Current Development and Prospect of Turbine in OTEC

Abstract

This chapter mainly introduces the development and prospect of turbines utilized in ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), including brief introduction, aerodynamic design, mechanical and electric control system, problems, and prospect of the turbine in OTEC. At the beginning, the first section mainly introduces compositions and types of turbine in OTEC systems, different working fluids in the turbine, status of OTEC turbine currently in the world, and so on. After that, the aerodynamic design of turbine has the greatest impact on the efficiency of the turbine and is the most important process during the turbine development. Therefore, the second section focuses on turbine aerodynamic design. Furthermore, the third section mainly introduces the mechanical system and the electric control system of the turbine. Finally, the problems in the turbine currently are listed, and the prospects for the development of the turbine in OTEC are discussed in the fourth section.