Jordan Murray with Iwan Alexander

An Investigation of the Feasibility of a Lake Erie Based Solar Energy Heat Pump Electric Power Plant

       A local inventor has designed a heat engine to generate electricity from lake water.  In his rather unspecific design, the working fluid, a low temperature liquid refrigerant, enters an evaporator where it undergoes a transition to the gaseous phase and absorbs heat from the lake water.  The gaseous working fluid is pressurized and circulated through the system by a solar powered compressor. The refrigerant passes through a turbine, generating power, and then condenses and the cycle is repeated.

       The basic idea proposed by Mr. Isaacs is not new and belongs to a class of geothermal and ocean energy generating devices that operate either as heat engines or heat pumps. Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) uses the temperature difference that exists between deep and shallow water to run a heat engine to produce electricity. The larger the temperature difference, the greater the efficiency of the system. Evaporation limits surface temperature to about 27 °C and the subsurface water rarely falls below 5 °C. (For this case the Carnot efficiency is about 7%).  Typically, designs achieve actual efficiencies of only about 3%. 

The objective of this project is to analyze the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the proposed system and to suggest modifications that would improve the design.  The results of the investigation will be used to advise a local charitable foundation as to whether it is worth funding development of this idea.