Performance analysis of OTEC power plant

The energy is the basis for almost all industrial activities and domestic needs. But recently there are increasing concerns internationally over environmental problems and consequent climate changes caused by the excessive use of fossil fuels. Furthermore the price of crude oil is increasing steadily with unstable supplies. In order to solve these national energy problems, the utilization of ocean energy is introduced as one of the best alternative technologies for the future. OTEC power plant has been installed at the west Inchon power plant site. Temperature differences of 20∼25 deg. C have been utilized for plant operations, where R22 is used as a working fluid. The system is composed of low pressure turbine, plate type heat exchanger, and pumps. In the present investigation the experimental results, such as gross power, net power and objective function, are analysed when temperature differences change from the reference design point