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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Low-cost and high-performance heat exchangers for CSP

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/3007982· OSTI ID:3007982
This project aimed to design and manufacture a low-cost and high-performance, particle–to–sCO2 heat exchanger (HX) for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) using additive manufacturing (AM). Three enabling technologies will be integrated to achieve the targeted cost and performance. The first technology is the extreme high‐speed laser materials deposition (LMD) AM process known by its German acronym EHLA that was invented at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology. The EHLA process utilizes a specially designed powder-feeding nozzle that enables a laser to melt the powder particles above the melt pool, in contrast to the conventional LMD process where the powders are melted inside the melt pool. EHLA enables much faster deposition rate than conventional LMD without the need to wait for the powders to melt. The second technology is an innovative double-helical HX geometry that can be easily fabricated using the EHLA process by rotating a rod at a high-speed to take advantage of the high EHLA deposition rate. The double-helical fins separate the hot region (the hot particle side) and the cold region (the sCO2 side) and provide large heat transfer surface area without a large pressure drop on the sCO2 side. The particle side will have a larger gap to facilitate the particle flow. The outer rims of the double helixes can be sealed off using the same AM process. After sealing-off, additional double helixes can be built radially on top of the first set to improve HX performance. The HX can be installed vertically for gravity-driven flow of the hot particles if necessary. The third technology is a low-cost high-temperature alumina-forming austenitic (AFA) steel TMA-6350 that has creep and oxidation resistance up to 1100 °C. These technologies together will enable high-performance and low-cost HXs for particle–to–sCO2 for CSP.
Research Organization:
Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
EE0010191
OSTI ID:
3007982
Report Number(s):
DE--EE0010191
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English