Ocean energy and the law of the sea: The need for a protocol
Although fossil fuels are the overwhelming source of energy for the world, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future, demographic, environmental, political, and economic factors indicat...
Innovative Uses of the Ocean
Instead of attempting to write an entire book on innovative uses of the ocean I have chosen to highlight some of the more probable future possibilities and avoid the impractical and improbable. In particular, I emphasize possibilities for using the ocean as a source of energy, the interaction of the ocean and climate, fresh water from the ocean, the ocean as an ultimate resting place for nuclear wastes, and imaginative uses of, for example, satellites and the organisms in the ocean. It goes without saying that other major innovative uses of the ocean are likely to be developed that have been completely unanticipated in the writing of the chapter.
Energy Recovery from Saline Water by Means of Electrochemical Cells
An electrochemical concentration cell is proposed as a means of extracting the energy released from the mixing of freshwater with seawater. In order to obtain the maximum power from such a cell, a small amount of seawater must be added to the freshwater prior to its introduction into the cell in order to lower the internal resistance of the cell. The work available from the electrochemical concentration cell is of the same order of magnitude as the work derived from the use of an osmotic pump to extract energy from seawater. Both of these saline water techniques should be considered when unconventional, long-range power sources are evaluated.