The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...ven&topic_set=

Forget fusion, cold and hot. This old guy thinks we can provide
unlimited energy, accelerate plant growth, generate drinking and
irigation water, and provide cheap air conditioning, all by pumping up
cold water from the depths of the ocean. Check it out.

Louis Savain

The Silver Bullet: Why Software Is Bad and What We Can Do to Fix it
http://users.adelphia.net/~lilavois/...eliability.htm

In article , Traveler wrote:

: Forget fusion, cold and hot. This old guy thinks we can provide
: unlimited energy, accelerate plant growth, generate drinking and
: irigation water, and provide cheap air conditioning, all by pumping up
: cold water from the depths of the ocean. Check it out.

He stole that idea from Arthur C. Clarke, you know.

-----
Richard Schultz
Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Opinions expressed are mine alone, and not those of Bar-Ilan University
-----
". . .Mr Schutz [sic] acts like a functional electro-terrorist who
impeads [sic] scientific communications with his too oft-silliness."
-- Mitchell Swartz, sci.physics.fusion article

The fresh water is the most plausible feature. The thermo cycle cannot
have an efficiency much over 5%.

Why not use the cold water for cooling conventional power plants?

Diamond Shoals is only 8 miles from the shelf. It might make sense on
the E. Coast in that one location.

Pipes draw warm water from the ocean

surface and cold water from the seabed.

The warm water enters a vacuum chamber

and is evaporated into steam that drives an

electricity-producing turbine. The cold water

condenses the steam back into water for

drinking and irrigation.

Here, calculate the power required to pump the water:

http://www.efunda.com/formulae/fluid...ction.cfm#calc


Bret Cahill

Fetching lower temperature cooling water to condense steam isn't worth the
effort. In fact, it would be a negative. The ideal input temperature for a
steam generator is the highest at which the water is still a liquid.

Phil Weldon

"Bret Cahill" wrote in message
oups.com...
The fresh water is the most plausible feature. The thermo cycle cannot
have an efficiency much over 5%.

Why not use the cold water for cooling conventional power plants?

Diamond Shoals is only 8 miles from the shelf. It might make sense on
the E. Coast in that one location.

Pipes draw warm water from the ocean

surface and cold water from the seabed.

The warm water enters a vacuum chamber

and is evaporated into steam that drives an

electricity-producing turbine. The cold water

condenses the steam back into water for

drinking and irrigation.

Here, calculate the power required to pump the water:

http://www.efunda.com/formulae/fluid...ction.cfm#calc


Bret Cahill

Not just Carnot cycle (efficiency = (T2 -T1) / T2), but all heat engine
cycles are more efficient with a cooler heat sink (T1).

Even nukes lose power output in the summer.


Bret Cahill

No, a wrong application. A steam turbine operates on the Rankine Cycle, and
can't reach the efficiency theoretically possible by the Carnot Cycle.
There is a phase change involved. PWR and BWR fission reactors are cooled
by water. Once steam condenses, further lowering the water temperature
would require addittional energy at the other end to generate high pressure
steam. One technique used for steam generation is to use waste heat to
PREHEAT water before generating steam. The only benefit for lower
temperature cooling water for steam condensation would be to reduce the
needed flow rate. The pebble bed helium working fluid fission reactor would
use Brayton Cycle turbines, as there would be no phase change.

One thing to keep in mind that engineering and economic compromises must be
made. For example, there is a limt to how many pressure stages would be
practical for a turbine. Material strength and corrosion resistance are
also limiting factors.

Try http://www.energy.qld.gov.au/infosit..._turbines.html for
more information.

Phil Weldon


"Bret Cahill" wrote in message
oups.com...
Not just Carnot cycle (efficiency = (T2 -T1) / T2), but all heat engine
cycles are more efficient with a cooler heat sink (T1).

Even nukes lose power output in the summer.


Bret Cahill

I remember someone suggesting ammonia to lower the boiling pt. of water
to increase efficiency. A release would have a large kill zone so the
idea never caught on.

If a fluid boiled at 50 F deep ocean cooling water could make sense.


Bret Cahill