Artificial Upwelling using jet Device

Artificial Upwelling using jet Device

 

Abdulrahamn Alotaibi,Ali Al Rabeh, Scott Samuel

Abstract:

Our team designed a device to artificially upwell the ocean to increase available fish stocks to increase the viable food production of the ocean. Our main idea is composed of a wind turbine for power supply and a water jet placed around 100m down that will force the colder but nutrient dense water into the top section of the ocean that sunlight penetrates, and thus feed the bottom of the ocean food chain. The jet will be made buoyant on the top section so that it will float and stay in an upward position passively. Ideally a set up would include multiple jets placed in an area to maximize the concentration of nutrients in a given area so that it can sustain substantial fish populations. The jets will be held in place by a mooring line that will have a pulley attached to it so that the jets can be adjusted for what depth they are at or to have them be brought up to the surface if any maintenance is needed. This mooring line can also be used to supply power to the jets through being connected to the wind turbine.

When searching for weather or not this had been patented already the keyword “upwelling” gave me about 30 results that are like this idea but none are done with a jet/turbine, they all use a pipe or a heat source to create upwelling. Using upwelling jet give me one result that is similar but is used to create artificial breezes on a coast. To simulate how natural upwelling generally occurs. Most of the attempt into artificial upwelling all include using a pipe to transport the water but that strategy has been tested and a large enough pipe could not survive the open ocean and be effective, because of this none of our designs include a pipe to transport the water.

Embodiments:

In the embodiments we will claim different ways to power the jet, our main contender is a wind turbine because it does not need to have fuel brought out to it or have a cable run from the shore to provide power. But a generator could also be used. Our main idea was to create electricity and have the jet powered that way, but a mechanical solution such as a spinning cable could be used as well.

Main Embodiment:

Our main embodiment is the turbine setup that we based our calculations off of, which is just a wind turbine linked to an underwater propeller that is about 60m in diameter. This design though not as simple as the direct shaft embodiment, has the added simplicity of the power source, a wind turbine that produces electricity, already made commercially so that aspect would not have to be designed specifically for this application.

Direct shaft embodiment description:

This embodiment would use a wind turbine like in the old days that just creates rotational force with the water jet be directly powered from it without the need to generate electricity. The use of a shaft is needed to translate the rational movement and the use of gears to achieve the desired fan speeds underwater. This embodiment would be useful to cut down on the costs because it does not use electricity unlike the other embodiments.

The multiple propeller embodiment:

This embodiment uses multiple propellers all powered from one turbine. This design has smaller propellers then they single propeller design but are all powered by the same wind turbine. The multiple propeller design has an advantage over the single propeller design because it covers larger area to move nutrients up while the single propeller has one focused area. The multiple propellers are the same level in the oceans but spread apart. A downside to this design is the increased complexity that comes along with increasing the number of jets.

Free summing 

 Another design would be to have the setup be free swimming instead of anchored to one point so that it could move around and saturate an even larger area with nutrients. We could use different ways to make that Jet upwelling free swimming in the ocean by adjusted The turbine at an angle that will allow that will use the thrust from the jet to move the setup. also, we could use smaller turbines and attach them on the side of the bigger turbine as shown in the picture.

  

Vertical propeller stack:

This design is a stack of multiple propellers to bring nutrients up from the bottom of the ocean. This design is not needed because we realize that we do not need to go very deep into the ocean so only one propeller is needed.

Dead Zone/Carbon sequestration embodiment:

These two may need to be separate inventions but they are essentially the same device but instead of forcing water up that push it down to. To sequester carbon the algae could be forced to sink down to the ocean floor. But what I think could be more effective would be using them to help solve the ocean dead zone problems that come from agricultural runoff. Dead zones are cause from a depletion of oxygenated water, this device could cause turbulence near the bottom to mix up good water into the dead zones and help alleviate their problems.

Cost Analysis

The cost of our main embodiment is shown by the table below. These calculations are also used for some of the design aspect such as where we get our propeller diameter from.

Upwelling calculations
Density difference	300	g/m3		nitrogen	0.13	g/m3
				fish % dry	30%
cost of wind turbine	$3,000,000			fish % protein	50%
total cost multiplier	3			nitrogen % protein	18%
total cost	$9,000,000			$/kg fish	0.10
cost per year	$900,000			% N/kg wet fish	2.70%
depth of jet	150	m		N conversion effi	50%
potential energy/m3	220.5	J/m3		kg fish/m3 water	0.0048
ideal velocity	0.664078309	m/s		kg fish/yr	464236031
wind turbine power	1.50E+06	W		$/yr value	46423603
propeller efficiency	80%			benefit cost ratio	51.58
propeller force	1.81E+06	N
force per area	392.49
area	4.60E+03	m2
diameter	76.58290728	m
water flow rate	3.06E+03	m3/s
water flow/yr	9.64E+10	m3/yr

This table is using some base estimates of water density gradient, depth of propeller, propeller efficiency, wind turbine output, amount of nitrogen in fish, and etc. to get an estimate of the cost and benefit that this invention could have. In this current set up it has over 50 times return of total cost into dollars of fish.

Location

We think the best location to install the devices would be around north west California because the current is going to split to the Alaskan ocean and to California which would allow algae to grow and it will contribute to enlarge the fish population in those two areas and the Alaska ocean is known for being the one of the biggest source of the USA fish supply.

DFE and DFS

This design is actually meant to help the environment perform better so that humans can sustain themselves with less impact to the environment, but some things need to be taken into account such as what materials go into the design and how they may have an effect on the ocean around them, so things such as toxic lubricants may have to be changed to more biofriendly ones.

As for safety, this device is not actively used by people, but if it is to create fish populations that entails fishermen and their boats going near it so we will have to have warnings so that people know where these things are in order to avoid a collision with it.

Legality

Under current international laws, an upwelling device such as this would not be illegal as long as when it is no longer being used it is not just dumped/sunk In the ocean as this violates many treaties, though with them being in US waters, these rules may not be applicable, though proper disposal would still be preferred. There is a large lack of laws governing systems such as artificial upwellers in general and most of the literature out there refences how it is generally an unlegislated topic, which in our case is good as the government won’t say that this work is illegal.

Source on lack of legislation regaurding upwelling published in 2015

Scheiber, Harry N., and Moon-Sang Kwon. "Maritime Climate Engineering under the LOS Convention." Science, Technology, and New Challenges to Ocean Law. Leiden: Brill, 2015. 291. Print.

Conclusion

As team, we think that this patent is something that should be pushed to get as its use in today’s world is apparent with the increasing need to create sustainable food sources increasing this is a very worthwhile endeavor. This invention is cheap enough that many different entities around the world could purchase it to increase their own fish stocks. Though, we are still far from having a complete design, I believe we have shown that this could work but many fluid mechanics simulations would have to be run to perfect the design so that it has the optimal effect and to consult with biologist that specialize in the area to inform us of the best strategies to promote fish to grow in these new viable areas.