Hydra Facility

From PESWiki

Combining various existing proven technologies into an energy producing power station which will produce electricity, hydrogen and clean water. The construction of the facility would be optimized to use normally wasted energy to help run the other functions of the facility, resulting in a lower energy footprint for running the facility. Built around an OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) chamber built approximately 2000-3000 feet below sea level and relatively close to the shoreline (1-2 miles distance), the facility would produce 100 MegaWatts of electricity and utilize 3.4 million gallons of seawater a minute.

As with almost all OTEC production the main issue has been the extraction of the colder water from the ocean depths at an affordable cost. By utilizing the water pressure at 3000 feet below sea level (90 Atmospheric pressure)to "push" the cold sea water inland to the underground OTEC chamber, the normal prohibitive cost associated with OTEC should be negated. Additional electricity will be created by placing water turbines within the seawater input tube that could be used to power the facility or produce additional electricity for resale.

Using an open-cycle OTEC production, the resulting steam once it has been used to power a low pressure turbine for electricity, can be separated into clean water for consumption or agricultural needs and/or broken down via electrolysis into hydrogen and oxygen.

Currently in the design stage as to the best technologies to use: Open-cycle OTEC vs. 2 Stage Mist OTEC, High Temperature Electrolysis vs Stanley Meyer based hydrogen production. Additionally what environmental issues will result from such a facility drawing massive amounts of seawater should also be researched before production.