Design and experiment of 20kW Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion pilot plant

Abstract

To experiment 20kW OTEC, the closed-cycle type of OTEC was designed and manufactured. R32 (Difluoromethane, CH2F2) was used as the working fluid and a temperature of heat source and heat sink is 26°C, 5℃, respectively. The semi-welded type heat exchanger is applied for the evaporator and condenser and the cycle was designed for the gross power of 20kW. The semi-welded type heat exchanger has the strong points such as easy maintenance of the gasket type heat exchanger and rare leakage of welded type heat exchanger. In the plate arrangement of the semi-welded type heat exchanger, one channel for working fluid is welded, and another channel is gasketed. In this paper, various performance evaluation and experiment was carried out as constructing subminiature pilot plant of the OTEC and compared with the results of cycle analysis.e heat exchanger is applied for the evaporator and condenser and the cycle was designed for the gross power of 20kW. The semi-welded type heat exchanger has the strong points such as easy maintenance of the gasket type heat exchanger and rare leakage of welded type heat exchanger. In the plate arrangement of the semi-welded type heat exchanger, one channel for working fluid is welded, and another channel is gasketed. In this paper, various performance evaluation and experiment was carried out as constructing subminiature pilot plant of the OTEC and compared with the results of cycle analysis.