Life cycle assessment of novel heat exchanger for dry cooling of power plants based on encapsulated phase change materials

Zhang, Lige; Spatari, Sabrina; Sun, Ying

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115227

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Finally, in almost all of the collected case studies about Phase change strategy, the exploited materials are synthetic (e.g. Peng et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) strategies improve material substitution in eco-design?

Spreafico

2022

Sustainable Production and Consumption

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“…Finally, in almost all of the collected case studies about Phase change strategy, the exploited materials are synthetic (e.g. Peng et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) strategies improve material substitution in eco-design?

Spreafico

2022

Sustainable Production and Consumption

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“…However, they recommended extending the LCA study to incorporate different surface treatments. Zhang et al [ 33 ] carried out LCA of a new dry-cooling-system-based encapsulated phased change material (EPCM) and compared their results with the conventional cooling systems for power plant application. Their analysis showed that the new cooling exchanger’s carbon emissions were 1.16 kg CO 2 eq./MWh, while the conventional cooling systems emit in the range of 1.1–4.3 kg CO 2 eq./MWh.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Assessment and Techno-Economic Analysis of Thermally Enhanced Polymer Tube for Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) Technology

et al. 2021

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Metal-alloys tubes are used in the falling-film evaporator of the multi-effect distillation (MED) that is the dominant and efficient thermal seawater desalination process. However, the harsh seawater environment (high salinity and high temperature) causes scale precipitation and corrosion of MED evaporators’ metal tubes, presenting a serious technical challenge to the process. Therefore, the metal/metal alloys used as the material of the MED evaporators’ tubes are expensive and require high energy and costly tube fabrication process. On the other hand, polymers are low-cost, easy to fabricate into tubes, and highly corrosion-resistant, but have low thermal conductivity. Nevertheless, thermally conductive fillers can enhance the thermal conductivity of polymers. In this article, we carried out a feasibility-study-based techno-economic and socioeconomic analysis, as well as a life-cycle assessment (LCA), of a conventional MED desalination plant that uses titanium tubes and a plant that used thermally enhanced polymer composites (i.e., polyethylene (PE)‑expanded graphite (EG) composite) as the tubes’ material. Two different polymer composites containing 30% and 40% filler (expanded graphite/graphene) are considered. Our results indicate that the MED plant based on polymer composite tubes has favored economic and carbon emission metrics with the potential to reduce the cost of the MED evaporator (shell and tubes) by 40% below the cost of the titanium evaporator. Moreover, the equivalent carbon emissions associated with the composite polymer tubes’ evaporator is 35% lower than titanium tubes. On the other hand, the ozone depletion, acidification, and fossil fuel depletion for the polymer composite tubes are comparable with that of the titanium tubes. The recycling of thermally enhanced polymers is not considered in this LCA analysis; however, after the end of life, reusing the polymer material into other products would lower the overall environmental impacts. Moreover, the polymer composite tubes can be produced locally, which will not only reduce the environmental impacts due to transportation but also create jobs for local manufacturing.

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“…[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Many applications in the industry require fluid flow for cooling, so thermodynamic properties of the fluid can be increased by encapsulating PCM (EPCM) and adding to a base fluid such as water, which introduces EPCM slurry. [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] EPCM particles consist of a solid shell that does not change phase and a PCM core that can be melted and solidified. [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] The shell has a great effect on the morphological, mechanical, and thermal properties of EPCM.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural convection of water and nano‐emulsion phase change material inside a square enclosure to cool the electronic components

Syah

Davarpanah

Elveny

et al. 2021

Intl J of Energy Research

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Life cycle assessment of novel heat exchanger for dry cooling of power plants based on encapsulated phase change materials

Cited by 12 publications

References 67 publications

Can TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) strategies improve material substitution in eco-design?

Can TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) strategies improve material substitution in eco-design?

Sustainability Assessment and Techno-Economic Analysis of Thermally Enhanced Polymer Tube for Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) Technology

Natural convection of water and nano‐emulsion phase change material inside a square enclosure to cool the electronic components

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