Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a heat engine application that utilizes the Rankine cycle to extract energy from the thermal gradient between surface seawater and deep seawater. Hybrid cycle OTEC (H-OTEC) is a combination of an open cycle desalination system and a closed-cycle power generation system that leverages the features of both cycles. Unlike other desalination technologies that require extensive energy to operate, H-OTEC relies entirely on renewable energy. In addition, a desalination plant can be coupled with the H-OTEC system (H-OTEC + D) to improve its performance. Conventionally, the total heat transfer area of heat exchangers per net power is used as an objective function to achieve optimal performance with the lowest capital expenditure cost. The proposed objective function, unlike the conventional one, considers both power and water. In this study, the optimization of H-OTEC + D and H-OTEC is carried out by minimizing the proposed objective function, considering several independent variables. The performance of both systems is evaluated in terms of the objective function, power consumption, seawater flow rates, and desalination ratio. The findings also indicate the effectiveness of the proposed objective function over the conventional one as an effective tool for maximizing power and desalinated water generation.

海洋热能转换（OTEC）是一种热机应用，利用朗肯循环从表层海水和深层海水之间的热梯度中提取能量。混合循环OTEC（H-OTEC）是开式循环海水淡化系统和闭式循环发电系统的组合，利用了两种循环的特点。与其他需要大量能源才能运行的海水淡化技术不同，H-OTEC 完全依赖可再生能源。此外，海水淡化厂可以与H-OTEC系统（H-OTEC + D）耦合以提高其性能。传统上，单位净功率的换热器总传热面积被用作目标函数，以最低的资本支出成本实现最佳性能。与传统目标函数不同，所提出的目标函数同时考虑了电力和水。在本研究中，H-OTEC + D 和 H-OTEC 的优化是通过最小化所提出的目标函数并考虑几个自变量来进行的。两个系统的性能均根据目标函数、功耗、海水流量和海水淡化率进行评估。研究结果还表明，所提出的目标函数相对于传统目标函数作为最大化电力和淡化水发电的有效工具的有效性。