Iceberg Utilization Proceedings of the First International Conference and Workshops on Iceberg Utilization for Fresh Water Production, Weather Modification and Other Applications held at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA, October 2-6, 1977 Edited by A. A. Husseiny Department of Chemical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering Iowa State University Ames, Iowa PERGAMON PRESS New York / Toronto / Oxford / Sydney / Frankfurt / Paris Pergamon Press Offices U.S.A. Pergamon Press Inc., Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, New York 10523, U.S.A. U.K. Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3, OBW, England C ANADA Pergamon of Canada, Ltd , 75 The East Mall, Toronto, Ontario M8Z 5W3, Canada AUSTRALIA Pergamon Press (Aust) Pty , Ltd., 19a Boundary Street, Rushcutters Bay, N.S.W. 2011, Australia FRANCE Pergamon Press SARL, 24 rue des Ecoles, 75240 Paris, Cedex 05, France WEST G E R M A N Y Pergamon Press GmbH, 6242 Kronberg/Taunus, Pferdstrasse 1, West Germany Copyright © 1978 Iowa State University Research Foundation Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data International Conference and Workshops on Iceberg Utilization for Fresh Water Production, Weather Modification, and Other Applications, 1st, Iowa State University, 1977 Iceberg utilization Includes index. 1 Icebergs—Utilization—Congresses. 2. Water supply—Congresses. I. Husseiny, A. A. II. Title TD353.I53 1977 333.9'1 78-5119 ISBN 0-08-022916-6 ISBN 0-08-022915-8 pbk. This book was prepared with partial support from National Science Foundation Grant DPP-7 7-09872. However, any opinions, finding, conclusions and/or recommendations herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the Iowa State University Research Foundation. Printed in the United States of America PREFACE In a land of plenty, people have started to realize that a time of scara- city is approaching. The earth's resources of energy, fresh water and minerals are depleting at an accelerating rate. Human consumption is doubling at an increasing rate. This is due to changes in the standard of living in many countries, to increases in population, to industrialization activites in developing economies, and to the growing interest in urban life style in place of simple nomadic or rural life style. Some regions have abundance of cer- tain resources but have shortages of water and foodstuff. In other regions, deserts are spreading and frequent droughts have started to affect the yield of agriculture. Consequently, scientists and engineers are in active search for solutions. The vast amount of fresh water and energy stored in icebergs have stirred the curiosity of those who like to believe that everything around has some ultimate use. Meanwhile, icebergs continue to be under close surveillance as a hazard to navigation and oil drilling rigs. Thus, a wealth of information on icebergs has accumulated. The available information has stimulated the interest in exploiting icebergs. This interest has been encouraged by the desire to utilize antarctic resources to augment the earth's depleting supply of energy, water, and minerals. Up until recently, the efforts to explore the feasibility of using ice bergs as water resources has been limited to inventions, to appraisals and to brainstorming. The pecularity of the concept has inspired the imagination of the expert and lay person alike. The thrill of the subject matter has attract ed the comic writer and the serious investigator. The novelty of the topic has stimulated the innovative ability of many entrepreneurs. The seriousness of the water shortage has been a greater motivation to address the concept of iceberg utilization objectively and to search for solu tions to the implementation problems This would require pooling the expertise of many experts from a variety of disciplines to evaluate the feasibility of the concept and provide technical recommendations for future studies and pro jects. One way to achieve this goal would be the establishment of a forum for research and educational institutions and industries to exchange ideas and present the results of their exploratory work. Hence, the First International Conference and Workshop on Iceberg Utilza tion for Fresh Water Production, Weather Modification and Other Applications has been organized for discussion of the concept, and analysis of different aspects of icebergs in motion. The conference has been planned to meet the following objectives: 1. To provide a forum for representatives of industries, research establishments and universities to exchange ideas and information relevant to iceberg utilization and potential applications. xi PREFACE xii 2. To provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art assessment of iceberg utilization research and development, 3» To identify specific problem areas involved in re- alization of the concept including basic science, engineering and physics problems. 4o To recommend future research and development and data requirements. 5. To examine the feasibility of the overall iceberg utilization concept in regional and global perspec- tive. 6. To evaluate the impact of iceberg utilization on the environmentj ecology, climate, marine transportation, and on international law. 7. To examine the energy conservation potential of alter- nate water production schemes. 8. To assess the sociopolitical spects of the concept. 9. To develop a document which will provide researchers and scientists with reference material and provide technical experts and planners a basis for future decisions. 