Emerging technologies

Abstract

Ocean energy includes a range of renewable energy alternatives that come from different forms that can be found in the ocean, such as kinetic, potential, thermal gradient, or salinity gradient. The ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) represents a promising alternative not only for the generation of clean energy but also for the production of drinking water, hydrogen, refrigeration, and aquaculture products. This chapter performs a state-of-the-art study and a geographic analysis of the most potential regions worldwide to apply this technology. A theoretical model and optimization of an OTEC system coupled to an organic Rankine cycle for small-scale applications has been also performed. The gross electric power has been set at 125kW and 11 working fluids have been proposed. Results show that R1234yf achieves the maximum thermodynamic and electric efficiency (3.60% and 2.57%, respectively). Ammonia achieves the maximum net electric power (99.3kW) and the lowest pumping losses.