66
Enhanced
Performance Carbon Foam Heat Exchanger for Power Plant Cooling--Ceramic
Composites, Inc., 133 Defense Highway, Suite 212, Annapolis, MD
21401-8907; 410-224-3710, www.techassess.com
Mr.
Christopher John Duston, Principal Investigator,
Mrs.
Sharon Fehrenbacher, Business Official,
DOE
Grant No. DE-FG02-03ER83627
Amount:
$749,972
Thermoelectric power plants account for 39% of the fresh water withdrawn
from streams and lakes in the
United
States, second
only to agriculture. 3.3 billion
gallons daily are lost to evaporation and 190 billion returned as warm water
discharge. The link between adequate
supplies of low-cost energy and freshwater is clearly recognized in President
Bush’s National Energy Policy. The
demands placed upon increasingly limited sources of fresh water could be reduced
if more efficient power-plant cooling systems were developed.
This project will develop heat exchangers made from high thermal
conductivity carbon foam, which have demonstrated performance at 1.5 to 3.5
times that of metal fins. The
approach will address the low strength problems, which prevented the previous
industrial implementation of carbon foam heat exchangers. During
Phase I, ceramic coatings were applied to the high thermal conductivity carbon
foam using a variety of raw materials and processing conditions, and the samples
evaluated. Several compositions
demonstrated more than double the compressive strength with a minimal impact
upon thermal conductivity, making the foam sufficiently strong for
implementation. Phase II will model
and evaluate the heat transfer performance of various enhanced strength carbon
foam configurations, and refine the strength enhancement, bonding, and machining
technologies. A pilot-scale,
steam-condenser heat exchanger will be produced and its performance determined
by an industry partner. An economic
assessment of the carbon-foam heat exchanger fabrication will be performed.
Commercial
Applications and Other Benefits as
described by awardee: Higher
efficiency heat transfer systems, fabricated from enhanced strength carbon foam,
should reduce fresh water consumption in power plants and industrial chillers.
In addition, the reduction in system sizes should increase the acceptance
of distributed energy systems such as microturbines and fuel cells, reduce the
volume of aerospace heat exchangers and solar radiators, increase the efficiency
of electronics cooling systems, and reduce the radiator size in vehicles.