10. To transfer advanced technology of iceberg utiliza- tion from the phase of concepts and innovations to applications through industrial participation. Those objectives have been adequately met within the short period of time in which the conference was planned and organized. The overwhelming re- sponse to the conference invitation and call for papers of scientists and engineers working in related areas has greatly helped in achieving those objec- tives. In fact, including all of the outstanding papers in the conference program was not at all possible. Consequently, some of the papers have only been distributed and the authors whenever possible have made brief presenta- tions during the discussions in the various workshops. The high quality and thoroughness of the papers presented in the conference are more than what could have been expected in a novel area of research for which practically no funds were available. In addition to the above objectives, the conference has helped in the evolution of iceberg utilization from being one person's idea into an interdisciplinary field. A wide range of topics was covered, including locating, tracking, and selection of icebergs using remote sensing and radar techniques; studies on engineering and physical properties of icebergs; transportation; international and national implications of iceberg utilization; economical, legal, organiza- tional and managerial aspects; weather modification; in-transit dynamics; pro- tection; feasibility of iceberg use in different regions; and iceberg power. The meeting was international in scope, with participants from Australia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Libya, Monaco, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, United Kingdom, and PREFACE xiii the United States. A total of 68 papers were formally presented. Out of these are three from Australia, five from Canada, two from Egypt, six from France, one from Holland, one from Libya, three from United Kingdom, five from Saudi Arabia and the rest are from the United States. In order to accelerate the production of the proceedings some of the papers have been selected for publication. The detailed discussions in the workshops are not included here. The rest of the contributions will be made available at a later date. The conference was sponsored by: The National Science Foundation Iceberg Transport International Limited King Abdulaziz University King Faisal Foundation U. S. Coast Guard International Working Group on Iceberg Utilization Iowa State University Some events have been supported by: Kaiser Engineers Burns and Roe, Inc. Mr. Youssef Elakeel, Saudi Arabian Marketing and General Contracting Corporation The International Six The editor likes to acknowledge the contribution of Professor Robert F. Brodsky, Head of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University in organizing the sessions on tracking and selection. Mrs. Connie Westbrook was very help- ful in the preparations for the meeting and the proceedings. The success of the conference and the availability of this publication are the results of hard work and sincere cooperation between the members of the program committee and the organization committee. The recommendations of the steering committee were invaluable in planning and executicr of the program of the conference. A. A. Husseiny, Ph.D.,P Inst M Associate Professor Chemical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering Department Iowa State University Ames, Iowa October, 1977 CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION STEERING COMMITTEE H.R. H. Prince Mohamad Al-Faisal, President, Iceberg Trans- port International Limited Angus Bruneau, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's Canada lbrohim Clark, (Executive Secretary), President, Technology International Inc , USA A.A. Delyannis, Working Party on Fresh Water From the Sea, Greece Steward S Flaschen, Vice President, ITT Corp., USA M. 0. Jamjoom, Dean, College of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia Mary Margaret Jenior, AIP, U. S. Energy Research and Develop- ment Administration Thomas F Malone, Holcomb Research Institute Director, USA M. Obeid, University of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Roger Revelle, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA Zeinab A. Sabri, Iowa State University, USA Peter Sctiwerdtfeger, Flinders University, Australia Paul-Emile Victor, Director, French Polar Expeditions, France Daniel J Zaffarano, (Chairman), Vice President, Iowa State University, USA ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE Daniel J. Zaffarano, General Chairman H. K. Baker, Arrangements Paul Barcus, Coordinator William Berkland, Communications Specialist Abdo A. Husseiny, Technical Chairman Connie Westbrook, General Secretary Carol Amundsen, Secretary PROGRAM COMMITTEE Abdo A. Husseiny, Iowa State University, Technical Chairman Robert F. Brodsky, Iowa State University lbrohim Clark, Technology International Shawkat Ismail, Consultant Georges Mougin, Iceberg Transport International Daniel J. Zaffarano, Iowa State University xv xvi CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION INTERNATIONAL WORKING GROUP ON ICEBERG UTILIZATION Ibrohim Clark, President, Technology International Inc. , USA J. Murray Day, Chairman, Ecology Research Associates, USA E. Delyannis, Working party on Fresh Water from the Sea, Greece George A. Doumani, President Technotran Inc., USA Edgar G. Grant, ITT Corporation, USA Raymond T. Heizer, Kaiser Engineers, USA John Hult, President, Application Concepts and Technology Association, USA Abdo A. Husseiny, Executive Director, Iowa State University Jonathan Go Job, University of Adelaide, Australia G. Ali Mansouri, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, USA Paul J. Schroeder, Fluor Engineering and Contractors, Inc„ USA EDITORIAL NOTE Due to the recent revived interest in iceberg utilization we have moved as rapidly as we can to make the proceedings available within a short time after the conference. To do so, we were forced to exclude some of the papers vhich were not submitted in the final form at the conference. This decision does not reflect on the quality of the papers not included in this volume. We hope that the rest of the papers will be published in another volume as soon as they become available. Among the papers excluded from this publication are: 1. papers which need major revisions, whether in content or format, to assure the quality of this publication. 