ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

Lecture-53 : OTEC WORKING

ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

Contents
1.1 Learning Outcomes
1.2 The Open (Claude) Cycle
1.3 Modified OTEC Cycle
1.4 The Closed Cycle
ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

1.1 Learning Outcomes

 Concept and how electricity is generated through OTEC.

 Describe the challenges and problems associated with the use of
various energy resources, including fossil fuels, with regards to future
supply and the environment.

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ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

1.2 The Open (Claude) Cycle

The seawater play the role of heat source, working fluid, coolant and heat sink.

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ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

 Warm water at 27𝑜 C is admitted into an evaporator where pressure is maintained

slightly below the saturation pressure corresponding to warm water temperature.

 The steam from evaporator is superheated at pressure of 0.0317 bar. The water
undergoes volume boiling, water is partly flashed into steam.

 Process 1-2 is a constant enthalpy throttling process. The low pressure in the
evaporator is maintained by a vacuum pump which also removes the dissolved no
condensable gases from the evaporator.

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ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

 The steam at turbine exit is condensed in a direct

contact condenser where cold deep water at 13𝑜 C
is mixed with this steam and discharged into the ocean.

 The temperature difference of 10 degree Celsius (25-15)

is available for the cycle work. The plant has to handle
very large quantities of warm and cold water which
requires large pumping power and large heavy cold water pipes.

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ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

1.3 Modified OTEC Cycle

Certain change are proposed in the open OTEC Cycle to make it economically viable.
1. Controlled Flash Evaporator
2. OTEC Plant for cogeneration of electricity and freshwater.

1.3.1 Controlled Flash Evaporator (CFE)

A CFE chamber is a vertical vessel of 2.5 m height which is filled with a large no of
vertical parallel chutes.
The water flows on both side of chutes vaporizes without violent process of bubble
formation and bursting. Pure vapor free of entrained solids flows downwards. Both
brine and vapor cool down as they travel down the chutes.

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ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

 The pure low pressure steam enters the

steam turbine and expands to the condenser.

 The high quality of steam going to turbine is

well suited to electrical and fresh water cogeneration.

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ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

1.3.2 Cogeneration of Fresh Water and Electricity

A Surface condenser either shell and tube or plat type is used.

The deep cold water is pumped through the condenser and discharged back to the
ocean.
The turbine freshwater condensate is used for various uses.

When combined with a controlled flash evaporator, the quality of condensate is a

potable water with salt content of 1 to 5 ppm.
There is a slight reduction in efficiency due to slightly higher pressure and temperature
in the condenser as compared to the direct contact condenser.

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ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

1.4 The Closed OTEC Cycle

This is also called as Anderson cycle and uses Ammonia, Propane or Freon as the
working fluids for the Ranking cycle.
High pressure of working fluid results in a low specific volume and compact plant
and less cost. The problem of evaporator are also avoided. However, a large size heat
exchanger has to be used as a boiler to keep the temperature difference small.
An Anderson OTEC Power plant uses of propane with 20𝑜 𝐶 temperature difference
between warm surface and cool deep water.
The propane is vaporized in the boiler at 10 bar and exhausted in the and condenser
at 5 bar. It employees thin-plate type heat exchangers to minimize the amount of
material and cost.
The heat exchanger are placed at depth in the ocean where static pressure of water is
roughly equal to the pressure of the working fluid.

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ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering

ROE-086 RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES Unit-5

THANK YOU

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