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Title: An investigation into the feasibility of a radiant recuperative air heater for a magnetohydrodynamic/steam power plant

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6146654

The ultimate high efficiencies envisioned for a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)/steam power plant have been based on the development of a regenerative high temperature air heater (HTAH). Oxygen enriched and vitiation heated air has been used in current test facilities and is proposed for early commercial plants to circumvent the costly development of the HTAH for MHD. Since the US DOE Coal Fired Flow Facility (CFFF) routinely conducts proof-of-concept (POC) MHD tests lasting several hundred hours, it was decided that it would be simple and inexpensive to include materials tests to investigate their suitability for either a recuperative or regenerative type high temperature air heater for MHD applications. Although both the regenerator and recuperator required for use in the MHD environment are beyond the state-of-the-art, the recuperator is much less complex operationally and should be less expensive. This interim report identifies a material and recuperator concept that warrants further testing and development based on the test results presented herein. An additional material was also identified which was highly resistant to corrosion and thus may have value as a protective coating. This phase of the study was concerned with the screening of candidate materials on a pass/fail basis, thus, little effort was made toward collecting accurate temperature data for each sample. The next phase will concentrate on acquiring more engineering data on the materials. Measurements will also be made to determine the effectiveness of the recuperator concept. 24 refs., 79 figs., 9 tabs.

Research Organization:
Tennessee Univ., Tullahoma, TN (USA). Space Inst.
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-79ET10815
OSTI ID:
6146654
Report Number(s):
DOE/ET/10815-139; UTSI-89-08; ON: DE91009058
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English