Module-5

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

What is OTEC?
 OTEC, or Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, is an energy
technology that converts solar radiation to electric power.

 OTEC systems use the ocean's natural thermal gradient—the fact that the
ocean's layers of water have different temperatures—to drive a power-
producing cycle.

 As long as the temperature between the warm surface water and the
cold deep water differs by about 20°C (36°F), an OTEC system can
produce a significant amount of power with a maximum Carnot
Efficiency of about 6.7%

OTEC POWER PLANTS

a) Open-Cycle (Claude Cycle):

Open-cycle OTEC uses the tropical oceans' warm surface water to make
electricity. When warm seawater is placed in a low-pressure container, it
boils. The expanding steam drives a low-pressure turbine attached to an
electrical generator. The steam, which has left its salt behind in the low-
pressure container, is almost pure fresh water. It is condensed back into
a liquid by exposure to cold temperatures from deep-ocean water.
 In this scheme, warm surface water at around 27 °C (81 °F) enters
an evaporator at pressure slightly below the saturation pressure causing
it to vaporize.

b) Closed-Cycle (Rankine cycle)

Closed-cycle systems use fluid with a low-boiling point, such

as ammonia, to rotate a turbine to generate electricity. Here's how it works.
Warm surface seawater is pumped through a heat exchanger where the low-
boiling-point fluid is vaporized. The expanding vapor turns the turbo-
generator. Then, cold, deep seawater—pumped through a second heat
exchanger—condenses the vapor back into a liquid, which is then recycled
through the system.

c) Hybrid System:

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.
Advantages:

 Low Environmental Impact The distinctive feature of OTEC energy

systems is that the end products include not only energy in the form of
electricity, but several other synergistic products.
 Fresh Water The 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.
 Food A further by-product is nutrient rich cold water from the deep
ocean. The cold "waste" water from the OTEC is utilized in two ways.
Primarily the cold water is discharged into large contained ponds, near
shore or on land, where the water can be used for multi-species Mari
culture (shellfish and shrimp) producing harvest yields which far surpass
naturally occurring cold water upwelling zones, just like agriculture on
land.

 Minerals OTEC may one day provide a means to mine ocean water for 57
trace elements. Most economic analyses have suggested that mining the
ocean for dissolved substances would be unprofitable because so much
energy is required to pump the larg volume of water needed and because of
the expense involved in separating the minerals from seawater. But with
OTEC plants already pumping the water, the only remaining economic
challenge is to reduce the cost of the extraction process.

OTEC Power Stations in the World

In 1882, DArsonval Suggested that power could be produced due to
temperature difference in the oceans. In 1926, Georges Claude, a French scientist
constructed a land based plant at Mantanzas Bay, Cuba. The complete power generation
was started in 1929. The plant was designed for 40 kW and it was producing 22kW due to
various problems. Such several plants were built in France after Second World War.
In India, a project cell is formed at IIT, Chennai and a 1MW OTEC plant was
established on eastern side of Lakshadeep Island.

Problems Associated with OTEC

1. The losses are more, as OTEC requires power for pumping up cold water
2. Extraction of energy is difficult, costly and less efficient.
 Geothermal Energy

Geothermal Energy Conversion

The heat obtained from high pressure steam in the earth's crust is called geothermal
energy It is the natural heat of the earth. It is a high potential renewable source of
energy. It is to be noted that, temperature increases with increasing depth. The
geothermal gradient i.e., the rate at which temperature varies with depth is almost
gradual. The normal temperature gradients range from 8°-15°C per kilometer depth.
The temperature at the earth's center is around 310°C and the average temperature at a
depth of 10km is approximately equal to 200°C.

