Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Maritime University, Bangladesh

Department of Naval Architecture & Offshore Engineering

Assignment-2

Course Name: Offshore Renewable Energy

Course Code: MNAOE 6203

Submitted by: Submitted to:

MD. Rabbi Raihan Imon Dr. S M Rashidul Hasan
ID: 23412010 Assistant Professor
Department: MNAOE Department of Naval Architecture &
Batch: 1st Offshore Engineering (NAOE)

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University

Question:
To harness ocean thermal energy, we have to collect deep ocean water (1 km or more)
and surface ocean water to have minimum water temperature difference. Previous math
shows a 7.84% efficiency. Analyze Cost Effectiveness of business model.
Clue: You have to pull cold water from more than 1 km depth of water, let's say the
diameter of the pipe is 12 meter.

Solution:
Let,
OTEC plant output energy is 2MW capacity at tropical ocean area.

The assumed parameters for the problem are:

Surface Water temperature TH = 28 °C
Deep Water Temperature TC = 4.4 °C
Temperature Difference, ΔT = (TH - TC )
= (28 - 4.4) °C
= 23.6 °C
Specific heat of ocean water, Cp = 3.93 kj/kg °C
Efficiency of OTEC plant η = 7.84%
Density of water ρ = 998.7 kg/m3
Diameter of pump pipe D = 12 m
Output Power
Necessary Input Power to the plant =
η

2MW
=
0.0784
 = 25.51 MW

A high-performance pump is required to circulate cold deep for absorbing 25.51 MW

power from water.

Energy absorbed, Q = m×Cp×Δt [m is mass of water]

Q
Power, P= [ṁ is mass flow rate]
t
m
= ×Cp×Δt
t

= m ̇ ×Cp×Δt

P
Mass flow rate, ṁ =
Cp ×∆t

25.51×106 kg
=
3.39×103 ×23.6 s
kg
= 319
s

Mean velocity of water through the pipe:

ṁ 319
V= = 𝜋𝐷2
ρA 998.7×
4

319
= 3.1416×122
998.7×
4

= 0.0028 m/s

Required power of the pump to lift:

1
= ṁgh + mV2
2
 1
= (319×9.81×1000) + ( ×319×0.0028^2)
2

= 3129390 W
= 3.13 MW

From the calculation it is seen that, if we want to produce 2 MW of energy from this
OTEC system, we will need 3.13 MW capacity pump. It is not a desired situation. When
the energy consumption for the motor is almost 1.7 times of the energy production it will
be an unfeasible project. So, we can say, this business model is not effective.