Patent ID: 9476410
Filing Date: 2016-10-25
CPC Classification: F03G,Y02E

Claim Text:
1. An offshore floating ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) platform, comprising: a spar type floating platform having a buoyant tubular jacket frame column structure with vertical tubular legs, a deck supported at an upper end of said jacket frame, buoyancy capsules disposed within said jacket frame to provide upward force to support said deck above a sea surface, and submerged keel tanks disposed within said jacket frame below said buoyancy capsules, said platform maintained a distance above a seabed by mooring lines extending therebetween; at least one turbine and power generator disposed on said deck; at least one condenser housed within or on a lowermost one of said keel tanks at a lower end of said jacket frame column connected in fluid communication with a cold water intake pipe extending a distance downwardly from said lower end of said frame for receiving cold sea water, the weight of said condenser acting as a fixed ballast to increase the stability of said platform; at least one evaporator housed within said jacket frame beneath said deck disposed above the sea surface and supplied with warm water from near the water surface and connected in fluid communication with said at least one condenser and with said at least one turbine and power generator; and a working fluid capable of changing between a liquid and a vapor or gas is transported through said vertical legs of said jacket frame between said at least one condenser, said at least one evaporator, and said at least one turbine, wherein said working fluid in a liquid phase is transported upwardly through said legs from said at least one condenser to said at least one evaporator where heat is extracted from warm sea waters to vaporize said working fluid from a liquid phase to a gas phase which then passes through said at least one turbine to rotate said at least one turbine and operate said power generator and is transported downwardly through said legs from said at least one turbine back to said at least one condenser where heat is rejected by cold waters at lower depths of the sea to condense the vaporized working fluid to a liquid phase.