Ocean Thermal

U.S, Japan and France are pioneering in the research and development of ocean temperature differential energy in the world. In 1881, J.DˇŻArsonval, French scientist, firstly proposed the concept of ocean temperature differential energy. And G.Claude, his student, at the first time conducted an experimental theoretical test by utilization of ocean temperature differential energy in 1926. At June 1929, G.Claude built one set of temperature differential energy open circulation power generation device with the output capacity of 22kW in an open land of a bay in Cuba, which aroused peopleˇŻs interest in temperature differential energy. But due to the problems and difficulty in the utilization technology, in particular in economics, the development of temperature differential energy has been unfrequented.

After the petroleum crisis in 1973, the development has come to recover. The prototype closed circulation ocean differential power generation device built in Hawaii of America at August 1979 has been a milestone in utilization of the temperature differential energy. This 50kW scale power station contributed not only to systematically demonstrate the technique feasibility in applications, but also to obtain abundant experience in design, construction and operation for the large-scale development of temperature differential energy. Soon afterwards, U.S and Japan also constructed several temperature differential energy demonstration devices, which performance data please refer to the table 3.

Table 3  List of Main Projects on Temperature Differential Energy

In 1980, Taiwan Electricity Company scheduled to utilize the residues of No.3 and No.4 nuclear power plant and the ocean temperature difference to produce electricity. After investigation and research for 3 years, they considered that the natural condition in the eastern coast of Taiwan and the alongshore of the southern Taiwan was suitable for the development of ocean thermal energy. They preliminarily selected 3 places as the address of the power station and started to conduct the research jointly with U.S. 

In 1985, GIEC (Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion) started the research one of method in the applications of temperature difference, called fog drop lifting circulation. Ridgway in U.S proposed this method in 1977, of which theory was to utilize the enthalpy decrease produced by the temperature difference between the seawater in the surface and in the deep sea, to raise the potential energy of seawater. According to the calculation, when the temperature dropped from 20ˇăC to 7ˇăC, the thermal energy released from the seawater could upgrade the seawater to a height of 125m, thus can be utilized to produce electricity by turbine. This method can greatly mitigate the dimension of the system and increase the power density of temperature differential energy. In 1989, GIEC realized to lift the fog drop to a height of 21m in the experiment. Furthermore, GIEC also conducted the experimental research on the open circulation process. 2 experiment platforms with the capacity of 10W and 60W respectively were built.

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