The first new energy source since the dawn of the nuclear age is clean, green, and is pound for pound more powerful than nuclear technology. Every other technology we use has been used since man first walked upright, whether burning something, using the sun, wind, water, or geothermal energy. Meet the most abundant energy source anywhere, untapped, untouched, and awaiting only the will to use it.

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We often hear that solar and wind power are the future of renewable energy, and of course they're important. Important, though, is not enough.

We live in a 24/7 society, but neither wind nor solar are 24/7 sources. If you've ever used your computer or turned on a light on a windless night, whether you're aware of it or not, the power is coming from a conventional power plant, fired either by fossil fuels, hydroelectric, or by nuclear power.

That's the reality we're facing no matter how much we invest in solar and wind. The technologies simply don't work when the wind and sun are down. While that's obvious to anyone who's ever been outdoors, policymakers and those who have huge amounts of money at stake would prefer that the issue remain unaddressed. You simply can't turn up the sun or wind with demand.

They have another problem as well. If you've ever seen a wind farm or a commercial solar system, you know they take huge tracts of land, necessary because the energy source they're tapping is not very dense. At best, it takes a whole lot of real estate to gather enough power to make a difference - assuming, of course, that the source of the needed energy happens to be available at that moment.

Hydrothermal Vents Are the Solution

Hydrothermal vents are naturally occurring geysers of superheated water, found along Mid-Ocean Ridges. These are points along the Tectonic Plates, huge tracts of the Earth's crust that move continents around, found where the plates are pulling away from each other. As the crust stretches and weakens, new volcanic crust from the earth's molten core, the magma, rises to create new crust.

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Because the vents are very deep, around 2,300 m (7,500 feet), the ambient pressure of the ocean is enormous. That pressure continuously forces seawater into cracks and fissures in the sea floor where it eventually contacts the magma, is heated, and then is returned to the ocean as an uninterrupted and uninterruptible geyser of superheated fluid at temperatures up to 400o C (750o F), hot enough to melt lead. Those geysers are the hydrothermal vents.

Although the vents were first confirmed in 1977 and their energy content was immediately apparent, no one had the slightest idea how to utilize this massive energy output. They remained untouched and untouchable at the bottom of a frigid ocean.

Until now.

The Marshall Hydrothermal Recovery System

One night I was watching a National Geographic special on the ocean. Lots of things were discussed, and during a short segment on hydrothermal vents the narrator stated that the energy escaping from just the known vents is about 17 million megawatts, or roughly equivalent to the entire human consumption on the planet.

My first thought was that it was a terrible shame that such abundant energy could not be utilized. Then, as if an invisible hand from a V-8 commercial reached through the screen and slapped me on the forehead, a second thought occurred just a few seconds later which answered the question. Why can't it be used?

In that instant the Marshall Hydrothermal Recovery System was born, a ludicrously simple response to a complex problem. While all previous thought had focused on how to sink a generator to the bottom of the ocean, utilize it effectively and service it, the solution is far simpler.

The Marshall System caps the vent(s) with an insulated pipe, which then ducts the fluid to the surface. A platform similar to that used in oil exploration is stationed above the vent, and the generators are located there, where they're easy to service and access. Undersea cables are then used to bring the power to shore. You can see an animation that completely describes the process here.

From the standpoint of physics, the only thing the fluid is being asked to do is to stay hot and rise.  You can't get much simpler than that.

The energy available is simply astounding. Calculations show that a 3m (ten foot) diameter pipe would deliver about 20 gigawatts to the surface, while the largest nuclear plant in the United States can provide about 4 gigawatts. On a smaller scale, a computer model shows that a 31 cm (12 inch) pipe is expected to provide 83 megawatts of generated power.

No fuel of any kind is ever needed with the Marshall Hydrothermal Recovery System. Nature provides everything. All we need to do is harness it.

Added Benefits

While the astounding energy density alone should be enough to satisfy anyone, there are several other benefits. The hydrothermal fluid escaping the vent is more than just seawater. Its contact with the magma has loaded it with a fantastic cocktail of precious metals and useful minerals. In their natural state, the superheated fluid from the vents contacts seawater whose temperature is just above freezing, and the thermal shock causes the particles to precipitate out and rain down onto the seabed below. This is why the richest surface mines are located in hydrothermal veins, areas where hydrothermal vents were located at some point in the geologic past.

By bringing the fluid to the surface, the minerals and metals come along for the ride, making the Marshall Hydrothermal Recovery System the first practical deep-ocean mining system as well as a fuelless and inexhaustible source of energy.

The fluid is saturated with iron, gold, silver, copper, zinc, cadmium, manganese, and sulfur, along with significant amounts of methane gas mixed into the fluid. Halides, sulphates, chromates, molybdates and tungstates are also abundant, and all at concentrations higher than the richest surface mine imaginable.

There's a certain poetic beauty to the concept. Mankind has always scratched, ripped, and torn away at the Earth to get the things we needed. Hydrothermal vents are freely offering their bounty. All we have to do is take it.

As the superheated fluid rises through the pipe, the ambient pressure decreases and it starts to flash to steam. The computer model showed useful steam velocity at the surface of >100m/sec (218 mph or 360 kph) and pressures of at least 70 bar (1015 psi). Modeling the 31 cm (12 inch) pipe showed 25,000 tons of steam per day delivered to the surface. That's 25 million liters, or 6.6 million gallons of steam, which will condense back into fresh water. While additional stages of purification would likely be needed, the Marshall Hydrothermal Recovery System, beyond all the energy, and beyond the incredible mining potential, is also one of the most efficient water desalination systems ever devised.

Jules Verne said it best. "Whatever one man is capable of conceiving, other men will be able to achieve."

There is no technology that must be developed from the ground up to make this system work. The Marshall System marries existing pipe manufacturing and laying technology with existing oil platforms and electric generating technology, and carries the power to shore through existing undersea cables.

This revolution in energy generation is right there, millimeters from our outstretched fingers. It lacks only the will to get it done.

Additional information

Website
http://www.marshallsystem.com

Radio interview
http://www.marshallsystem.com/radio_interview.mp3

Power Magazine
Article http://www.powermag.com/issues/features/Tapping-seafloor-volcanic-vents_128.html

Local News Article
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/nov/01/santa-paula-man-devises-solution-to-energy-woes/

Authors Website: http://www.marshallsystem.com

Authors Bio:
I'm a scientist and inventor with a strong environmental conscience. I am a news and politics junkie, with my main interests being listening to talk radio, watching political things on TV, and reading news reports. Anything to do with news, politics, or science will interest me.