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View Full Version : OTEC: energy source of the future?

Glen Miyashiro
May 25th, 2005, 05:15 PM
Remember John Craven, the guy behind the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) projects at UH that made news in the 1970s and 1980s? Wired Magazine has an article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.06/craven.html) about him and OTEC. Sounds like he's been keeping busy since then.
kamapuaa
May 26th, 2005, 12:10 PM
Remember John Craven, the guy behind the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) projects at UH that made news in the 1970s and 1980s? Wired Magazine has an article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.06/craven.html) about him and OTEC. Sounds like he's been keeping busy since then.

Too bad those extropian types at wired are so short on the technical deails. I wonder if they have overcome the precipitate problems inherent to this type of open-system OTEC yet. :confused:
Glen Miyashiro
May 26th, 2005, 12:12 PM
Too bad those extropian types at wired are so short on the technical deails. I wonder if they have overcome the precipitate problems inherent to this type of open-system OTEC yet. :confused:I haven't kept up on OTEC but the last I heard, several years ago, the biggest problem was keeping all the heat exchange surfaces free of buildup. Is that the precipitate problem you're talking about?
kamapuaa
May 26th, 2005, 04:01 PM
I haven't kept up on OTEC but the last I heard, several years ago, the biggest problem was keeping all the heat exchange surfaces free of buildup. Is that the precipitate problem you're talking about?

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. It's not like this stuff is just empty water - there is a lot of stuff in the mix at that depth.