OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION AND MODIFICATIONS

OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION AND MODIFICATIONS

Abstract:

Since the advent of human civilization, the energy requirements of the society have been ever increasing and will continue for ages as long as the humanity survives and thrives for excellence.

The search for alternatives continues as soon as the available source is on the verge of extinction and this is the quest
which forces the inner urge of development to come out with a permanent solution. This quest has drawn the attention towards the everlasting renewable sources of energy.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is one of the renewable sources of energy, which is currently passing through the stages of its infancy. The design of systems that are in use nowadays, require a large amount of capital for initiation as well as running and maintenance of the plants. The economic considerations have put a check on the practical viability of the OTEC systems despite of the vast potential that OTEC has got.

This paper concentrates on a few of the drawbacks that are present in existing OTEC systems. The aim of the paper is to enhance the efficiency of the systems by

a) Reducing the parasitic power used which give rise to many of the problems.
b) Increasing the temperature difference across by superheating.
c) Using highly effective and efficient heat exchangers.

Discussed in a more detailed manner. Novel technological domains like Heat Pipe Technology and Parabolic Concentrators have been explored and studied to check the feasibility of the suggested modifications in order to improve the economy of the system. At a later stage, the methods of implementation and the requirements to overcome the drawbacks have been explained in brief. The resulting system after the modifications will have an improved thermodynamic efficiency approximately twice that of the present ones along with several advantages as discussed in the paper.

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