2. Several outstanding papers which have been submitted after the conference and were not formally presented. 3. Papers which have been presented at the conference but only submitted either as short summaries or as a copyrighted paper of earlier work. 4. Papers presented during the panel discussions in the workshops. A. A. Husseiny General Editor xvii INTRODUCTION Daniel J. Zaffarano, Vice President, Graduate College, Iowa State University Although the potability of iceberg water was recorded by Captain Cook in 1760, the economic feasibility of transporting icebergs or iceberg-derived water to drought-stricken regions has not yet been proved by demonstration. While the technical difficulties involved would seem a priori less demanding than for the task of placing an astronaut on the moon, other options for im- proving water supply, such as impoundment by dams, cloud seeding, and desali- nation of ocean water, have appeared to be more tractable for the present. Recently, however, the problems associated with a growing world population, which include rising demands for food, energy and fresh water, have brought renewed awareness that conventional solutions to water shortages may not be sufficient and that the principal storehouse of the earth's fresh water — the Antarctic glaciers eventually must be tapped. At the same time, the advent of huge drilling platforms for oil wells be- neath the Arctic and North seas has stimulated the development of large tug- boats capable of towing them with forces of hundreds of tons. The feasibil- ity of deflecting a floating iceberg from a collision course with an oil drilling platform off the coast of Newfoundland was reported last year. One purpose of this First International Conference on the Towing of Icebergs is to assess whether or not our need for fresh water is now great enough that we are willing to pay the cost of the technical development needed to move and use icebergs to meet the demand. Economic studies published by Weeks and Campbell and by Hult and Ostrander in 1973 provided first estimates of ice- berg water costs in the range of S10-S33/acre foot. Such numbers compared quite favorably to costs in 1973 of interbasin transfer or desalination and gave cautious optimism to the technological, economic, and environmental feasibility of utilizing Antarctic icebergs as a fresh water source. At this time, Saudi Arabia finds itself in the position of being a country with continuing water shortage but fortunately having financial means derived from oil resources to pursue the innovative solution of iceberg transport. Saudi Arabia is also fortunate to have the interest and leadership of Prince M. Al-Faisal in this project. He has provided both the principal incentive and significant support for the meeting in which the technical papers repro- duced here were presented. xix NEW PATTERNS OF COOPERATION IN INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY H. Guyford Stever, Scientific Consultant; Science Advisor to Presidents Nixon and Ford; Former Director, National Science Foundation; Former Persident, Carnegie-Me11on University It is very pleasant to be here at Iowa State University with all of you experts in the sciences and technologies related to the towing of icebergs to water-short areas of the world. When I was invited to speak at this conference, and mentioned the invitation to family and friends, two questions were imme- diately posed. The first was, "Why Iowa?", and I disposed of that relatively easily by pointing out that Iowa State is a broadly based center of science and technology with interests ranging all over the world. The second question was a little more difficult. It was, "Why you?". I explained that I had been to Antarctic twice, and above the Arctic Circle, and my interests in science and technology were quite broad, especially in those related to resources such as energy, water, etc. One friend was not satisfied and only became so later when I showed some of my Antarctic pictures including one of Stever Ridge in Antarctic, the naming of which was the nicest honor I ever received. When he saw the great glaciers flowing down the side of the ridge, he exclaimed, "Now I see, you want to sell icebergs It is true that I am very interested in your subject and for several reasons. It does represent a new and challenging conjunction of several sci- ences including oceanography, meteorology, glaciology, solid mechanics, and fluid mechanics with the technologies of ship design and operations at sea in hot and cold climes. It is a good example of "Big Science. " Your field has another feature. It requires risk-taking, not only from the science and technology standpoint, but also as an entrepreneurial venture. Now here is an area--risk-taking in technology—which is somewhat in neglect these days. There is far less technological risk-taking today than in the re- cent past as exemplified by the space program, or more distantly the establish- ment of world-wide air transportation, or building the Panama Canal. There always seems to be reasons for not being more venturesome, usually associated with the shortage of capital, but, at the same time, some fine opportunities are missed. The program has another feature, perhaps its best. More fresh water is needed by many nations, rich and poor, developed and developing, all over the world. So the goal of the undertaking is clear and good. The project should bring out the best of our science and technology, and reflect our respect for human needs everywhere. As to the technical and economic feasibility of iceberg utilization, I have no expertise or experience so it is for you people to decide. Certainly early studies have pointed to encouraging results, and you are now getting to the experimental and practical phases. 2