Optimization of hybrid-water/air-cooled condenser in an enhanced turbine geothermal ORC system Geothermal Project
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Last modified on July 22, 2011.
| Project Title | Optimization of hybrid-water/air-cooled condenser in an enhanced turbine geothermal ORC system |
|---|---|
| Project Type / Topic 1 | Recovery Act: Enhanced Geothermal Systems Component Research and Development/Analysis |
| Project Type / Topic 2 | Air-Cooling |
| Project Description | The technical approaches are:
-UTRC shall develop a lab-based analysis of hybrid-water/air-cooled condensers with minimal water consumption, focusing on combined mist evaporative pre-cooling and mist deluge evaporative cooling technology applied to microchannel heat exchangers. Models to predict evaporative cooling performance will be validated by sub-scale testing. The predicted performance will be compared to that of state-of-the-art commercial evaporative coolers. -UTRC shall analyze the interaction of turbine design and cooling needs and specifically address how an enhanced turbine, which features variable nozzles and diffuser boundary layer suction, would further improve the ORC system performance and enable full utilization of the hybrid-cooled system. UTRC shall design, procure and test the enhanced turbine in an existing 200 kW geothermal ORC system for a technology demonstration. -UTRC shall complete a detailed design of the hybrid-cooled geothermal ORC system with an enhanced turbine that complies with its performance, cost, and quality requirements, and use this system design to prescribe subsystem/component technology requirements and interfaces. UTRC shall optimize UTC’s PureCycle® geothermal ORC system integrated with a hybrid-water/air-cooled condenser and an enhanced turbine for net power output, efficiency and water consumption. -UTRC shall analyze the feasibility of addressing pure water supply for hybrid-water/aircooled condenser by using geothermal-driven Liquid-Gap-Membrane-Distillation (LGMD) technology, as an alternative to conventional Reverse Osmosis/De-Ionized treatment. |
| State | Connecticut |
| Objectives | The technical approaches are:
-UTRC shall develop a lab-based analysis of hybrid-water/air-cooled condensers with minimal water consumption, focusing on combined mist evaporative pre-cooling and mist deluge evaporative cooling technology applied to microchannel heat exchangers. Models to predict evaporative cooling performance will be validated by sub-scale testing. The predicted performance will be compared to that of state-of-the-art commercial evaporative coolers. -UTRC shall analyze the interaction of turbine design and cooling needs and specifically address how an enhanced turbine, which features variable nozzles and diffuser boundary layer suction, would further improve the ORC system performance and enable full utilization of the hybrid-cooled system. UTRC shall design, procure and test the enhanced turbine in an existing 200 kW geothermal ORC system for a technology demonstration. -UTRC shall complete a detailed design of the hybrid-cooled geothermal ORC system with an enhanced turbine that complies with its performance, cost, and quality requirements, and use this system design to prescribe subsystem/component technology requirements and interfaces. UTRC shall optimize UTC’s PureCycle® geothermal ORC system integrated with a hybrid-water/air-cooled condenser and an enhanced turbine for net power output, efficiency and water consumption. -UTRC shall analyze the feasibility of addressing pure water supply for hybrid-water/aircooled condenser by using geothermal-driven Liquid-Gap-Membrane-Distillation (LGMD) technology, as an alternative to conventional Reverse Osmosis/De-Ionized treatment. |
| Awardees (Company / Institution) | United Technologies Research Center |
| Awardee Website | http://www.utrc.utc.com/pages/our_company.html |
| Partner 1 | University of Illinois |
| Partner 2 | Chena Power, LLC |
| Funding Opportunity Announcement | DE-FOA-0000075 |
| DOE Funding Level (total award amount) | $1,199,928.00 |
| Awardee Cost Share | $299,982.00 |
| Total Project Cost | $1,499,910.00 |
| Principal Investigator(s) | Dr. Hailing Wu, Principal Investigator |
| Targets / Milestones | The program shall deliver a validated hybrid-water/air-cooled condenser model, a verified enhanced turbine design, an optimized design for UTC’s PureCycle® geothermal ORC system that integrates both technologies, and a feasibility analysis of geothermal-driven LGMD pure water supply. |
| Location of Project | East Hartford, CT |
| Impacts | 30% increase of power output during the hottest parts of summer with an annual-basis improvement of at least 8% is possible from this technology. |
| Funding Source | American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 |
| References | EERE Geothermal Technologies Programs[1] |