I've made a small addition to the 'Renewable Energy Transportation' section at the bottom of my Starship Generations website entitled "Benthic Energy".
Success_Machine, Would you please explain Benthic Energy. I can not at present go to your site from work. Thanx.
The main use for this would be synthesized foods like tofu. Most people(me included) aren't particularly interested in making such foods the main part of thier diet(tofu is, so far as I know, used almost solely in ethnic recipes). Perhaps if you could get an appetizing pasta out of it... Otherwise the soel purpose would be feed for livestock and ethanol production.
Over 70% of the Earth's surface is covered in ocean. But most of the oceans bottoms are barren since no sunlight can penetrate the deep water. No plant matter grows in the deep ocean. We could use the deep ocean as an energy resource if we construct giant floating rafts consisting of simple wire screens suspended 15-40 meters beneith the surface by floatation buoys. Seaweed could attach to these screens and grow in vast quantities. Harvested seaweed can then be used to synthesize ethanol as a renewable fuel for transportation. There is more, but you'll have to visit the site.
You could also mine Methane Hydrate (frozen methane with water molecules in the center of the methane) from the ocean, or use thermocline technologies to produce electricity. I'm not totally sure what thermocline is, but i think it works on the principle of the temperature differences in the different layers of the ocean's waters.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is used only to produce electricity. It doesn't produce fuel that can be used in automobiles, requires alot of capital outlay, equipment, turbomachinery, and can only be used in tropical marine environments where surface water is warmer than the deeper subsurface water. In contrast seaweed can be grown anywhere. All you need is a lightweight screen suspended several meters beneith the surface by floatation buoys or ballast tanks. Large areas of ocean can be covered in this way, and because the structure is located in deep water it never touches the seafloor. Consequently the seaweed cannot be attacked by sea urchin infestations. Such structures can be towed under by winches to escape rough seas, and floated again after the storm has passed. Biomass has the potential to be chemically synthesized into ethanol, an ideal renewable automotive fuel. Since the ocean covers 70% of the world's surface, there is awesome potential in seaweed biomass ethanol IMO. Just because it could utilize the deep ocean waters, I've coined the term "Benthic Energy" for this concept.
