Energy from Ocean

Prof C V Reddy, Ph.D

 Energy from Ocean

• Energy is available from the ocean by

– Using the ocean as a heat engine
– Tidal energy
– Wave energy & Tapping ocean currents
The ocean as a heat engine - OTEC

• There can be a 20°C difference between ocean

surface temps and the temp at 1000m.
• The surface acts as the heat source, the deeper
cold water acts as a heat sink.
• Temperature differences are very steady
• Called OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion)
 Types of OTEC
1. Closed-Cycle or Andersons Cycle,
2. Open Cycle or Claude Cycle & 3. Hybrid Cycle

Closed cycle system

• Heat from warm seawater
causes a fluid like ammonia
to be evaporated in an
evaporator
• Expanding vapor rotates a
turbine connected to an
electric generator.
• Cold seawater is brought up
and cools the ammonia
vapor in a condenser. This
liquid returns to the
evaporator and the process
repeats.
 Types of OTECs
Open Cycle Systems
• Working fluid is the
seawater.
• Warm seawater is
brought into a partial
vacuum.
• In the vacuum, the warm
seawater boils and the
steam drives a turbine
• The steam enters a
condenser, where it is
cooled by cold seawater
brought up form below
and it condenses back
into liquid and is
discharged into the
ocean.
 Hybrid systems
•Hybrid systems combine the features of both the
closed- cycle and open-cycle systems.
•In a hybrid system, warm seawater enters a vacuum
chamber where it is flash-evaporated into steam,
similar to the open-cycle evaporation process.
•The steam vaporizes a low-boiling-point fluid (in a
closed-cycle loop) that drives a turbine to produces
electricity.
 Boiling Water in a Vacuum
• The boiling point of any liquid depends upon
temperature and pressure.
• Boiling occurs when the molecules in the liquid
have enough energy to break free from
surrounding molecules
• If you reduce the pressure, you reduce the amount
of energy needed for the molecules to break free.
• Creating a vacuum reduces the air pressure on the
molecules and lowers the boiling point.
 OTECs
• Carnot Efficiency is low, only about 7%
• Net efficiency even lower, only about 2.5%
• Low efficiencies require large water volumes
to produce appreciable amount of electricity
• For 100 MW output, you would need 25 X 106
liters/sec of warm and cold water.
• For a 40 MW plant, a 10 meter wide intake
pipe is needed. This is the size of a traffic
tunnel.
OTEC Plant on Keahole Point, Hawaii
 Other uses for OTEC plants

• Generate Hydrogen for use as a clean fuel

source.
• Generate fertilizer from biological nutrients
that are drawn up from the ocean floor in the
cold water intake.
• Source of ocean water to be used as drinking
water via desalination (taking out the salt).
 Advantages
• Eco- friendly
• Minimal maintenance costs compared to other power production
plants.
• Provide air conditioning to buildings within the OTEC plant.
• Fresh water - first by-product is fresh water. A small 1 MW OTEC is
capable of producing some 4,500 cubic meters of fresh water per
day, enough to supply a population of 20,000 with fresh water
• Open cycle OTEC systems can produce desalinated water which is
very important in middleast countries.
• Chilled soil agriculture- cold seawater flowing through underground pipes,
chills the surrounding soil. Thereby allowing many plants evolved in
temperate to be grown in subtropics due to temp. difference in the plant
roots in cool soil and plant leaves in warm air
 Advantages- Continued
•Mineral Extraction – OTEC helps in mining ocean water
for 57 trace elements.

Most economic analyses have suggested that mining the ocean for
trace elements would be unprofitable as so much energy is
required to pump the large volume of water needed and because of
the expense involved in separating the minerals from seawater.

But in OTEC plants already pumping the water, the only remaining
economic challenge is to minimize the cost of the extraction process.
 Tides
• So the moon and Earth exert a force of gravity
on each other. The motion of the moon
around the Earth counteracts the Earth’s pull,
so the moon does not fall into the Earth.
• The moon’s pull on the Earth causes any
material that can flow on the Earth’s surface,
like large bodies of water, to pile up
underneath the moon.
 Tides
• The sun also causes tides the Earth, thought the
effect is small, unless the sun and moon line up
and work together (Spring tide) or are at right
angles to each other and work against each other
(neap tides).
• In areas where there are natural basins on the
coastline, water flows in and out of these basins.
• So there are regular, predictable motions in the
oceans which could be used as an energy source.
 Tidal Energy

