1 / 16

Matthew B. Loomis, Ph.D. Massachusetts Maritime Academy January 2011

CO 2 Sequestration Strategies Using Coccolithophorid Algae Near Potential OTEC Plant Deployments . Matthew B. Loomis, Ph.D. Massachusetts Maritime Academy January 2011. Motivations: Considering A Spherical Cow.

esma
Download Presentation

Matthew B. Loomis, Ph.D. Massachusetts Maritime Academy January 2011

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. CO2 Sequestration Strategies Using Coccolithophorid Algae Near Potential OTEC Plant Deployments Matthew B. Loomis, Ph.D. Massachusetts Maritime Academy January 2011

  2. Motivations: Considering A Spherical Cow A metaphor for a highly simplified scientific model of reality. It comes from a joke…

  3. Simplified Closed Cycle OTEC

  4. Assoc. Prof. Gerard Nihous, Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering 2007 {Updated Extractable Ocean Thermal Resources (2007)} 

  5. An Interesting Question… Can an OTEC power plant be run in a manner that makes it “carbon negative”? (This is the Spherical Cow Problem I’ve been working on in case you were wondering…) First thought… Second thought… Third thought…

  6. Scanning Electron Photomicrograph of Emilianiahuxleyi

  7. EHUX Bloom : Landsat image from 24th July, 1999 Courtesy of Steve Groom, Plymouth Marine Laboratory UK

  8. Simplified Closed Cycle OTEC

  9. Some Well-Posed Research Questions… (1) Using the facilities and resources at hand in the MMA Aquaculture Lab, is it possible to mimic conditions that might be found near OTEC plant deployments? • Temperatures • Salinity • Nutrient and chemical loadings • Light (Intensity, Spectrum, Duration) • Phytoplankton Number Density and Size Distribution

  10. The MMA Aquaculture Laboratory

  11. Some Well-Posed Research Questions… • (2) Under these synthesized laboratory conditions is it possible to foster anthropogenic blooms of Coccolithophorids? • Emilianiahuxleyi, cell strain CCMP 371

  12. Growing Emilianiahuxleyi is not always easy…

  13. Some Well-Posed Research Questions… (3) If artificial blooms of Emilianiahuxleyican be grown in the Aquaculture Lab, is it possible to measure and quantify the amount of carbon sequestered by the phytoplankton?

  14. Some Well-Posed Research Questions… • (4) Under “standard” OTEC operating conditions, is it possible to estimate CO2 sequestration rates that might occur? • (5) If methods for measuring carbon sequestration rates can be developed, is it possible to optimize conditions under which atmospheric CO2 removal and storage is maximized?

  15. Research and Development Needs To accelerate the development of OTEC systems we need to… • Obtain data on OTEC plant operation with appropriately sized demonstration plants • Develop and characterize cold-water pipe technology and create a database of information on materials, design, deployment, and installation • Conduct further research on the heat exchanger systems to improve heat transfer performance and decrease costs • Conduct research in the areas of innovative turbine concepts for the large machines required for open-cycle systems • Identify and evaluate advanced concepts for ocean thermal energy extraction

  16. Simplified Closed Cycle OTEC

More Related