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. 

 

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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