Speculative Beginnings
The Company was founded based on the assumption that a lower cost method of raising deep-sea-cold-water would be of interest to investors and energy users. REsystems Ltd. are proprietors of intellectual property that describes novel methods of delivering deep-sea-cold-water for use in industry. We were granted several patents over the course of the last decade, and these are still in force.
Research
As time went by, we went through many cycles of evolution where passion and ignorance were replaced with knowledge and skills. We developed the ability to talk in physical values with other engineering companies and this led us to be able to get accurate quotes. These abilities were developed with a professor and a master’s engineer in thermodynamics, both of whom are now shareholders.
Budget Field Tests
We conducted a mock hose installation on a commercial scale. We found that it really was easy to install and retrieve hoses and that the process of installation was affordable. Hoses can be laid at a rate of meters per second!
Turbo-pump prototypes
We found suitable turbines and pumps that were affordable and that the process of retrofitting them was straightforward.
We concluded that the turbo-pump and hose method is an attractive solution to deep-sea-cold-water delivery that offers a significant reduction in costs.
Electric motors are electrical generators!?!
Whilst looking for a small-scale high rpm electricity generator having found that single stage turbines were remarkably inexpensive, we came across electric motors for the EV market. These have all the mod cons, can operate at high speed, and come off the shelf. Both the motor and turbine are suitable for mass production and the facilities for this are already in place. Prices for each are mouth-watering. Some straightforward skills development and RandD is required to convert these items into an integrated product.
Production and transport
A most important revelation was the cost of production. The production of the NEW-OTEC parts is not at all like wind turbines. There is no size and transportation issue.
The heat exchangers required are shell and tube heat exchangers, one of the most refined and practical items in the industrial world. These can be built to known ASME and TEMA standards and are incredibly simple to construct. These standards are followed across the world.
The only problem with the heat exchangers is the relative size and therefore the relative value of the heat exchanger; the same heat exchanger in other applications can generate much more revenue.
As a result, we have researched building our own shell and tube heat exchanger. Tubes can be fixed to tube sheets with hand tools called tube expanders or with CNC tube expanders. The tube sheet can be drilled with a CNC router. The parts are readily available. The heat exchanger comprises plate, tube, pipe, and little more besides gaskets.
There is nothing for it but to build our own. This way we can untie NEW-OTEC from the relative value of other end uses for compact heat exchangers.
Hose production is also impressively straightforward. Hose can be produced at a rate of meters per minute.
Since both heat exchanger and hose can fit in a shipping container, the cost of transport is not unusual. Heat exchanger and hose can be built at the end use site if necessary.
Through hose and heat exchanger production we can provide many people with work.
Installation and O and M
A further bit of great news was the lack of cost concern when it came to approaching marine engineering firms for assistance with installation. The process is so simple there were few cost concerns from subcontractors. Existing super-robust types of marine hose can be used if desired at the shoreline. There are a catalogue of solutions for this area both off the shelf and innovative.
More exciting revelations
Much to our surprise, having built our own OTEC thermodynamic software we found that OTEC heat exchangers are affordable, and so too are all aspects of OTEC power generation; these are all established products in highly established fields of expertise where all the answers to the problems already exist in complete products. All the technology can come off the shelf and is either Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 8 or 9. The highest level being nine. We were thrilled by just how easily an OTEC plant could be built and by how well OTEC compares with other energy sources. The quantity of material relative to the quantity of energy produced means that NEW-OTEC is clearly capable of producing clean energy for a price that is second to none.
Further innovations
Further innovations relating to additional heat have meant that the potential market is now genuinely large and can certainly produce cost effective energy on continental scales.
Seasonal and continental sites as well and islands in the tropics can benefit economically and environmentally from warm and cold seawater.
Through waste heat, NEW-OTEC can become the backbone of Industry.
Deep-sea cold-water has many possible future uses including cost effective and potent Co2 offsetting, and ocean fertilisation for sea farming.
Ready for market!
More recent research found that there is now a plethora of genuinely affordable ‘off-the-shelf’ small-scale turbogenerators on the market, and these are perfectly suited to OTEC through use of the organic Rankine cycle, the process to which these turbogenerators belong. They also boast a 5 year plus working history and so are ‘bankable’ products. No longer must a 100-kw turbogenerator be purchased for ‘£1million’ presumably, this was a problem for would be OTEC developers.
‘All systems are go!’
We are ready to sell NEW-OTEC products to private end users or developers, or to do business as an independent power producer. New companies are planned for each avenue. Who knows an IPO or two one day.
Our message
Do not be afraid of OTEC as though it were a new technology.
OTEC is just renewable organic Rankine cycle (ORC), and ORC technology is used in geothermal, waste heat, and biomass plants.
Many, many people would understand OTEC, but they would not have the numbers, and this of course is why our software is so useful. The level of detail is more than sufficient to be able to design an OTEC /ORC system swiftly.
We can help you build confidence in our products by sharing our software results with you. You can corroborate the values we generate elsewhere in ’24 hours’. That way you can be confident of what you are buying. This is the advantage to OTEC being tied to the organic Rankine cycle.
Logical development process
If you are afraid of new technology, then the availability of smaller scale more affordable uses for deep-water may be a great way to build confidence in the technology.
Sea-water-air-conditioning (SWAC) can be used as a steppingstone to OTEC, and it is incredibly powerful at cooling air. SWAC is persistently overlooked as a source of energy economy because of the attraction to the glory of renewable 24-7 electricity.
SWAC has none of the traditional problems of OTEC and is potentially worth far more for far less than OTEC to the user at the site.
Use of additional heat in an OTEC system can mean that hose diameters do not need to increase past those used in SWAC. As such, OTEC can very conveniently be added later to a pre-existing SWAC system.
Co2 sequestration using deep-ocean-water is a commercially viable activity that can be used as a steppingstone to SWAC and OTEC. Sites with a Co2 installation can use the same water for OTEC and SWAC.
Deep-ocean-water is a unique selling point for any suitable site.
Deep-ocean-water is special.
Any site where deep-ocean-water can be used is linked to an asset. Successful delivery of deep-ocean-water may lead to an increase in land value.
An end user can be an investor too and can stand to gain even more from successful development of the technology including lower development costs and, or greater capital gains and profits.
