Hydro-Island: Undergraduate Research Modeling an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) System

Leah Hope Sirkis; Tony Lee Kerzmann

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Energy Conversion and Conservation Division Technical Session 1: Mechanical and CAD Track
Tagged Division: Energy Conversion and Conservation
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37264
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/37264
Download Count: 263

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Paper Authors

biography

Leah Hope Sirkis University of Pittsburgh

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Leah is an undergraduate student at the Unversity of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. She is studying Mechanical Engineering with a minor in French. She participates in ocean renewable energy research in the Energy Systems Research Laboratory under Dr. Tony Kerzmann.

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biography

Tony Lee Kerzmann University of Pittsburgh orcid.org/0000-0002-9445-3814

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Dr. Tony Kerzmann’s higher education background began with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Duquesne University, as well as a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. After graduation, Dr. Kerzmann began his career as an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at Robert Morris University which afforded him the opportunity to research, teach, and advise in numerous engineering roles. He served as the mechanical coordinator for the RMU Engineering Department for six years, and was the Director of Outreach for the Research and Outreach Center in the School of Engineering, Mathematics and Science. In 2019, Dr. Kerzmann joined the Mechanical Engineering and Material Science (MEMS) department at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the advising coordinator and associate professor in the MEMS department, where he positively engages with numerous mechanical engineering advisees, teaches courses in mechanical engineering and sustainability, and conducts research in energy systems.

Throughout his career, Dr. Kerzmann has advised over eighty student projects, some of which have won regional and international awards. A recent project team won the Utility of Tomorrow competition, outperforming fifty-five international teams to bring home one of only five prizes. Additionally, he has developed and taught fourteen different courses, many of which were in the areas of energy, sustainability, thermodynamics, dynamics and heat transfer. He has always made an effort to incorporate experiential learning into the classroom through the use of demonstrations, guest speakers, student projects and site visits. Dr. Kerzmann is a firm believer that all students learn in their own unique way. In an effort to reach all students, he has consistently deployed a host of teaching strategies into his classes, including videos, example problems, quizzes, hands-on laboratories, demonstrations, and group work. Dr. Kerzmann is enthusiastic in the continued pursuit of his educational goals, research endeavors, and engagement of mechanical engineering students.

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Abstract

We are in the midst of a strong shift in climate change awareness in the U.S. The public discourse is swinging from climate denial toward climate alarm. A recent poll by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) found that Americans are around four times more likely to be alarmed by climate change than they are to dismiss the science. This is a drastic, and long overdue, shift in sentiment from 2015 poll results where the same two survey categories were almost dead even. As we transition our mindset to combat global warming, we also have to visualize the future of our existing energy systems and infrastructure. Renewable energy is an obvious choice to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but we need to be thoughtful in our long-term vision of its deployment, including the global availability of renewably-derived fuels. Of these fuels, hydrogen may be the most promising in its broad deployment. It has a high energy density (almost 3 times that of gasoline), is readily available, can replace natural gas in existing gas pipelines and can be shipped via hydrogen tankers. Although still in the demonstration phase, hydrogen tankers would provide the capability to transport hydrogen fuel all over the world.

As hydrogen shipping technologies grow more mature, the door for offshore hydrogen production opens. Hydrogen could be produced offshore using renewable energy and electrolysis, then transported to ports around the world, essentially creating Hydrogen Islands. These islands would be capable of supplying hydrogen to onshore facilities via hydrogen tankers, but could also fuel the transport ships themselves. Ships such as container ships, where a recent study found that 99% of transpacific voyages made in 2015 could have been powered by hydrogen. In an effort to further develop the idea of a hydrogen producing island, a small team of undergraduate students were formed to evaluate the feasibility of renewable offshore hydrogen electrolyzation utilizing an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system.

This research is focused on the energy modeling of the Hydro-Island powerhouse; the OTEC system. The energy model was built in Engineering Equations Solver and incorporates thermodynamic, heat transfer and fluid mechanics principles. An OTEC system has a low thermodynamic efficiency (around 4-6%) due to the low temperature difference between the hot and cold thermal reservoirs. In an effort to attain higher efficiencies, we incorporate a solar pond into the OTEC system model. A solar pond is designed to absorb solar energy, thereby increasing the temperature of the hot side of the Rankine cycle. The model compares different OTEC scenarios to find the effect of solar ponds on energy production and system performance. The environmental variables utilized in the model are from Gulf of Mexico water and climactic conditions; where there is an abundance of abandoned offshore oil rigs which could potentially be repurposed to provide the platform for the OTEC system. The modeling results provide important insights into the system energy production, sizing, efficiency and pumping needs.

Citation
Format

Sirkis, L. H., & Kerzmann, T. L. (2021, July), Hydro-Island: Undergraduate Research Modeling an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) System Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37264

TY - CPAPER
AB - We are in the midst of a strong shift in climate change awareness in the U.S. The public discourse is swinging from climate denial toward climate alarm. A recent poll by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) found that Americans are around four times more likely to be alarmed by climate change than they are to dismiss the science. This is a drastic, and long overdue, shift in sentiment from 2015 poll results where the same two survey categories were almost dead even. As we transition our mindset to combat global warming, we also have to visualize the future of our existing energy systems and infrastructure. Renewable energy is an obvious choice to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but we need to be thoughtful in our long-term vision of its deployment, including the global availability of renewably-derived fuels. Of these fuels, hydrogen may be the most promising in its broad deployment. It has a high energy density (almost 3 times that of gasoline), is readily available, can replace natural gas in existing gas pipelines and can be shipped via hydrogen tankers. Although still in the demonstration phase, hydrogen tankers would provide the capability to transport hydrogen fuel all over the world.

As hydrogen shipping technologies grow more mature, the door for offshore hydrogen production opens. Hydrogen could be produced offshore using renewable energy and electrolysis, then transported to ports around the world, essentially creating Hydrogen Islands. These islands would be capable of supplying hydrogen to onshore facilities via hydrogen tankers, but could also fuel the transport ships themselves. Ships such as container ships, where a recent study found that 99% of transpacific voyages made in 2015 could have been powered by hydrogen. In an effort to further develop the idea of a hydrogen producing island, a small team of undergraduate students were formed to evaluate the feasibility of renewable offshore hydrogen electrolyzation utilizing an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system.

This research is focused on the energy modeling of the Hydro-Island powerhouse; the OTEC system. The energy model was built in Engineering Equations Solver and incorporates thermodynamic, heat transfer and fluid mechanics principles. An OTEC system has a low thermodynamic efficiency (around 4-6%) due to the low temperature difference between the hot and cold thermal reservoirs. In an effort to attain higher efficiencies, we incorporate a solar pond into the OTEC system model. A solar pond is designed to absorb solar energy, thereby increasing the temperature of the hot side of the Rankine cycle. The model compares different OTEC scenarios to find the effect of solar ponds on energy production and system performance. The environmental variables utilized in the model are from Gulf of Mexico water and climactic conditions; where there is an abundance of abandoned offshore oil rigs which could potentially be repurposed to provide the platform for the OTEC system. The modeling results provide important insights into the system energy production, sizing, efficiency and pumping needs.

AU - Leah Hope Sirkis
AU - Tony Lee Kerzmann
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Hydro-Island: Undergraduate Research Modeling an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) System
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/37264
DO - 10.18260/1-2--37264
ER -