Refrigeration, air/cond: would this work? Use the force of rising ocean waves as a piston in a cylinder for a?

Question

compressor? Say we use air, for simplicity and to avoid polluting. We use a large sealed cylinder (several meters wide?), and water is the piston. A wave swells up, it compresses air inside at the top. A relief valve lets the air out to a heat exchanger (submerged in ocean water, so it is both power source and heat sink.) Compressed air leaves heat exchanger cooler and goes through another heat exchanger in a space to be cooled. Air picks up heat and returns to bottom of the cylinder; it bubbles up through water to the top, to be compressed again. A poppet valve keeps water from flowing back into air tubing; the water forms a seal around the tube rising into the cylinder. This is similar to (unliquified) gas storage tanks.

We need chains/cables attached to a floating platform the system is built on, so that as tide rises and lowers daily, the throw of the piston (rise of the wave swell) stays about the same.

Feasible? How efficient? Suggestions? Thanks for all serious answers!

Answer 1

Air cooling and ice making has been around for years. The problem with air is that while you can compress it and run it thru a heat exchanger, it must perform work to get really cold. Airliners use a stage from the engine compressor thru a heat exchanger leading to a small turbine, and the turbine exhausts into the cabin. The work done on the turbine and its load (usually a fan) is at the sacrifice of the air's internal energy, so the turbine's exhaust is cold. Drive a load with your ocean compressed air, use the exhaust, and it should work.

Answer 2

This has already been used in the north sea about twenty years ago. By attaching a generator on a floating deck with chains attached to the sea floor. As the tide or waves roll up and down the chains pull and release a huge flywheel that rotates continuously, producing electricity that charge batteries and operate electronic equipment. There have been many other modifications of the same design since then.

Answer 3

In theory only. The problem is that the degree of compression caused by ocean waves is only a few psi, and the change in temperature by compressing air by a few psi is too small to overcome the other miscellanoeus loses in any real system.
That said, however, the idea of using wave motion to generate power to run an air conditioner is quite feasable - there are sveral projects under way to do just that. Google 'wave power' (or check wikipedia) for the current state of the art.

Answer 4

properly i do no longer understand a thank you to surf on the sea, buttt i like to loaf around interior the sea and experience the swells and stuff, plenty greater advantageous than i like to "visit cyberspace" yet i'm 3 hours faraway from a sea coast.

Answer 5

In my mind it seems like it would work but i feel like it wouldn't be very efficient. I don't know why it wouldn't be efficient but that was just my first impression