OCEES International, Inc.
Ocean Engineering and Energy Systems
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In addition to the economic advantages of a multiple systems approach towards OTEC as a viable energy and resource approach, there are other benefits. Economic, Political, Social, and Environmental benefits can be found from the implementation of OTEC systems. An integrated systems approach has never been implemented in evaluating the economic feasibility of OTEC technology. The potential benefits for a community or country are immense.
Our reliance on fossil fuel for essentially all of our transportation systems and most of our electrical generation has had and will continue to have both local and global consequences. Control of major oil supply areas has led to international conflicts which have often included wars-clearly a source of detrimental environmental effects.
Another major consideration with continued global reliance on fossil fuels is the finite supply in the face of increasing demand. This is especially true with respect to easily available oil, where proven reserves will last only a few more decades. Although the supply of coal is enough to last several centuries, the environmental consequences of burning coal are more severe than for other fossil fuels.
Historical experience with changing from one form of energy to another, such as, from wood to coal and from coal to oil, shows that it takes 50 to 80 years to accomplish this transition. The infrastructure to produce and supply, transport, store and utilize the new energy resource has to be designed, built, and operated. Not only does this involve large technical adaptations but also social, economic, and legal changesare required. The development of an OTEC system on friendly American or Allied territories would put the U.S. Government and any of it's allies that adopt this technology at the forefront of this process. Above all, OTEC systems would allow for a huge reduction in dependance on imported oil. Secondly, the production of energy from island states or territories or floating platform grazing in nearby waters would mean increase domestic production of energy, because we would be utilizing a resource under the control of the United States. Yet, the reality of the size of the ocean would mean there are tropical areas for potentially all countries to set up grazing areas near their home ports.
One of the largest difficulties of the American Economy is that we import more than we export. The single largest import into America is Petroleum. Developing OTEC production and transitioning to a hydrogen economy with the help of oil companies and car companies such as General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler would help to equalize that balance. Fundamentally, we could significantly reduce the imbalance of payments in the United States, but potentially in all adopting countries. With a reduction in dependecy on foreign imported resources, there could be a resultant reduction in international tension. This could result in lessening of terrorist activity.
Emminent implementation of an OTEC system couldn't happen at a better time in the world's history, considering recent tragic events, and their long-term ramifications for world economic structure and the reality of our shared environmental condition. The timing is very good economically for this type of system because interest rates are very low and comparitively, fossil fuel prices are very high.
It is expected that with the experience gained in building these OTEC plants, that the capital costs will decrease. As with any kind of industry, the mass production and standardization of major and minor components utilized in the OTEC system will provide significant price reductions in the capital cost.
"If they do not receive oil their factories will come to a halt. This will shake the world."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian dictator - BBC
Presidential Executive Order #13123 mandates that Federal institutions must lessen their dependence upon conventional fuel systems, and supplant them with renewable energy alternatives. OTEC is an answer for America, and the world.
The transition from fossil fuels to a hydrogen based world economy will take time. The reduction of dependency upon foreign governments and organizations that dictate the price and availability of a diminishing resource is essential. Wars and political turmoil are often based upon the procurement of petroleum resources. The advent of a hydrogen based economy will reduce global competition for resources such as fossil fuels. International cooperation amongst energy corporations to develop the OTEC resource will actually lead to increases in jobs in heavy industry. Fuel route shipping distances from oil producing regions to ports of the world's energy consumers will decrease, reducing costs. The existing infrastructure of our fossil fuel based world economy will simply be modified to use hydrogen tankers and hydrogen storage facilities and pipelines. Additionally, the markets for automobiles and hydrogen distribution to end users will remain essentially the same. Developing countries, lacking in extensive fossil fuel distribution systems, will find whole new markets for this energy system, as they implement regional distribution of hydrogen. Existing infrastructure will need to convert to this new energy delivery medium, but fundamentally this will be a modification of existing technology.
Political benefits to tropical island communities will include the responsible infrastructure development utilizing an environmentally benign energy technology which not only addresses power needs, but also resource sustainability. Tropical Island communites can use OTEC systems to supply power and fresh water at a lower cost than they presently do with fossil fuel based systems. Similarly, the largest export of wealth from these island communities goes towards purchasing petroleum for fuel. These funds could be better used locally for other purposes, increasing the dynamics of the local economy. As the hydrogen economy matures, tropical island nations will be afforded the opportunity to develop export industries around hydrogen through implementation of OTEC for hydrogen production within their Exclusive Economic Zone, establishing themselves as new suppliers for the world's energy needs.
Tropical island policy makers are coming to a crossroad. Policy makers will have to decide whether to spend billions of dollars to implement existing, environmentally detrimental energy technologies based upon a dwindling, and increasingly expensive fuel, versus establishing an infrastructure based upon renewable energy technologies with additional economic boons from the OTEC systems implementation. Clearly the tropical island nations of the world are in a unique position to establish themselves as the leaders in renewable energy production and distribution in adherence to the Kyoto Protocol and the recent World Energy Summit held in Johannesberg, South Africa.
