UC design could revolutionize power plants

UC engineers Raj Manglik and Milind Jog developed an air-cooling system that conserves water, saves money and protects the environment

University of Cincinnati researchers say they have found a solution to one of the biggest environmental problems facing the energy industry: water consumption.

Power plants in the United States need as much water each year as all of the nation’s farms combined – an estimated 133 billion gallons per day, according to federal numbers. This poses an enormous strain on water resources and has a detrimental environmental impact.

But Raj Manglik and Milind A. Jog, professors of mechanical engineering in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, say they have developed a new air-cooling system for power plants that uses no water but is nearly as effective as water-cooled systems.

“At some point this will be a water crisis – and it will be rather soon,” Manglik said. “That was the primary motivation. Can we make air cooling significantly more viable so that companies would adopt it regardless?”

The project was funded by a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. It demonstrates the impact the university's commitment to research is having in the world as part of UC's strategic direction called Next Lives Here.

Most power plants in the United States are built alongside bodies of water to meet the demands of their cooling systems. Some water is lost through evaporation in cooling towers. In other cases, warmer water is pumped back into lakes, rivers or bays, which can raise the ambient temperature, killing fish and other aquatic organisms and creating toxic algae blooms. Scientists call this “thermal pollution.”

“The water around power plants can be significantly warmer than the rest of a river or lake,” Manglik said. “This adversely impacts fish and plants and destroys the ecosystem.”

The two researchers used their backgrounds in experimental heat transfer, computational modeling and fluid dynamics to design a better air-cooled condenser for power plants. Like the radiator of a car, the condenser has a meshwork of metal fins specially designed by UC’s researchers to draw heat away in the circulated air.

Modeling helps us understand the physics. Experiments give us the results that can be used to optimize design.

Raj Manglik, UC engineering professor

Dr. Raj Manglik, PhD, left and Dr. Milind Jog, PhD UC engineering research partners discussed their ongoing work in their Lab at Rhodes Halls. UC/Joseph Fuqua II

UC engineering professor Raj Manglik stands in front of a model cooling system in his engineering lab. Improving air-cooling systems will make power plants more efficient and conserve vast water resources, he said. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services

UC’s researchers developed enhanced metal fins with a unique geometric design that favorably alters the air flow over them. This provides far better heat convection to cool the steam in the air-cooled condenser.

“The flow of air gets disrupted with more mixing and more efficient heat transfer compared to traditional fins used on these air-cooled condensers,” Jog said.

Manglik said there was no single “Eureka!” moment but rather deliberate improvements over time.

“We use carefully controlled experimentation coupled with computational modeling,” Manglik said. “Modeling helps us understand the physics. Experiments give us the results that can be used to optimize design.”

Shedding more heat increases the efficiency of the power plants, which means they can produce more electricity. And since the cooling system is more effective, it doesn’t have to be as big and costly to build, they said. Laboratory scale tests suggested the researchers’ system can reduce the cooling temperature from today’s 140 degrees to as low as 115 degrees.

UC doctoral students Kuan-Ting Lin and Dantong Shi tested a small prototype in an engineering lab. Now UC is partnering with Taneytown, Md., company Evapco on a largescale prototype test of the design at the company’s labs.

But UC’s engineers didn’t stop with condenser fins. They also are working on a solution to one of the energy industry’s biggest conundrums. In the summer, electricity demand typically peaks during the hottest part of the day when a plant’s cooling systems are least efficient.

Jog and Manglik are developing a better system to pre-cool the circulated air using a heat sink that captures cooler temperatures at night.

“The second part we’re developing is an air pre-cooler coupled with thermal energy storage,” Jog said. “So at night when the temperatures are low, the system ‘stores’ the cold. And that is used during the peak times to cool the air before it goes to the condenser.”

UC’s researchers also are working with Babcock and Wilcox, in Lancaster, Ohio, which in 2016 acquired the Italian company SPIG specializing in power plant cooling systems.

Manglik said air-cooled power plants will become increasingly valuable in arid parts of the world in the face of growing industrialization and climate change.

“There is already a water shortage, exacerbated by the global need for energy,” Manglik said. “We will need a substantially large number of new power plants if the rest of the world begins to consume energy at the rate we do in the United States.”

The researchers have been working on patenting their ideas since submitting their grant proposal in 2015. Manglik said their results of their full-scale experiments will have to be persuasive.

“The inertia in engineering systems is mind-boggling. You go to an oil refinery or a petrochemical plant, and some of the technologies being used are 40 or 50 years old,” Manglik said. “Efficiency is not always a measure that matters.”

The two researchers have collaborated on diverse research projects at UC over the past decade.

“Dr. Jog has special talents in computational physics and modeling,” Manglik said. “I add to that experimental insights. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty – literally.”

“I think that synergy makes it work,” Jog said.

Featured illustration at top: Margaret Weiner/UC Creative Services. Featured video/Margaret Weiner, Benjamin Gardner and Andrew Higley/UC Creative Services

Next Lives Here

The University of Cincinnati is classified as a Research 1 institution by the Carnegie Commission and is ranked in the National Science Foundation's Top-35 public research universities. UC's graduate students and faculty investigate problems and innovate solutions with real-world impact. Next Lives Here.

Related Stories

1

Beyond the Classroom: Perspectives on Long-Term Study Abroad

November 21, 2024

More than 1300 UC students studied abroad in 2023-24. Most students tend to sway towards the most popular option of faculty-led programs, because of its shorter duration and high level of faculty support. But some UC students strike out on their own, choosing to fly solo for a semester to a year with long-term study abroad programs.

2

Why can it be so tough to find health care for adults with...

November 20, 2024

Everyone needs to go to a doctor from time to time. But for adults with disabilities, finding a medical provider can be a challenge. A 2022 study found some doctors try to avoid treating patients with disabilities because of feeling overwhelmed and inadequately reimbursed for accommodations they need to provide.

Debug Query for this