Engineering analysis of pumping cold deep nutrient-rich seawater for mariculture and nuclear power plant cooling

Abstract

The engineering feasibility of pumping deep seawater has been achieved by using a simplified mathematical model. It was proved that the pumping power required to draw seawater from deep sea is always less than 100 kW (134 h.p.) for pipe diameters below 15 cm and mass flowrate lower than 100 tons/hr, which is suitable for mariculture farmings, and the replacement of warm surface seawater by cold deep seawater as nuclear power plant coolant is technically feasible for pipes with diameters larger than 150 cm and intake levels below 600 m. This model can be further extended to study the performance of the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system onshore. Continuation of this study should be the design of deep seawater prototype pumping system, the construction of pilot plants of cooling applications and mariculture experiments, and the feasibility analysis of the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion power plants.