HOW TO DETERMINE THE EXISTENCE OF HEAVY WATER (DEUTERIUM) IN THE PHILIPPINE DEEP (AKA MINDANAO TRENCH)

By: Art J Villanueva, P.E. artjv@byldt.com

Arturo J. Villanueva: Past President of the Filipino American Society

of Architects and Engineers, SoCal Chapter (FASAE-SoCal) (2015-2017).

Introduction:
There are controversies regarding the presence or non-presence of heavy water under the Philippine Deep.

Some claim that deuterium is distributed throughout the waters of the ocean in small quantities only. While others claim that a large self-replenishing amount lie under the Philippine Deep. The former has been proven true because deuterium is mixed with seawater due to wave action. The latter is yet to be proven and could also be true because the heavy water settles at the bottom of the lighter seawater. That is similar to a layered (or "stacked") drink, sometimes called a pousse-café, a kind of cocktail in which the slightly different densities of various liqueurs are used to create an array of colored layers as in

Fig.1.

Heavy water is a clean source of energy. According to Wikipedia heavy water is a form of water that contains only deuterium, a heavy hydrogen different from hydrogen in ordinary water. It has a natural abundance in the oceans of about 153 parts per million (ppm), atom for atom. It has a specific gravity of 1.1056 or a weight of 1.1056*62.4=68.99 pounds per cubic feet(pcf). On the other hand, the specific gravity of sea water is 1.025 or a weight of 1.025*62.4=63.96 pcf. Ordinary or regular water has a specific gravity of 1.000 or a weight of 1.000*62.4=62.4 pcf. Muddy water, stagnant, has a specific gravity of 1.843 or a weight

of 1.843*62.4=115 pcf.

Solution

To settle the above controversies, I have a solution.

My solution is based in the application of hydraulic principle on hydrostatic pressure. Pressure is zero at the water surface and increases gradually as we go deeper. Pressure variation depends on the density of the liquid and that lighter liquid produces less

pressure with depth than heavier liquids. If we place them side-by-side (Fig.2), we can

see the difference of pressures between the three at the same depth. Seawater has the

least pressure, followed by deuterium and muddy water which is heaviest would have the greatest pressure.

By sending an aquadrone or UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle) with a pressure gauge, samplers and maybe a camera attached, we can verify if deuterium is present in large quantities or not. On the sketch on Fig. 3, note the pressure varies from zero at sea level and increases at a uniform rate as we go deeper. As it reaches heavy water (deuterium),

the pressure changes to a flatter slope. And as it goes even deeper, when it hits mud, the change in pressure will become even flatter. Of course, we do not want to go down to

mud. Next, we obtain water samples at different depths within the 2^nd layer indicated

on the sketch.

Samples gathered will then be verified in the laboratory.

How to mine deuterium
If it can be proven that deuterium is below the Philippine Deep, it can be brought to the surface relatively easy with minimal pumping. I did an experiment on how to extract it

and it worked.

More to follow.

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