It is found that, about 94% of the earth is molten. At depths greater than 25 to 40 km.
molten rock which is very hot or partially molten is present. These molten rocks are
known as "Magma". In some places Magma maybe push up towards the Earth surface
and in places where active volcanoes present the Magma reaches the surface. By
drilling deep holes, it is possible to tap geothermal energy from any point provided a
passage for heat transfer fluid and for extracting heat. It total of around 1500 to
2000MW of 4 is being generated in the world from geothermal source which is
contributing less towards the world’s electrical needs
 The figure shows a typical geothermal field. It consists of magma heat source at
7 to 15 km depth and this molten mass solidifies into igneous rock. The hot magma
transfer heat to this igneous rock by conduction. Ground water in contact with this
rock through fissures will be heated due to heat transfer from the rock or by mixing
with hot gases and steam coming from magma. The heated water flows up
convectively in to a porous and permeable reservoir. This porous reservoir exists
above the igneous rock. A layer of impermeable solid rock exists above the porous
reservoir as shown in figure. This layer or impermeable solid rock traps hot water
from the reservoir. The fissures present in the solid rock forms vent for the giant
underground boiler. On the surface, the vents are shown as fumaroles and hot spring.
A well on the surface taps steam from fissures and this steam is used in geothermal
power plant. The steam thus formed is in two forms, one is the steam generated from
magma itself and is called magmatic steam and other is steam generated from ground
water due to heating of magma and is called meteoritic steam. Some geothermal
sources may contain only hot rock or only hot water (no steam formation). Therefore,
three kinds of geothermal sources are described
1) Hydro thermal 2) Geo-pressured and 3) Petro-thermal.

Geothermal sources
There are five kinds of geothermal sources
1. Hydro thermal convective systems
a. Dry steam fields or Vapor dominated
b. Wet Steam fields or Liquid dominated system
c. Binary cycle or Hot water fields
2. Geo-pressure resources
3. Petro-thermal or hot dry rocks (HDR)
4. Magma resources
5. Volcanoes

1. Hydro thermal systems: In this type, water gets heated by making contact with hot
rock.

a) Vapor dominated systems (Dry steam open system):

This system is best suitable for electric power generation as steam from the
geothermal field is directly fed to the steam turbine for power generation. The arrangement
of the components is as shown in figure. Dry steam from the wells and approximately at
about 200°C, is collected, and liquid particles, suspended solids etc., are filtered by passing
through centrifugal separators Then the steam is expanded in a turbine to generate electric
power)

Then the exhaust from the steam turbine passes through a condenser and condensate
is pumped back to the hot field. The system suffers from the problems of corrosive gases
and erosive material and environmental problems. The Geysers plant in USA and
Larderello in Italy are of this type plants.
 b) Wet Steam fields or Liquid dominated system

In these systems, the hot water at a temperature of 175°C to 315°C is trapped

from the underground. The water in the reservoir remains in the liquid state due to high
pressure. But when water reaches surface, a sudden pressure drop results in rapid boiling
and hence liquid water flashes into a mixture of hot water and steam and the mixture is
liquid dominated. The power can be generated by allowing steam to expand in a turbine
and separated hot water may serve the purpose of space heating and other similar
applications.
The arrangements of the components are as shown in figure. The water at high
temperature is trapped from hot well and is flashed in a flash chamber. The liquid
dominated (low quality) mixture is throttled in the flash chamber and separated dry steam
enters into a steam turbine for power generation. The condensed steam with brine
separated in the flash chamber is again pumped back to the geothermal field.

Limitations:

1. The presence of dissolved solids results in scaling of pipes and heat exchanger surfaces.
This decreases flow as well as heat transfer.
2. The water temperature and pressure may not be sufficient to produce flash steam.
3. Corrosion problems in piping, well casing and conduits are more.

c) Liquid dominated systems: Binary cycles

Basically, it is a Rankine cycle and consists of an organic working fluid. The Binary Cycle
concept isolates turbine from all corrosive and erosive materials. The arrangement of the
components is as shown in figure, A primary heat exchanger facilitates transfer of heat
from hot brine or steam to an organic fluid (Isobutene) thus converting it to a superheated
vapor. The superheated vapor is then expanded in a turbine which is coupled to a generator
to produce electric power. The exhaust from the turbine is cooled in a regenerative heat
exchanger and condensed organic liquid is sent back to the primary heat exchanger. The
binary cycle consists of hot geothermal fluid and organic fluid. The use of two fluids
eliminates corrosion and scaling problems.

2. Geo Pressure Resources: In these resources, high temperature and high pressure water
(or brine) is present in the reservoir. A substantial amount of methane (CH, -Natural gas) is
dissolved in the pressurized water. When pressure decreases, this methane will be released.
Geopressured water is at 160°C and under high pressure and is tapped at depths ranging
from 2400 to 9000m and it could be used for power generation.
3) Hot dry rock (Petro thermal system): It is a type of concentrated geothermal energy in
which hot solid rocks occurring at moderate depths contains heat. Either due to absence of
ground water or due to low permeability of rock (or both), water does not have access to
these hot rocks. The heat is to be transferred to the surface by artificially injected water
through specially formed paths. In addition, the rock may be fractured to utilize this energy
resource. This allows water to make good contact with hot rock and the resulting hot water
or steam is used at the surface. The temperature of HDR ranges from 150 to 300°C. The
temperature gradients of HDR range from 150-180°C per kilometer.

