5 produced 1,000 to 1,200 watts. The university also
constructed experimental systems, Imari Nos. 1 and 2, on the coast in Imari
city. Imari No. 2, completed in 1980, is capable of generating 50 kilowatts
and as an actual operating OTEC system has been used for various
experiments. For Imari No. 3, see Figure 17.
American Attempts
While all previous experiments had been basic, elementary ones, the
experiment named Mini-OTEC carried out off Hawaii Island from August
to November 1979 aimed to produce surplus electric power beyond just what
was necessary to operate the pumps and other components of the system
itself (Figure 18). This experiment was implemented by the State Government
of Hawaii in cooperation with enterprises including Lockheed and the
Dillingham Corporation. After preparations lasting 13 months and
expenditure of $3 million, a 268-ton raft 37 meters long and 10 meters wide
was positioned off Keahole Point where the sea was 1300 meters deep
(Figure19). A generator with ammonia as the working fluid was installed,
and a 60-cm diameter polyethylene tube (57.5 cm in inner diameter) was
used as the cold water intake. The experiment succeeded in generating 53.6
kilowatts of electricity by pumping up 50 liters per second of about 5-degree
Celsius cold water from a depth of 650 meters. The system used 35.1
kilowatts to operate its own water pumps, so that its net output was 18.5
kilowatts. This corresponds to 34.5% of the total output of the generator.
Governor Ariyoshi of the State of Hawaii was delighted with the
success of this experiment, comparing it to the first flight by the Wright
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Helicopter deck
Cold water pump Environmental laboratory
and control room
Thruster
Mixed cold and warm
water discharge
Evaporator
Cold water pipe
Condenser
Warm water intake
Japan
Taiwan
The Phirippines
Republic of Nauru
Plant location
Figure 21. The island Republic of Nauru is located just south of the Equator. The plant
location is about 16655E.
closed cycle and those with ammonia as the working fluid, and other
technology is improved.
Figure 22. View of the Nauru OTEC plant. Three pipes extend into the sea: one each for
DOW intake, surface water intake, and discharge.
However, it was estimated in 1983 that guano reserves had fallen to no more
than 38 million tons, which would be exhausted by the end of the twentieth
century if extraction continued at the rate of 2 million tons per year.
The sea surrounding Nauru plunges at a steep angle of 40 degrees
toward the open ocean, and what is more, water from a depth of only 500
meters is an impressive 20 degrees Celsius cooler than water at the surface.
These two factors alone provide the great advantage of the need for only a
short intake pipe. The islands are hardly ever hit by typhoons, winds are
light and the waves are not so high; the islanders are friendly toward Japan.
All of this made the islands ideal for the experiment.
The photo shows an overview of the whole OTEC station (Figure 22).
A generator was situated on land and was designed to generate 100 kilowatts
with fluorine-22 as the working fluid. The intake pipe for cold water was
70 cm in inner diameter. Twenty-two tons per minute of cold water were
pumped up from a depth of about 580 meters, 1250 meters off-coast, and 24
tons per minute of surface water were pumped every minute from 150 meters
off-coast. A maximum of 120 kilowatts of electricity was generated. Out
of this power, about 90 kilowatts was used at the plant, and the rest was
supplied to a local elementary school and other places in Nauru. The first
day OTEC electricity was delivered to that school in Nauru was 14 October
1981.