Low-cost compact primary surface recuperator concept for microturbines

Boiling and Evaporation in Small Diameter Channels

“…Common language is not very helpful on this, as "micro" is not necessarily used to denote heat exchangers having feature sizes of 1 micrometer, but instead means "relatively small." For instance, "microturbines" have powers in the 50-75 kW range [1]. Many definitions of microscale hydraulic diameter are used in the literature.…”

Recent Developments in High Temperature Heat Exchangers: A Review

“…The fluid-separating plates of these heat exchangers are typically manufactured by compression processing of a thin metal sheet, and they come in several patterns such as wavy, chevron, washboard, herringbone, cross-corrugated, cross-undulated, or crosswavy (Utriainen and Sundén, 2002;Stasiek, 1998;McDonald, 2000;Foerster and Kleemann, 1978). Two such heat transfer plates are then stacked to produce a single cell, and this process is repeated to manufacture the required number of cells.…”

“…One way to offset these costs is to develop compact heat exchangers that have higher surface area to volume ratio and thus reduce the amount of material needed. As a result, in past couple of decades, there has been increased interest in development of compact and cost effective HTHXs (Ohadi and Buckley, 2001;McDonald, 2000). Advanced manufacturing techniques, mainly additive manufacturing of metals, have recently shown promising results in fabricating compact HTHXs with innovative heat transfer surface designs .…”

Design of Radial Inflow Turbine for 30 kW Microturbine

“…They offer several advantages compared to other technologies including compact size, small number of moving parts, low emissions and lead to opportunities to utilize waste fuels. [1] The main components of microturbine are compressor, turbine, combustor and recuperator. This research paper focuses on the 30 kW microturbine with an operating speed is about 40,000 rpm.…”