Environmental impacts of utilization of ageing fixed offshore platform for ocean thermal energy conversion

Abstract

Most Malaysian jacket platforms have outlived their design life. As these old platforms have outlived their design life, other alternatives must be considered. As several offshore oil and gas extraction installations approach the end of their operational life, many options such as decommissioning and the development of a new source of energy such as wind farms are introduced. The objective of this paper is to investigate the environmental impacts of utilising ageing fixed offshore platform as a source for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). The environmental impact of utilising an ageing fixed offshore platform as an OTEC source is discussed. OTEC produces energy by taking advantage of temperature variations between the ocean surface water and the colder deep water through cold-water intake piping, which requires a seawater depth of 700 metres. The output of this study shows that OTEC is envisioned to preserve marine life, becoming a new and reliable source of energy, assist clean water production, and reduce the negative impact of climate change. OTEC platforms utilising ageing platforms may lead to 44 % of fish catch in the ocean, remove 13 GW of surface ocean heat for every GW of electricity production per year, generate 1.3105 tonnes of hydrogen per year for each GW of electricity generated. In addition, OTEC platforms can reduce approximately 5106 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment for 1 GW of electricity generated per year, and supply 2 million litres of water per day for a 1 MW platform. Since Malaysia's seawater profile allows for installing a fixed offshore platform as an OTEC power plant, Malaysia has many potentials to profit from the OTEC process.