Last critique
email update was morning of 11/20
OTEC Presentation Summary
By
Estephany Diaz, William Schock,
Gabriela Maldonado, Deanna Martin
Our
presentation was on what OTEC is, the history of OTEC, the types of Cycles OTEC
has, and it’s advantages and disadvantages. First, we explained that OTEC is
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), a process that can produce electricity
by using the temperature difference between deep cold ocean water and warm
tropical surface waters. Then, history of OTEC was explained by discussing the
introduction of the OTEC concept by Jules Verne in 1870, in his book Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Within the decade of
the book's release, American, Italian, and French scientists began to work on
this concept. After the history, we then started to explain how the three
cycles of OTEC. Open-cycle, a system that uses the tropical oceans' warm
surface water to make electricity; Closed-cycle, a system that uses fluids with
a low boiling point, such as ammonia, to rotate a turbine to generate
electricity; Then Hybrid-cycle, a system that combines the features of
closed-cycle and open-cycle systems. Finally, when then discussed the
advantages, such as, Renewable and clean source of energy; non-polluting;
ability to generate energy 24/7 without an energy storage; and Open-cycle
systems can also produce fresh drinking water, and then the disadvantages, such
as, cost limitations; it can only be used in tropical oceans; the efficiency is
low about 3-4 %; and Closed -cycles use ammonia which can pose a threat to
Marine Life.
OTEC
Presentation critique Pros: Had
a lot of good graphics on how OTEC connects to land and how it uses
both cold and hot water. They
mentioned specific temperature requirements of 25 and 0 degrees Celsius, and those
specific details were some of the most informative. They
had specific data on how one onshore plant could power 120 homes in Hawaii. (that was only an example…onshore could power millions if
desired.) This successfully
connected specifics on the energy production to an easy to understand
example in real life. Considering
the fact that they had almost no information to go off of, they presented
quality information. They also more or less answered all the questions. Grade: 93 |
Cons: There
were grammatical errors that should have been fixed ("It's
uses" rather than its uses). They
are very quiet and talked to the board rather than their
audience. Most of the presenters seemed to be reading the information for the
very
first time, especially the "Closed Cycle" slide right before the
"Mini OTEC Experiment" slide. The presentation seemed very disorganized. The presenters also read
directly off of their slides. They
only mentioned areas in the United States, specifically the tropical oceans
off of Hawaii and Florida, and failed to mention if any other countries were
able to or already using OTEC. This
group used DOE costs and statistics from the 70's. How much is $103 million
today? They
didn't elaborate on the uses, so we don't really remember them. Read
directly off of the slides - didn't elaborate Some
of the time they had good graphics, but they failed to use them and instead
read the descriptions directly off of the slide. This
group seemed to argue amongst themselves during the presentation on either
who was covering what or to explain something to one of the presenters. That
should have been discussed before they presented. That made the group come
across as unorganized, unprofessional, and just generally not knowledgeable
about the topic of their presentation. |
OTEC
Presentation on 11/1/2017 – Critique
Pros: · Mentioned
the temperature range needed to operate, around -5˚C to 25˚C · Mentioned
locations that have or are prospective for OTEC ·
Interesting history with Jules Verne and Jacques · Mentioned
disadvantages and limitations like tropical oceans and possibility of danger
from ammonia in a closed cycle Grade: 94 |
Cons: · Did not mention
much on the process especially the closed cycle and the materials used · No recent
innovations on OTEC mentioned or if this was recent technology · How does
the open cycle process produce fresh water and do residents actually drink it · Did not
mention or explain the image with TWO different OTEC systems, land-based and
the island station · Did not
mention the life and ecosystem impact around OTEC plants · Ambiguous
statement of “4x humanity’s electrical needs” solved by OTEC, extremely
theoretical |
Otec presentation critique
The main critique our group had
about the otec presentation was that we were confused
on the expense of the otec project weather to build an
actual island or have the piping near the shore. The group had trouble
answering questions when asked but that was probably due to not enough
information since the technology was relatively unknown. The presentation was
laid out well, although they did spent a little bit too much time reading of
the slides. We liked the use of reports and the history of the technology and
how Otec works. Overall it was cool to learn about a
new technology that we did not know much about.
Grade: 89
Group:
OTEC Critique 11/1/17
Positive ● There
was use of a good diagram to show the process of the OTEC plant from the sea
into the system on both ocean and land based ● They
had good information on a topic that is relatively new so not much
information is available. They were also able to answer questions pretty well
from the little information they had ● Even
though this topic seemed very hard for the presenters to research on they had
some good details on both the two types of OTEC and the advantages and some
disadvantages of each. Grade: 89 |
Negative ●
There was too much information on some slides for the reader to actually
read, and the presenters were just reading off the slides at some point ● Some
presenters did not seem confident in presenting the information they
researched and did not seem well prepared. There were long pauses when
presenting and the information wasn’t very clear ● When
it was time for the presenters to answer some questions on the topic it
seemed like they didn’t really understand or know anything outside of what
was on the slides. This became apparent when multiple people asked them on
details about the offshore OTEC facilities. On the other hand this could have
just been due to lack of public knowledge on the topic. |
OTEC: Pros: Introduced OTEC in a professional manner and
even added some controversy on the subject. Gave areas of its current use, such as Hawaii. Gave examples of initial testing of OTEC
dating back to the 70's. Gave advantages and disadvantages, such as
being able to be used 24/7, but only at 3-4% efficiency. They were realistic on the subject when only saying that it can
only be used in tropical areas, such as Florida and Hawaii Grade: 90 |
Cons: Neglected to explain the closed cycle clearly. One presenter did not finish explaining the
closed cycle. She did not finish the power point, probably due to
stress. |
.
Cons: -
Added some information from the 70's that did not seem relevant Grade: 87 |
Pros: -
Made sure to explain the different processes thoroughly and had detailed
visuals -
Good examples of what it helps in preventing emissions -
Very few pros and cons, however, specific and important -
Spoke of all topics the group knew: a girl finished one of the guy's
descriptions when he didn't explain the topic well enough, in her
opinion -
Slides showed understandable photos of the systems and what the group wanted
to show |