Heat Transfer Characteristics of Working Fluids for Closed OTEC Power Plants

초록

One of the long term renewable energy conversion methods is an ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) operating on a closed Rankine cycle that is typically composed of a boiler, condenser, pump and turbine. As well known, since the OTEC cycle efficiency is quite low, the improvement of boiler and condenser heat exchanger efficiency is very important. Over the past three decades, many new working fluids such as R1234yf have been suggested and are available in the market for the use of OTEC power generation. In this paper, boiling and condensation heat transfer characteristics of commercially available eight working fluids are predicted and compared for the design of high efficiency boiler and condensers of the future closed OTEC power plants. The results show that R32 has the best heat transfer and environmental properties among the fluids compared.