Abstract
An open-cycle ocean thermal energy conversion (OC-OTEC) system is one of energy conversion methods to generate electricity from ocean thermal energy. For OC-OTEC system, steam evaporated from the surface seawater due to flash evaporation drives the turbine. At that time, dissolved gas such as air is introduced into the low-pressure system (OC-OTEC system) as the non-condensable gas, which degrades the performance of condensation heat transfer.
In this paper, a small scale OC-OTEC experimental unit experimentally investigates the effect of non-condensable gas on the heat transfer performance in a condenser. The experimental results are discussed in comparison with theoretical estimation by Sparrow-Lin method. It is shown that the condensation is occupied by heat and mass transfer near a condensation surface and that the condensation efficiency is affected by exhaust quantity of non-condensable gas at relative high concentration ratio of condensable gas.