• Most of the energy sources we have been discussing

derived their energy from the sun originally.
• Tides are driven by gravity
• Gravity is a force that exists between any two objects
based upon their mass and the distance between
them.
• Newton’s Law of Gravitational Force: Fg = GmM/R2
where M and m are the masses of the two objects, R is
the distance between them and G is the gravitational
constant = 6.67300 × 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2
 Capturing Tidal Power
• Dams or barrage with gates are usually built
across the mouth of basins
• This allows the current to be directed into the
turbines and enhances the effect.
Rance River Tidal Power station in France
 Current and Future tidal power stations

• Rance River, France 240MW

• White sea, Russia 1 MW
• Annapolis River, Nova Scotia, Canada, 18MW
• Two most favorable sites in the US: Cook Inlet
and Bristol Bay in Alaska and Bay of Funday which
covers the Northeastern US and southeastern
Canada.
• Development of the Bay of Funday would provide
15,000MW to the northeastern US and
15,000MW to Canada.
Bay of Fundy
 Eling Mill
• The mill was included in the Domesday Survey
of 1086 (Domesday Survey - , which took an
inventory of who owned what throughout the
country on England’. Max output included two
wheels with four stones).
• Originally milled four tons of flour each day at
maximum output
• Rebuilt many times, but operates in the same
manner
Eling Mill – How it Works
 Eling Mill

Tide Pond
Tide Mill

The Sea
 Power
• Power: P = Cp x 0.5 x ρ x A x V³
• Cp is the turbine coefficient of performance
• P = the power generated (in watts)
• ρ = the density of the water (seawater is 1025kg/m³)
• A = the sweep area of the turbine (in m²)
• V³ = the velocity of the flow cubed (i.e. V x V x V)
 Environmental Issues
• Alters the flow of saltwater in and out of estuaries, which changes the hydrology and
salinity and possibly negatively affects the marine mammals that use the estuaries as
their habitat.
• Some species lost their habitat due to La Rance’s construction, but other species
colonized the abandoned space, which caused a shift in diversity.
• Turbidity (the amount of matter in suspension in the water) decreases as a result of
smaller volume of water being exchanged between the basin and the sea. This lets light
from the Sun to penetrate the water further, improving conditions for the
phytoplankton. The changes propagate up the food chain, causing a general change in
the ecosystem.
• If the turbines are moving slowly enough, such as low velocities of 25-50 rpm, fish kill is
minimalized and silt and other nutrients are able to flow through the structures . Tidal
fences block off channels, which makes it difficult for fish and wildlife to migrate
through those channels. Larger marine mammals such as seals or dolphins can be
protected from the turbines by fences or a sonar sensor auto-breaking system that
automatically shuts the turbines down when marine mammals are detected
• As a result of less water exchange with the sea, the average salinity inside the basin
decreases, also affecting the ecosystem
• Estuaries often have high volume of sediments moving through them, from the rivers to
the sea. The introduction of a barrage into an estuary may result in sediment
accumulation within the barrage, affecting the ecosystem and also the operation of the
barrage.
 Innovative Strategies

• Tidal Lagoons
– Artificial lagoons with high walls.
– Lagoon fills and empties through apertures, turbines
are spun and generate electricity
– doesn’t disturb current environmental conditions as
much and expands locations by only requiring large
tidal variations (as opposed to that and proper natural
landforms).
 Wave Energy
• It is estimated that there is 2-3 million MW of
energy in the waves breaking on the world
coastlines, with energies derived ultimately
form the wind.
• In Great Britain alone, almost twice the
current electricity demand breaks on the
countries coastlines every day.
• A vast untapped resource, but how to harness
it?
 How are Waves Formed
• As wind blows along the surface
of a body of water, a surface
wave develops.
• As the wind blows, pressure and
friction forces perturb the
equilibrium of the water surface
• These forces transfer energy
from the air to the water, forming
waves.
• The water molecules actually
move in circular motion
• When a wave can no longer
support its top, it collapses or
breaks.
• Usually happens when a wave
reaches shallow water, such as
near a coastline.
 Harnessing the energy

• Limpet (Land Installed Marine Powered Energy

Transformer)
• Breakwater Design
• PowerBuoys
• Pelamis
 LIMPET
• Limpet
• Takes the wave into a
funnel and drives air
pressure past two
turbines, each of which
turns a 250 kW
generator.
• Installed on the island
of Islay, off Scotland’s
west coast.
 Breakwater
• Installed where there would
normally be a breakwater
• a series of layered
‘reservoirs’ up a carefully
calculated slope.
• This is then converted to
kinetic energy (by falling
down), and this turns the
turbine/generator.
• A 500m breakwater can
produce respectable 150
kW generator capacity
• Only in design phase, non of
these up and running yet