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Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a new coating for steam condensers used in fossil fuel steam-cycle generation that could boost the overall process efficiency by 2%.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists explain that if coal and natural gas power generation were 2% more efficient, then, every year, there could be 460 million fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide released and 2 trillion fewer gallons of water used.
“The reality is that fossil fuels aren’t going away for at least 100 years,” Nenad Miljkovic, a professor of mechanical science & engineering at UIUC and the project lead, said in a media statement. “A lot of CO2 is going to be emitted before we get to a place where we can lean on renewables. If our F-DLC coating were adopted globally, it would noticeably curtail carbon emissions and water usage for the existing power infrastructure.”
According to Miljkovic, the coating is made with fluorinated diamond-like carbon or F-DLC and is suitable for industrial use by performing the longest durability test ever reported.
The researcher explained that fossil fuel power generation depends on a process called the steam cycle, in which fuel is burned to boil water, the resulting steam spins a turbine and the turbine drives an electric generator. The steam then reaches a condenser which both reclaims water from the steam and maintains a pressure difference across the turbine so the steam flows. Improving the condensers’ heat transfer properties would allow a pressure difference to be maintained while burning less fuel.
The new F-DLC coating improves heat transfer because the material is hydrophobic. When the steam condenses into water, it does not form a thin film that coats the surface, as water does on many clean metals and their oxides. Instead, the water forms droplets on the F-DLC surface, putting the steam into direct contact with the condenser and allowing heat to be directly transferred. The researchers found that this improved the heat transfer properties by a factor of 20, which translates to a 2% overall process boost.
“It’s remarkable that we can achieve this with F-DLC, something that just uses carbon, fluorene and a little bit of silicon,” said Muhammad Hoque, first author of the paper. “And it can coat pretty much any common metal, including copper, bronze, aluminum and titanium.”
To demonstrate F-DLC’s durability, the researchers subjected coated metals to steam condenser conditions for 1,095 days, the longest test reported in the literature. The coated metals maintained their hydrophobic properties for this entire length of time. The researchers also found that the coated metals maintained their hydrophobic properties after 5,000 scratches in an abrasion test.
Following these results, the research team started collaborating with UIUC’s Abbott Power Plant to study the coating’s performance for six months of steady condensation exposure under industrial conditions.
“If all goes well, we hope to show everyone that this is an effective solution that is economically viable,” Miljkovic said. “We want our solution to be adopted, because, although the development of renewable energy should absolutely be a priority, it’s still very worthwhile to continue improving what we have now.”