4) Magma resources (Magmatic or molten rock chamber systems): The geothermal

energy content of these resources is large, but these resources are restricted to very few
locations. These magma resources are made up of partially or completely molten rock at
temperature greater than 650°C and exist especially in recently active volcanic regions.
The extraction of energy is a difficult task due to high temperature. The heat extraction
from hot magma at temperature of about 1450°C is studied and estimated that the operation
of a 100MW plant would require 400 m² of heat exchanger surface area at a heat extraction
rate of 250 kW/m².

Geothermal plants in the world:

Many countries have developed the technology for power generation from
geothermal source Italy, USA and New Zealand have received greater attention towards
the power generation by geothermal fields. In 1980, about 1872 MW of power was
generated in the world from geothermal source and units under construction were of
1650MW capacity. The total power production was estimated around 4850 MW.

The geothermal energy was first used for space heating, cooking and medicinal
purposes In 1897, the first mechanical conversion device was installed at Larderallo, Italy
and it was driving a small steam engine. In 1904, at Larderello, a first attempt was made to
generate electricity by using geothermal resource. By 1944 the plant at Larderello was
producing 127MW and reached 360 MW capacity in 1981.

In 1922, the first attempt was made to trap geothermal energy in USA and a 11MW
capacity plant began operation in 1960. In 1980, the total capacity reached about 1500
MW. Other electric generating units are in New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Phillipines,
Soviet Union and Iceland In Indonesia, a 300 MW Kamojang Geothermal power station
was installed recently.

India has around 340 known thermal areas of hot or warm springs. So far, 113 spring
area are discovered. Among them, 46 are high temperature type (above 150°C), which
could generate 1838 MW for 30 years, 59 are intermediate temperature type (90-150°C),
which uses binary vapour cycle for power generation and remaining are low temperature
(below 90°C) types. In Puga Valley, Jammu and Kashmir, a 20MW capacity plant is in
operation. In Parvati Valley and Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh, plants are extracting
energy from geothermal fields for power generation. The places where hot springs occurs
in India are
1. Cambay graben province
2. N.W. Himalayan geothermal province
3. Damodar Valley graben province
4. Narmada tapti graben province
5. West coast geothermal province
6. Andaman Nicobar geothermal province

Advantages and disadvantages of geothermal energy

Advantages:

1. Geothermal energy is cheaper and versatile in its use.

2. In comparison with conventional systems, it produces greater amount of net energy.
3. In comparison with conventional energy sources, these are less polluting, have highest
annual load factor of 85 to 90%.
4. The geothermal source is amenable for multiple uses from a single resource.
5. It is renewable, it is exhaustible economical and has highest energy density

Disadvantages
1. Low oral power generation efficiency that is about 15%
2. Every typing is done by drilling operation which is noisy.
3. For exploitation of geothermal energy large area is needed.
4. There is surface subsidence or settlement due to extraction of large amount of steam or
water from hydro thermal reservoir.

Application of geothermal energy:

1. For electric power generation

2. Industrial process heating
3. Space heating of buildings

Problems associated with geothermal conversion:

There are many problems associated with the use of thermal energy.

1. The temperature is not sufficiently high to provide fluids to run turbines.

2. The presence of dissolved gases and salts particulate matter in the steam and hot water
causes serious operating problems.
3. Geothermal power plant create a number of environmental problems.
4. It produces salty effluent with sodium and potassium compounds. It also consists of
lithium, fluorine, boron and arsenic compounds. The discharge of such elements to existing
water results in several pollution problems. The presence of these constants are very
harmful to the plants and animal life in concentrations as low as two parts per million.
5. The no condensable gases in the same my contain 4 to 5% of hydrogen sulphide which
has an unpleasant order and its harmful to plant and animal life.
6. The extraction of large amount of stream or water from hydro thermal reservoir causes
surface subsidence or settlement.
7. The control of noise generated by the release of steam during well bending during
release of over and during general plant operation is a problem associated with
geothermalfields.