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Ocean
Thermal Energy Converter
Perhaps the most ambitious and world changing undertaking of the
Celestopea Project, is the creation of a grid of Ocean Thermal
Energy Converters (OTEC's) to power the world into the 21st
century and beyond. OTEC's take advantage of the perpetual
difference between the temperature at the surface of the
tropical oceans and the cooler temperature 3,000 to 4,000 feet
below the surface.
This temperature variation is used to generate completely
pollution free electricity from an inexhaustible renewable
source. In fact, each day the 23 million square miles of
tropical ocean absorb an amount of solar energy equal in heat
content to 250 billion barrels of oil. By way of comparison, all
the countries of the world together consume about 50 million
barrels of oil each day. If our worldwide grid of OTEC's are
only able to extract 1/10th of 1% of the daily solar radiation,
they will produce 20 times the daily amount of electricity
currently consumed by the United States.
Although it would seem that a vast amount of energy would be
required to pump large volumes of water 4,000 vertical feet up
from the ocean depths, surprisingly that is not the case. Water
is basically neutral buoyant, so the OTEC pump merely needs to
overcome the difference between the density of the cold deep
ocean water and the warmer surface water, plus the friction of
the pipe. Water pumped up from 4,000 feet below would only
require the energy needed to pump the same volume of water up 24
feet on the surface. For all of its operational needs, a 100
megawatt OTEC will consume 41 megawatts, leaving 59 megawatts
available for other uses.
Hydrogen and Oxygen are additional fuel byproducts of OTEC
operation. As everyone knows, water is H2O or 2 parts hydrogen
and one part oxygen. It's somewhat funny to think that water is
used to put out fires, yet the two elements it is composed of -
hydrogen and oxygen are both highly flammable. These two
elements can be separated from the liquid water by a process
know as electrolysis. Direct solar cell electricity can be used
to accomplish this. The resulting oxygen can be released into
the atmosphere to replenish the atmospheric oxygen content which
has diminished over the millenniums. The hydrogen can be used
directly as fuel for virtually everything gasoline or oil are
currently used for. Hydrogen is such a pollution free fuel that
the mayor of Chicago recently drank from the tailpipe of a
hydrogen powered bus to demonstrate the purity of its emissions.
Inexhaustibly renewable, pollution free energy is merely the
beginning of the benefits of Celestopean OTEC's. Tropical oceans
are nearly devoid of life. Because growing conditions are so
ideal, the algae's which are the base of the food chain, bloom
in explosive growths that quickly consume all nutrients. They
then die and fall to the ocean depths leaving the surface fairly
empty of life. The cold, nitrogen and nutrient-rich water pulled
up from the ocean depths will seed a bloom of new life in the
tropical ocean deserts. The resulting micro algae and
phytoplankton growth will nourish a tremendous increase in many
types of fish and higher forms of marine life. The algae will
also be farmed both on the open sea and in large shallow
containment ponds. The combination of tropical sun, perfect
water temperature and nitrogen, nutrient laden water, will
produce millions of tons of high quality protein each year. As
additional Celestopean cities and OTEC's begin to be created in
the worlds oceans, the protein produced from our sea farms will
make a significant dent in the worldwide problem of hunger and
malnutrition.
According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural
Organization, an adult person should receive a minimum of 35
grams of protein every day. Each day, each 100 megawatt OTEC
will pump up 6 billion gallons of deep ocean water rich in
nitrogen, the food of phytoplankton. A gallon of seawater
contains 1.7 to 1.8 milligrams of nitrogen. Phytoplankton, one
of the most highly efficient organisms, will convert 78-80% of
the nitrogen into protein. The nitrogen in the daily pumped
water of a single OTEC, will be converted by the phytoplankton
into over 8 tons of protein each day, of which 65% will be high
quality protein. If this high quality protein were harvested and
manufactured into a pleasant consumable form, it would be enough
to feed almost 150,000 people each day.
The 40 degree deep ocean water can be mixed with warm surface
water in any proportion to produce greenhouse and sea farm
environments in temperature ranges between 45 - 90 degrees. This
allows mini ecosystems to be created that can grow virtually all
fruits and vegetables from any continental climate. In addition
to tropical fish, the sea farms will also raise many types of
cold water fish and shellfish such as salmon, lobster, abalone,
trout, oysters and clams, that would normally not survive in
warm tropical waters.
OTEC's will also be used to desalinate sea water, to produce
completely pure drinking water. OTEC's set up off the coast of
Africa, Australia and the Middle East can provide copious
amounts of fresh water. Not only will this allow deserts to
blossom as roses, but it will also remove scarce water supplies
as a thorn of contention among nations. A 2 megawatt (net) OTEC
will produce 4300 cubic meters of desalinated water each day by
condensing the spent steam created in the electrical generation
process on the cold sea water intake pipes.
Many minerals and chemicals can also be derived as byproducts of
OTEC operation from the 57 elements dissolved in solution in
seawater. Besides the fuels hydrogen, oxygen and methanol, other
byproducts include ammonia, salt, chlorine and eventually gold,
platinum and other rare and precious elements. Past corporate
analysis has always shown such ventures to be unprofitable
because of the cost of pumping the large volume of water
necessary to extract significant amounts of minerals. This main
stumbling block is overcome as the OTEC's will already be
pumping vast quantities of water for other purposes. The
necessary mining technology is leaping forward as well. The
Japanese have recently been experimenting with extraction of
uranium from seawater and found pending technology in material
sciences is making mining minerals from seawater feasible.
Based upon the current cost of component parts and the
operations of existing OTEC's at the University of Hawaii, the
cost of building a 100 megawatt OTEC in 1999 US dollars with
existing technology, including apparatus for hydrogen
extraction, will range from $157 to $175 million dollars. The
costs should rapidly begin to fall as OTEC's begin to
proliferate around the world. It is such a viable and
environmentally friendly technology that we would expect many
other countries and companies to soon be employing and
duplicating it.
The oceans are such a vast storehouse of energy, food and
minerals, they are inexhaustible when utilized through OTEC
technology. Nor will our small pumping efforts, as enormous as
they may seem to us, effect the current ocean equilibrium. As
long as the sun rises and sets each day , the oceans are an
eternally renewable resource when tapped through OTEC's. The
oceans contain about 300 million cubic miles of sea water, of
which 3/4's is nutrient rich at depths greater than 3000 feet.
That's equal to 225,000 million cubic miles of water. About
1/10th of 1%, or 225,000 cubic miles of water is replaced each
year by new water down-welling from the ocean surfaces,
particularly the cold oceans near the poles.
Each 100 megawatt OTEC will pull up 1.9 cubic miles of deep
ocean water annually. 10,000 such OTEC's would only consume
19,000 cubic miles of the energy and nutrient potential of deep
ocean water. That is still less than 10% of the annual
replacement supply, yet, it would be enough to produce 1,000,000
megawatts of electricity and meet the annual protein
requirements of 2 billion people!
For a more thorough explanation of the history, operation and
possibilities of OTEC's please follow the link to
http://www.nrel.gov/otec/
"A luminescent fire burns within your resplendent depths; a
kindling passion to be more than who you are. "
~ Embrosewyn Tazkuvel, "22 Steps to the Light of Your Soul"
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