Manufacturing Efficiency

The Carnegie Mellon team will develop a modular radial heat exchanger that includes flow through pin arrays and counter-flow headers. The team will fabricate the heat exchanger via laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing, with superalloys selected for high temperature and high pressure capability. Multiple approaches will be used to smooth the heat exchanger components’ internal passages to minimize pressure drop.

Vacuum Process engineering will develop a superalloy-based printed circuit heat exchanger for operation at temperatures exceeding 800°C (1472°F) and pressures above 80 bar (1160 psi). The team will build the heat exchanger applying a diffusion solid-state welding manufacturing technique, which uses stacked individual metal sheets with semi-circular channels formed from a chemical treatment process.

MIT will develop a high performance, compact, and durable ceramic heat exchanger. The multiscale porous high temperature heat exchanger will be capable of operation at temperatures over 1200°C (2192°F) and pressures above 80 bar (1160 psi). Porosity at the centimeter-scale will serve as channels for the flow of working fluids. A micrometer-scale porous core will be embedded into these channels. A ceramic co-extrusion process will create the channels and core using silicon carbide (SiC).

CompRex aims to transform heat exchange technology for high temperature (>800°C or 1472°F) and high pressure (80 bar or 1160 psi) applications through the use of advanced metal and ceramic composite material, development of a new simplified manufacturing approach, and optimization of heat exchanger design based on the new material and manufacturing process.

The GE-led team will develop a metallic-based, ultra-performance heat exchanger enabled by additive manufacturing technology and capable of operation at 900°C (1652°F) and 250 bar (3626 psi). The team will optimize heat transfer versus thermomechanical load using new micro-trifurcating core structures and manifold designs. The team will leverage a novel, high-temperature capable, crack-resistant nickel superalloy, designed specifically for additive manufacturing.

UTRC will develop an ultra-compact, topology-optimized heat exchanger capable of operating in environments with temperatures and pressures up to 800°C (1472°F) and 250 bar (3626 psi) that is substantially smaller and more durable than state-of-the art high-temperature, high-pressure heat exchangers. A quadruple optimization approach that addresses performance, durability, manufacturing, and cost constraints provides the framework for the superalloy-based heat exchanger.

Thar Energy will develop a next-generation metallic compact recuperator, a type of heat exchanger, capable of stable and cost effective operation at 800°C (1562°F) and above 80 bar (1160 psi). A metallic superalloy capable of withstanding high temperature and pressure will be employed to fabricate the heat exchanger using a novel stacked sheet manufacturing technique.

The University of Maryland (UMD) will create inverse design tools for the development of enhanced heat transfer surfaces at reduced computational cost. Heat transfer surfaces are used to increase the efficiency of many energy conversion systems, but they are currently designed in a slow, iterative fashion. UMD will use a direct inverse design method map from given environments and performance metrics to design variables or materials.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will develop a machine learning (ML) approach to optimize surfaces for boiling heat transfer and improve energy efficiency for applications ranging from nuclear power plants to industrial process steam generation. Predicting and enhancing boiling heat transfer presently relies on empirical correlations and experimental observations. MIT’s technology will use supervised ML models to identify important features and designs that contribute to heat transfer enhancement autonomously.

The University of Arkansas and its project team will develop a power inverter system for use in the electrification of construction equipment. Heavy equipment providers are increasingly investing in electrification capability to perform work in harsh environments. As with all electrified systems, size, weight and power considerations must be met by these systems. The team's approach is to utilize the advantages of wide bandgap semiconductors not only in the converter elements themselves, but also in the converter’s gate driver as well.