Feasibility Demonstrations of Liquid Turbine Power Generator Driven by Low Temperature Heats

Lower temperature waste heats less than 373 K have strong potentials to supply additional energies because of their enormous quantities and ubiquity. Accordingly, reinforcement of power generations harvesting low temperature heats is one of the urgent tasks for the current generation in order to accomplish energy sustainability in the coming decades. In this study, a liquid turbine power generator driven by lower temperature heats below 373 K was proposed in the aim of expanding selectable options for harvesting low temperature waste heats less than 373 K. The proposing system was so simply that it was mainly composed of a liquid turbine, a liquid container with a biphasic medium of water and an underlying water-insoluble low-boiling-point medium in a liquid phase, a heating section for vaporization of the liquid and a cooling section for entropy discharge outside the system. Assumed power generating steps via the proposing liquid turbine power generator were as follows: step 1: the underlying low-boiling-point medium in a liquid phase was vaporized, step 2: the surfacing vapor bubbles of low-boiling-point medium accompanied the biphasic medium in their wakes, step 3: such high momentum flux by step 2 rotated the liquid turbine (i.e. power generation), step 4: the surfacing low-boiling-point medium vapor was gradually condensed into droplets, step 5: the low-boiling-point medium droplets were submerged to the underlying medium in a liquid phase. Experiments with a prototype liquid turbine power generator proved power generations in accordance with the assumed steps at a little higher than ordinary temperature. Increasing output voltage could be obtained with an increase in the cooling temperature among tested ranging from 294 to 296 K in contrast to normal thermal engines. Further improvements of the direct current voltage from the proposing liquid turbine power generator can be expected by means of far more vigorous multiphase flow induced by adding solid powders and theoretical optimizations of heat and mass transfers.

Synthesis of SAPO-34/graphite composites for low temperature heat adsorption pumps

Low temperature heat adsorption pumps represent the innovative cooling systems, where cold is generated through adsorption/desorption cycle of water by a suitable adsorbent with good adsorption and high thermal conductive properties. In this work, the hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite SAPO-34 on thermal conductive grapbitic supports, aiming at the development of highly pertbrming adsorbent materials, is reported. The synthesis was carried out using as-received and oxidized commercial carbon papers, and graphite plate. Composites were characterized by XRD, SEM and also by a thermogravimetric method, using a Cahn microbalance. The water adsorbing capacity showed typical S-shape trend and the maximum water loading was around 25 wt%, a value close to water adsorption capability of pure SAPO-34. These results are very promising for their application in heat adsorption pumps.

Optimizing Low-Temperature Heat Recovery in a Refinery Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit Based on Pinch Analysis

In this paper, the research was focused on optimizing low-temperature heat recovery to adopt multi-effect distil- lation （MED） in desalination by pinch technology. And further analysis indicated that phase changes occurred during the heat recovery process. In such case, the feed stream was divided into two streams： the liquid feed stream and the gaseous feed stream. Through calculation, the optimal ATmin was established at 26℃, and the total cost of heat exchange process was only $1.098× 106. By using the Problem Table Algorithm for pinch analysis, the temperature of the hot and the cold steams was 119℃ and 93 ℃, respectively. At a temperature higher than 119 ℃, all heat of the hot stream could not be cooled by the condenser, and the minimum heat load of utility （QH.min） was 440457.64 kW; and at a temperature below 93 ℃, all heat of the cold stream could not be provided by the heater, and the minimum cold load of utility （QC.min） was 1965993.85 kW. Finally, the synthesis of heat exchanger network was established through integrating two heat exchanger networks.

A thermodynamics comparison of subcritical and transcritical organic Rankine cycle system for power generation

A comparison on subcritical and transcritical organic Rankine cycle（ORC） system with a heat source of 110 ℃ geothermal water was presented. The net power output, thermal and exergy efficiencies and the products of the heat transfer coefficient（U） and the total heat exchange area（A）（UA values） were calculated for parametric optimization. Nine candidate working fluids were investigated and compared. Under the given conditions, transcritical systems have higher net power outputs than subcritical ones. The highest net power output of transcritical systems is 18.63 k W obtained by R218, and that of subcritical systems is 13.57 k W obtained by R600 a. Moreover, with the increase of evaporating pressure, the thermal and exergy efficiencies of transcritical systems increase at first and then decrease, but the efficiencies of subcritical ones increase. As a result, the efficiencies of transcritical systems cannot always outperform those of the subcritical ones. However, the subcritical systems have lower minimum UA values and lower expansion ratios than the transcritical ones at the maximum net power output. In addition, the transcritical cycles have higher expansion ratios than the subcritical ones at their maximum net power output.

Applications of low temperature calorimetry in material research

Low temperature calorimetry is an experimental method of heat capacity measurements, and heatcapacity is one of the most important and fundamental thermodynamic properties of substances. Theheat capacity can provide an average evaluation of the thermal property of a sample since it is a bull（property of substances. In the other hand, the condensed states of substances could be mainly controlledby the molecular motions, intermolecular interactions, and interplay among molecular structures. Thephysical property reflected in a material may be closely related to the energy changes in these threefactors, which can be directly observed in a heat capacity curve. Therefore, low temperature calorimetryhas been used not only to obtain heat capacity, entropy, enthalpy and Gibbs free energy, but also toinvestigate and understand lattice vibrations, metals, superconductivity, electronic and nuclearmagnetism, dilute magnetic systems and structural transitions. In this review, we have presented theconcept of low temperature calorimetry and its applications in the related field of material researches,such as nano-materials, magnetic materials, ferroelectric materials, phase change materials and othermaterials.

Crystal Structure and Thermochemical Properties of 2-Pyrazine Carboxylate Lithium Monohydrate [Li（pyza）（H2O）]n（S）（pyza=2-Pyrazine Carboxylate）

A 2-pyrazine carboxylate lithium monohydrate [Li（pyza）（H2O）]n was synthesized in a mixed solution of redistilled water and anhydrous ethanol. X-Ray crystallography was applied to characterizing its crystal structure. Low temperature molar heat capacities were measured in a temperature range of from 78 K to 400 K with a precision automatic adiabatic calorimeter. Two polynomial equations of experimental molar heat capacity as a function of temperature were obtained by the least-squares method. The smoothed molar heat capacities and thermodynamic functions of the compound were calculated based on the fitted polynomial equations. In accordance with Hess＇s law, a reasonable thermochemical cycle was designed based on the preparation reaction of the target compound. The standard molar enthalpies of dissolution for the reactants and products of the designed thermochemical reaction were measured by an isoperibol solution-reaction calorimeter, and the enthalpy change of the reaction was obtained, i.e., △rHm^ Ф→=-（30.084±0.329） kJ/mol. The standard molar enthalpy of the formation of the target compound was determined as △fHm^ Ф→,{[Li（pyza）（H2O）n（S）} =-（260.844±1.178） kJ/mol based on the enthalpy change of the reaction and standard molar enthalpies of the formation of other reactants and products. In addition, UV-Vis spectroscopy and the data of the refractive indexes were used to confirm whether the designed Hess thermochemieal cycle was reasonable and reliable.