DEEPWATER PRESSURE CONVERSION EXITS THE SHADOWS
The concept of constructing a power cycle driven by deepwater pressure, if considered at all, has always been deemed unachievable. Yet every engineer knows that a working fluid moving across a pressure differential can produce power, e.g. turbines, either hydro or gas. Likewise, every offshore player knows full well the tremendous pressures that exist deep in the sea. What has eluded the experts for time immemorial is how to capitalize on the very significant pressure disparity between a naturally occurring body of deepwater and its surface.
Today, oil producers and offshore engineering firms have a unique advantage thanks to ongoing progress over the past century. Overcoming the challenges of ever deeper plays worldwide has made great strides. What was unreachable just a few decades ago is now accessible due to advances in engineering, information technology, and robotics. In this context, depths greater than 5000 feet (> 1500 m) with pressures exceeding 2200 psi (>150 bar) can realistically be viewed as potential energy sources, not just for the available hydrocarbons, but from the water itself. This wasn’t always the case.
Approximately 3000 years ago, long before Archimedes, Pythagoras or Hero, a young man who went from shepherd boy in the wilderness to king of Israel penned these words,” By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.” Ps. 33: 6-7 KJV. Interestingly, owtsar, the Hebrew word translated “storehouses” could also have been translated “treasury” or “treasure house” and usually was yet, in the natural, King David had no way to fully comprehend the profound truth in his words. Consider that in 1000 B.C. ocean going vessels were still in their infancy and the ancients had no opportunity to know or understand how deep the oceans actually were, the attendant pressure and its effects, or what value might lie hidden therein. And forget trying to gain access to it! Fortunately, the means to manipulate the pressures of the deep now exists – though the idea of how has heretofore evaded us.
In more recent times, oil/gas producers and the industry as a whole find themselves in the strange paradox of having, in many ways, to lead the charge in curtailing the production and use of the very commodity their industry has spent over a hundred years providing to the world. The casualties of this enigma will be many, but fortunately that same industry is also best positioned to now garner the wealth hidden deep in that treasure house which covers over 70% of the earth’s surface.
Hydropower is considered a clean renewable but has been limited to land based geographic locations which are, or were, suitable for development. Most of the best sites have already been utilized while other less reliable renewables, i.e. wind and solar, have captured the hearts and minds of the public, the lobbyists, and the policy makers. Their long term efficacy remains to be seen. Yet the cleanest, most reliable power source lies untapped, deep offshore, and its utilization will be a game changer.
Proprietary technology has been demonstrated which can induce a static, high pressure head of water to flow, part of its kinetic energy then being utilized in a series of processes to cause that same liquid to rise to the surface, against gravity. This isn’t perpetual motion. Another quantity of stored energy is part of the system, and though energy can neither be created or destroyed, it can very effectively be re-used. This re-usable energy, combined with nature’s gift of gravity allows useful power to be exported in a continual steady- state flow cycle. None of this attempts to defy fundamental physics, but rather cleverly exploits its previously unrecognized capabilities. Every well established fluid and thermodynamic principle still holds.
The potential for offshore rigs to transform into the cleanest of power houses, transmitting totally ‘green’ energy to the mainland, is not a pipe dream. Similarly, freshwater storehouses such as the Great Lakes are viable candidates for this same technology, albeit at shallower depths. Moreover, these same physics can be implemented into land based systems wherever significant ‘head’ can be artificially developed such as in high rise buildings, communication towers, and even deep wells.
All of the components which comprise the novel Deepwater Pressure Conversion System are readily available while nearly all of the fluid dynamics are well understood. Some key process steps however, those that have only recently been discovered and demonstrated by Storehouse Power Corp., will undoubtedly be the subject of further study and detailed analysis for years to come.
Complex as they are, it could be argued that the steady, incremental advances in deepwater operations were but the necessary baby steps to finally enable the stored energy in the deepest of waters to be accessed. While oil and gas will certainly be necessary for the foreseeable future, the offshore industry now has another option within which it can diversify, almost seamlessly, to further capitalize on the many years of investment, research, and admirable progress it has made in providing the energy resources that benefit mankind.
For further information, contact Storehouse Power Corp.
Date: April 7, 2023
Property of: Mark Nicodemus
Storehouse Power Corp.
Spring City, TN USA
www.storehousepowercorp.com
Email: [email protected]