I had previously wrote many articles regarding the use of liquid air. I would like to extend my idea further for the sea. The main advantage of liquified air is its availability anywhere. Liquid air when gasified expends 700 times its liquid volume. This can be used to do the energy intense mechanical work. My proposition is to generate liquid air on specially build offshore wind turbines. These turbines would be designed to directly liquify air from the kinetic energy of the wind. There would be no electric conversion in the process. Air is liquified using high power heat pumps utilizing Helium gas. During the cooling process, the humidity of the air would be removed. The remaining nitrogen and oxygen would form the liquid air. Building the liquifying plant offshore allows sustained wind energy and infinite cooling reservoir, the water for the heat pump. The end product would then be stored in underwater tanks.
The boats utilizing liquid air would have cryogenic storage tanks. The propulsion would be achieved by gasifying the liquid air by the infinite heat capacity of the sea. The expending gas would push the boat forward like a waterjet. There would be no turbines or propellers. As a result, the boat would be able to operate at shallow waters and there would be no problem of propellers stuck with see weeds. The boat would have a battery on board to power the electronics, but it would be of low capacity. The boat would be refueled at the pontoons attached to the wind turbine. The internal battery of the boat would also be charged during refueling.
Additional wind turbines would expend the coverage of the boats. This allows sustainable patrolling of the shores of a country. The sustainability covers negating the need for imported rare earth elements, lithium and high-power electronics to establish an autonomous patrolling boat fleet.
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