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Session: Poster Session and Sponsors Exhibition
Session starts: Thursday 22 September, 14:00

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Srikanth Santhanam ()
Daniel Baldacchino ()
Pauline Bozonnet ()
Lu Zheng ()

Abstract:
The increasing need for clean, renewable energy is causing a renewed interest in Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). This concept developed at the beginning of the 20th century aims at generating electricity through a thermodynamic cycle, using the temperature difference between the hot surface water and the cold deep water in the ocean. The main advantage of OTEC, compared to other renewables like wind and solar energy, is the fact that it is a so-called baseload source of energy, available day and night. Furthermore, in addition to electricity production, OTEC also offers the possibility of co-generating other products like clean drinking water and enhancing agriculture and aquaculture productivity. However the available temperature difference found in tropical oceans of little more than 20°C highlights the true difficulty but exciting opportunity in harnessing ocean energy. Few successful demonstration power-plants have already been built worldwide, nevertheless research and investors are still lacking in this field. Thus to fill this gap and demonstrate the validity of the OTEC principle we are currently designing and building a small-scale (150W) working power-extraction cycle, an ‘OTEC Demo’. A thorough study of current practice and an evaluation of the available cycles have led to the choice of the Kalina cycle as extraction-cycle. The latter has been selected based on its (claimed) high efficiency for low-grade, large capacity thermal resources, like the ocean. Using Cycle Tempo [1], a software for thermodynamic analysis and optimization, the cycle has been modeled and the different components have been sized. A detailed comparison of the modeled Kalina cycle based OTEC prototype and an ORC based OTEC prototype is made with a view point of efficiency and economics is performed and greater efficiency for the Kalina based OTEC is expected. If the prototype proves to be successful it would be the first OTEC power plant based on this cycle in the world.