ocean energy Articles
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Environmental impact and design of an OTEC plant
This paper presents a critical examination of the environmental impact and design optimisation of a potential OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) power plant on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Specific power of a finite-time thermodynamic heat engine is chosen to be the objective function in the design of the OTEC. ICAI (Intelligent Computer Aided Instruction) computer ...
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Environmental impacts of ocean-energy systems: a life-cycle assessment
Ocean-energy technologies — which harvest renewable energy from the sea — will have a significant role to play in a future low-carbon society. A recent life-cycle analysis of different ocean-energy devices has found that life-cycle environmental impacts are caused mainly by the materials used in the mooring, foundations and structures. Improving the efficiency and lifespan of the ...
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Bioaccumulation of petroleum hydrocarbons in arctic amphipods in the oil development area of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea
An objective of a multiyear monitoring program, sponsored by the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management was to examine temporal and spatial changes in chemical and biological characteristics of the Arctic marine environment resulting from offshore oil exploration and development activities in the development area of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. To determine if petroleum ...
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What`s at Stake: The debate over Arctic Drilling
Royal Dutch Shell is planning to park two massive Arctic oil drilling rigs in Seattle's waterfront before they head north - but the petrochemical giant will first have to get around protesters in kayaks and others who want to thwart the new frontier in oil exploration and spark a national debate about fossil fuels and climate change. Here's a look at the debate over Shell's plans to drill in the ...
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10 simple ways to reduce water consumption
Water is the most life sustaining resource on earth. Essential to all aspects of our human lives, it serves as the key ingredient in food and drink, helps us fabricate clothes, landscapes our favorite places, drives economic growth and feeds agricultural development. Our bodies themselves are 70% water. According to the Department of Health, to keep ourselves healthywe should drink about 1.2 ...
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Zero emissions day: What it is and why we need it
Today is September the 21st – a day that didn’t hold any particular significance until a simple observation occurred in the 1980’s. Ken Wallace, father of a newborn daughter, realized, after witnessing the local neighborhood pizzeria truck, parked, running and driverless, combined with the surrounding traffic that “Stopping all this for a bit would be most excellent for ...
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Drones reveal earthquake hazards hidden in the abyss
There is no force on Earth quite like a subduction zone. Slips along these faults, found where plates of dense ocean crust dive beneath continents, cause the world's most destructive earthquakes and tsunamis: 1964 in Alaska; 2004 in Indonesia; 2011 in Japan. But much remains unknown about how those faults slip and stick between catastrophes. The radio signals of GPS, so powerful for tracking ...
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Senate proposes funding increases for EPA, interior in Fiscal 2014 appropriations bill
Senate Democrats Aug. 1 released a $30.2 billion draft appropriations bill that would increase funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by approximately $105 million, or 1.25 percent, compared to the pre-sequester fiscal year 2013 enacted level. Overall, the draft bill includes a total of $8.48 billion in funding for EPA. The bill would maintain funding for the clean water and drinking ...
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Data from the Ocean is a Big Deal: Here’s Why (and How We Can Get Better Collecting It)
It’s hard to overstate the importance of our oceans. They cover nearly three-quarters of the globe, represent a major food source, and regulate our climate. By 2030, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates ocean-based industries will generate $3 trillion of economic activity. But in a world where data has become critical to manage every challenge and ...
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Modeling emissions from offshore drilling
To regulate drilling activities proposed by oil and gas companies in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico (GOM), governing agencies require the submittal and approval of certain plan documents before drilling activities can be initiated. For drilling activities in the Western GOM, these plans typically consist of one of the following: EP, or Exploration Plan – required to conduct exploratory ...
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Is Ocean Desalination a Sustainable Solution for Meeting the Potable Needs of the US & Around the World?
Short answer: YES If you want to know why ocean desalination is a sustainable way to meet potable water needs around the world, let’s break this question down into its basic components: What is ocean desalination? What constitutes a sustainable solution? Why are we concerned with potable water needs? Where in the world does this apply? We’ll answer each of these first and then we ...
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Recapping the Debate Over Whether Low-Carbon Economies Are Good for Tech
To be of any use, tech products need power from electrical outlets, stored chemical energy such as batteries and generators, solar collectors, kinetic energy like my emergency hand-crank radio/charger, or other means. As more global and local regions move away from fossil-fuel-based power to low-carbon renewable power, I wonder how my colleagues in the tech industry would weigh in on a debate ...
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Desalination in the Caribbean
Islands have long relied on the process to supplement natural water supplies More than 7,000 islands of the Caribbean Archipelago are scattered over a million-square-mile area between North and South America. Some smaller islands are naturally dry, but some volcanic islands — like Grenada and St. Lucia — are well forested and provide significant water catchment to support spring ...
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Where does CO2 free hydrogen gas come from?
It’s no longer a question whether hydrogen will have a major impact on the automotive industry, but rather an accepted fact that it will. Volvo’s and Daimler’s recent announcement (read here) of joint efforts in developing and manufacturing fuel cells is the latest sign of the importance of hydrogen for energy storage. But how is hydrogen produced, where does the gas come from, ...
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Eco-economy indicator: past decade the hottest on record
The first decade of the twenty-first century was the hottest since recordkeeping began in 1880. With an average global temperature of 14.52 degrees Celsius (58.1 degrees Fahrenheit), this decade was 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than any previous decade. The year 2005 was the hottest on record, while 2007 and 2009 tied for second hottest. In fact, 9 of the 10 warmest years ...
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A warming world means more destructive storms
Elevated global temperatures bring a number of threats, including rising seas and more crop-withering heat waves. Higher surface water temperatures in the tropical oceans also provide more energy to drive tropical storm systems, leading to more-destructive hurricanes and typhoons. The combination of rising seas, more powerful storms, and stronger storm surges can be devastating. Just how ...
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Climate Change & Health
The heat accumulating in the earth (mostly in the oceans) because of manmade emissions into the atmosphere is roughly equal to the heat of 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs exploding across the planet EVERY DAY.1 As a physician involved in environmental medicine for over 40 years, I certainly agree with the World Health Organization that climate change is the most significant health issue of this ...
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Influence of wave and current flow on sediment-carrying capacity and sediment flux at the water–sediment interface
In nearshore waters, spatial and temporal scales of waves, tidal currents, and circulation patterns vary greatly. It is, therefore, difficult to combine these factors’ effects when trying to predict sediment transport processes. This paper proposes the concept of significant wave velocity, which combines the effects of waves, tides, and ocean currents using the horizontal kinetic energy ...
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Desalination in the Caribbean
On Aruba and some other Caribbean islands, a lack of rainfall makes desalination a logical choice for ensuring potable water supplies. Islands have long relied on the process to supplement natural water supplies More than 7,000 islands of the Caribbean Archipelago are scattered over a million-square-mile area between North and South America. Some smaller islands are naturally dry, but ...
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Questions and Answers on innovation in the blue economy
Why do we need innovation in the blue economy? The blue economy is already vast with over 5 million people employed in blue sectors such as coastal and maritime tourism, shipbuilding and fisheries, and it could grow further and employ 7 million by 2020. But as fresh water and land are running scarce in the face of a growing world population, we will have to turn more and more to our oceans for ...
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