GLOBAL WARMING
In its most basic form global warming occurs when the energy entering the atmosphere and incident upon the ocean and earth’s surface is greater that the energy radiating back out to space. The rate of outward radiation depends upon the concentration of various gases in the atmosphere. There is clear evidence that there has been an increase in the concentration of several gases in the atmosphere which slow down the outward flow of energy to space. The gas of primary interest with respect to human energy use is carbon dioxide (CO2) — the principal end product of burning fossil fuels. Data from the top of Moana Loa on the island of Hawaii shows that CO2 in the atmosphere has increased from a background value of 280 parts per million (ppm) to 370 ppm and climbing.
This increase is coincident with the increase in fossil fuel use since the start of the Industrial Revolution. In fact, an accounting of the amount of CO2 that "should" be in the atmosphere from fossil fuel use comes up short. This problem of the "missing carbon" has puzzled global modelers for decades and has resulted in numerous articles speculating various land based carbon sinks. It is most likely, however, that the "missing carbon" is in the ocean. Modelers have been using gas exchange rates determined from experiments using fresh water (rather than seawater). Measurements conducted at the University of Hawaii in the late eighties and early nineties showed that the gas exchange rates of seawater are significantly more rapid than that of fresh water. Part of the explanation for this is that molecular diffusion of gases in seawater is faster than in fresh water due to structural differences between the two similar liquids created by the introduction of the salt present in seawater. This was determined through research conducted by Dr. Stephen Oney of OCEES International, Inc. while he was working at the University of Hawaii. Other research conducted at the University of Hawaii by Drs. Hans Krock (also of OCEES), Stephen Oney and Manfred Zapka showed that the macro-scale characteristics of seawater gas exchange were important in determining the rate at which the atmosphere exchanges gases with the ocean as well. This work resulted in two U.S. patents important to Open-Cycle OTEC (OC-OTEC), OTEC fresh water production as well as to the global warming question.
If the "missing carbon" is indeed in the surface layer of the ocean then there are chemical and biological consequences — especially in the tropical zone. Much of the tropical ocean is low in productivity because of nutrient limitations, usually nitrogen and/or phosphorus. Because it is not limiting, additions of CO2 would not enhance productivity but would lower the pH slightly. This lower pH may be a factor in the coral damage that has been observed in a number of reefs around the world. This damage has been attributed to a rise in seawater temperature or to bacterial contamination of human origin. While these may be factors in certain locations and in certain types of coral, the lowering of pH should also be considered since we know that coral have an optimum pH range and are especially sensitive to a low pH.
The ocean is the primary temperature regulator of the surface of the planet. Seawater has a much greater heat capacity than does air (or the land surface for that matter). The tropical ocean surface layer is the primary storage area for solar energy on earth. From there it is redistributed to higher latitudes by wind, the hydrologic cycle (evaporation/rain) and ocean currents. The greater amount of heat energy in the ocean and its redistribution to higher latitudes has resulted in a rise in sea level. This is due not only to ice melting but also due to thermal expansion of the seawater (about 50 — 50) caused by this additional thermal storage. The rise in sea level is especially important for atolls and low lying continental coastal areas.
The amount of extra heat energy stored in the upper layer of the ocean during this recent period of global warming is very large in comparison to human energy usage. For example, it would take several hundred years of human energy use to equal the extra energy that has been stored in the ocean surface layer over the last forty years.
Another effect of global warming is a change in the regional climates of the earth due to changes in wind patterns. Some areas become dryer while others experience flooding. There are also changes in the distribution of diseases and ranges of ecosystem types and crop growing seasons. Some of these changes might be considered beneficial but most appear to be detrimental. In any case, with increased fossil fuel use these changes will become more pronounced and disruptive of existing land use patterns.
While fossil fuel use adds to the problems associated with global warming, OTEC systems take advantage of the additional thermal energy stored in the upper layer of the tropical ocean. It should also be noted that even large scale human use of the ocean energy resource through OTEC implementation is miniscule (less than 0.1%) in comparison to the natural energy flux. This is within the noise of the natural system in that it is smaller than its annual fluctuation. In any case, OTEC simply substitutes "useful work" for "random work" and does not change the overall global energy flux. The net positive change is that large-scale deployment of OTEC systems can contribute greatly to eliminate the emissions of CO2, CO, particulate carbon, NOx, and SOx and thereby not only reduce global warming but greatly reduce smog and acid rain as well.
An integrated, renewable energy system with multiple benefits can have a positive resultant effect in the social fabric that supports such an endeavor. Communities with multi-system OTEC plants producing power, fresh water, air conditioning, and aquacultural and agricultural products can add to domestic product in the given locale, in addition to providing products for trade with other regions, and nations.
Workers with many different skills would be needed to maintain OTEC systems and to work at aquaculture and agriculture plants nearby an OTEC facility. The fact that workers would be living and rasing families near a renewable energy system would have multiple cascade effects upon the perceived social fabric of a community. Industries such as shipbuilding, steel, and consumable products would benefits from such systems. Additionally, elimination of pollutants expelled from conventional fossil fuel systems would add to the general positive environmental status and could contribute towards an increase in quality of life. On tropical island communites, cost of water, air conditioning, and energy are large drains upon the working capital of these local economies. Finances could be freed up for usage in other areas of the economy.
The reality of Global Warming and OTEC's potential to curb excess greenhouse gases will be a potential benefit to the well being of individuals, families, communities, and nations for years to come.