Material Property Evaluation of Selected Plastics for Projected OTEC Heat Exchanger Environments

In recent years the world's insatiable demand for energy and decreasing supply of fossil fuels has accelerated the search for new or alternative energy sources. The concept of generating electrical power utilizing the naturally occurring thermal gradient between cold deep ocean water and warm surface water is the basis for Offshore Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) power plant designs. To operate these systems with such a small temperature differential (40F° or less) extremely large areas (approximately 4x106 sq. ft.) of heat exchanger surface are required1. Thus, the materials selection facet of OTEC system design is important.