Research on Solar-assisted Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion System

Abstract

At present, the Ocean Thermal Energy has low circulating thermal efficiency and poor power supply stability, so it has not been widely applied. To solve this problem, the combined generation system of ocean temperature difference energy and solar auxiliary heat is proposed. The multi-curved compound trough collector absorbs solar radiation energy, and layers heat exchange and energy storage with heat storage tank using heat conduction oil as medium. Then, the hot water storage and working medium preheated by warm sea water are used for efficient heat exchange in PCHE, so as to improve the system’s power generation efficiency and improve the continuity of power supply. The Solar-assisted Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion System is established by using Aspen Plus. The theoretical calculation and simulation analysis of each part of the system were carried out, and the thermal cycle with R717 as the working medium was determined. With Sansha City of Hainan Province as the background, the design is based on the installed capacity of 130kW solar auxiliary heat ocean temperature difference power generation system to verify the feasibility of the project. The energy management device takes PLC as the core, according to the load demand and the predicted power generation, through the fuzzy PID control strategy to adjust the flow of working medium and cold and hot source, and manage the power generation system. The energy management device effectively solves the intermittent problem of OTEC cycle power generation and the lack of power performance under the condition of sudden increase of power load, and realizes the system’s all-weather stable operation. Based on the traditional form of ocean temperature difference power generation, this system proposes the integration of solar energy efficient heat collection, heat storage and ocean temperature difference energy combined power generation technology, which greatly improves the system power generation efficiency and has high popularization and application value.