An estimate of Atlantic Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) resources

Nihous, Gérard C.

doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2007.06.004

Cited by 55 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Under this scenario, OTEC resources would actually have a maximum. This was shown in simple onedimensional models of the water column with OTEC [4][5][6], where it was also suggested that the environmental rate of deep water formation was a natural scale for cold seawater globally used in OTEC plants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The same procedure is adopted to determine effluent salinity. Following earlier modeling protocols [4][5][6][7], the vertical location of the effluent source is selected where it would be neutrally buoyant just before OTEC flow singularities are turned on in the model. Given limitations from the numerical discretization of the water column, this yields discharge water depths of the order of 50-250 m throughout the OTEC region, i.e., generally greater than in actual systems for which economical constraints would be strong.…”

Section: Otec Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has led to a wide range of estimates given, more often than not, with little justification and a tendency to exaggerate [4]. A key issue highlighted in a series of early modeling studies [4][5][6] is whether or not OTEC seawater flow rates could affect the thermal stratification of the ocean on which the process depends. Since OTEC net power production is a very sensitive function of the available thermal resource, of the order of 15% per 1 C, a very dense deployment of OTEC systems might be self-limiting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, an ocean surface cooling in areas of large-scale OTEC deployment has long been postulated [25,26]. It was later demonstrated in simple onedimensional models [4][5][6], but only as a transient phenomenon.…”

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confidence: 99%

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An Assessment of Global Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Resources With a High-Resolution Ocean General Circulation Model

Rajagopalan¹,

Nihous

2013

Journal of Energy Resources Technology

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Global rates of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) are assessed with a highresolution (1 deg Â 1 deg) ocean general circulation model (OGCM). In numerically intensive simulations, the OTEC process is represented by a pair of sinks and a source of specified strengths placed at selected water depths across the oceanic region favorable for OTEC. Results broadly confirm earlier estimates obtained with a coarse (4 deg Â 4 deg) OGCM, but with the greater resolution and more elaborate description of key physical oceanic mechanisms in the present case, the massive deployment of OTEC systems appears to affect the global environment to a relatively greater extent. The maximum global OTEC power production drops to 14 TW, or about half of previously estimated levels, but it would be achieved with only one-third as many OTEC systems. Environmental effects at maximum OTEC power production are generally similar in both sets of simulations. The oceanic surface layer would cool down in tropical OTEC regions with a compensating warming trend elsewhere. Some heat would penetrate the ocean interior until the environment reaches a new steady state. A significant boost of the oceanic thermohaline circulation (THC) would occur. Although all simulations with given OTEC flow singularities were run for 1000 years to ensure stabilization of the system, convergence to a new equilibrium was generally achieved much faster, i.e., roughly within a century. With more limited OTEC scenarios, a global OTEC power production of the order of 7 TW could still be achieved without much effect on ocean temperatures.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Otec Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Assessment of Global Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Resources With a High-Resolution Ocean General Circulation Model

Rajagopalan¹,

Nihous

2013

Journal of Energy Resources Technology

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“…The development of ocean resources can be the final solution to some global science and engineering issues such as the study of origin of life, development of new resources, the improvement of human living condition, social sustainable development and so on (Jiang, 2000;Chen, Yang, Gu and Ye, 2003;Wang, Yuan, Li and Jiao, 2011;Nihous, 2007;Izadparast and Niedzwecki, 2011). However, the underwater environment (e.g., high pressure) makes underwater resource exploration quite challenging, especially in deep sea.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the pressure self-adaptive water-tight junction box in underwater vehicle

Huang¹,

Ye²,

Leng³

et al. 2012

International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineeri

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Underwater vehicles play a very important role in underwater engineering. Water-tight junction box (WJB) is one of the key components in underwater vehicle. This paper puts forward a pressure self-adaptive water-tight junction box (PSAWJB) which improves the reliability of the WJB significantly by solving the sealing and pressure problems in conventional WJB design. By redundancy design method, the pressure self-adaptive equalizer (PSAE) is designed in such a way that it consists of a piston pressure-adaptive compensator (PPAC) and a titanium film pressureadaptive compensator (TFPAC). According to hydro-mechanical simulations, the operating volume of the PSAE is morethan or equal to 11.6 % of the volume of WJB liquid system. Furthermore, the required operating volume of the PSAE also increases as the gas content of oil, hydrostatic pressure or temperature difference increases. The reliability of the PSAWJB is proved by hyperbaric chamber tests.

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Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion: A Historical Perspective

Nihous¹,

Gauthier²

2012

Marine Renewable Energy Handbook

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An estimate of Atlantic Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) resources

Cited by 55 publications

References 13 publications

An Assessment of Global Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Resources With a High-Resolution Ocean General Circulation Model

An Assessment of Global Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Resources With a High-Resolution Ocean General Circulation Model

Study on the pressure self-adaptive water-tight junction box in underwater vehicle

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion: A Historical Perspective

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