Heat exchanger development for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

Author

Eldred, Michael P. ; Van Ryzin, Joseph C. ; Rizea, Steven ; Chen, In Chieh ; Loudon, Robert ; Nagurny, N.John ; Maurer, Scott ; Jansen, Eugene ; Plumb, Andrew ; Eller, Michael R. ; Brown, Victor R.R.

Author_Institution

Makai Ocean Engineering, Waimanalo, HI, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

19-22 Sept. 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

9

Abstract

Heat exchangers comprise one of the largest cost drivers for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) systems. Reductions in fabrication costs and improvements in performance are critical to successfully commercialize sustainable energy power plants using this low (∼20°C) ΔT resource. Heat exchanger (HX) units should maximize heat transfer per unit area (U value) while minimizing pressure losses, corrosion and cost. Current OTEC research is focused on heat exchanger configuration design, materials, and fabrication techniques. This paper summarizes the OTEC heat exchanger test programs underway and describes the heat exchanger development goals, the heat exchanger performance test facilities being used, and the corrosion testing being performed.

Keywords

Corrosion; Electron tubes; Heat transfer; Heating; Temperature measurement; Temperature sensors; Testing; OTEC; Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion; aluminum; corrosion; heat exchanger; performance; seawater;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OCEANS 2011

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI, USA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1427-6

Type

conf

Filename

6107175