Enhanced Air-Cooled Heat Exchanger
Technology Description:
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and its partners will design, fabricate, and demonstrate an indirect dry-cooling system that features a rotating mesh heat exchanger with encapsulated phase-change materials (PCMs) such as paraffin, which can absorb and reject heat efficiently. The novel system can be used downstream from a water-cooled steam surface condenser to cool water to a temperature near ambient air temperature, eliminating the need for a cooling tower. The team’s design capitalizes on the high latent heat of the solid-to-liquid transition in the PCMs to provide an extremely effective way to lower the temperature of hot water exiting the condenser. The encapsulated PCMs are embedded in polymer tubes that form a porous, mesh-like structure. These modules are then mounted on a rotating system that continuously circulates the encapsulated PCMs from the hot water – where they absorb heat – into a dry section where ambient air passes by the encapsulated PCMs, causing the PCMs to solidify and reject heat to the atmosphere. The multidisciplinary team includes leading industry and academic partners that will provide technical and market assistance, and help build and test a 50 kWth prototype to demonstrate the technology’s commercial viability.
Potential Impact:
If successful, EPRI and its partners will develop an improved heat exchanger with up to four times the air-side heat transfer coefficient of conventional air-cooled condensers, enabling more efficient, cost-effective dry cooling at power plants.
Security:
Enhanced dry-cooling heat exchangers could enable power plants to maintain energy efficiency when water use is restricted.
Environment:
The team’s system results in negligible net water use, and therefore eliminates the large need for local water resources for cooling and conserves water for other uses.
Economy:
ERPI estimates that the cost and footprint of its system will be 50% less than air-cooled condensers on the market today.
Contact
ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Michael Ohadi
Project Contact:
Dr. Andrew Howell
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
ahowell@epri.com
Partners
Worley-Parsons
Drexel University
The University of Memphis
Evapco, Inc.
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Release Date:
09/26/2014