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OTEC power plant to be commissioned by year-end
FEBRUARY 1: A pilot Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) power plant, the first such in the country, was expected to be commissioned off the Indian coast by year-end, said AE Muthunayagam, secretary, department of ocean development, in Kochi on Tuesday. The plant, with 1mw gross power generation capacity, would be mounted on to a floating barge moored off the sea between Sri Lanka and India, which is a cyclone free area, Muthunayagam said, inaugurating a national symposium `Trompet 2000' on ocean and atmoshpere. The barge is being manufactured at dempo in Goa. "We are pioneers in the field and we have strong hopes we will succeed," he said.Giving details about the plant, he said it would operate on `rankine cycle' and use ammonia as working fluid. The warm surface water of the sea would evaporate the ammonia and its vapour will drive a four-stage axial flow reaction turbine which would be coupled to a generator. The vapour leaving the turbine would be condensed by the cold water from a depth of about 1000 metres and recycled. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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