SBIR Phase I: Simple and Effective Fouling Release Coatings To Make Industrial Heat Exchangers More Energy Efficient

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project include saving energy, lowering industrial and power generation-caused greenhouse gas emissions, improving the competitiveness of U.S. industry, and reducing the quantity of chemicals introduced into the nation?s water supplies. More than 1% of U.S. energy consumption is expended overcoming the insulating effects of naturally occurring mineral fouling. This technology has the potential to reduce U.S. energy consumption by 0.7 to 1.9% of annual US carbon-based energy representing from .55 to 1.5 quads. The reductions in energy consumption will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) on the order of 54.1 to 125.8 million metric tons of GHGs. Recognizing climate change is a worldwide problem, if fully deployed to other industrialized nations, this technology has the potential to eliminate 0.7% to 1.7% of the world's GHGs which equal 252.6 to 571.3 million metric tons of GHGs. The competitiveness of US products will be improved by large reductions of energy-related manufacturing costs without need of capital investment, and it will reduce chemical additives to cooling tower water. This project seeks a solution to "the major unresolved problem of heat transfer" which is naturally occurring mineral fouling on heat transfer surfaces (HTS). This often overlooked problem consumes 1% of the total energy consumed by the U.S. and other industrialized nations, and represents 1% of our planet's greenhouse gas emissions. The objective of the research is to develop long-lasting thin film coatings, which can protect HTS from fouling, while not impeding thermal efficiency. Using recently discovered nanomaterials, solution is applied as a coating to transform the surface properties of HTS to ones having the lowest surface energy values that have ever been created. With a low surface energy, the coatings reduce fouling nucleation as well as reducing fouling adherence to the HTS. The low adhesion of any fouling which nucleates, combined with the action of water flowing over the HTS should cause the release of any remaining fouling, effectively making the surfaces "self-cleaning." This self-cleaning mechanism has been successfully demonstrated in laboratory experiments. This research examines the fundamental chemistry and materials science of a new class of low surface energy self-assembling ultra hydrophobic nanocoatings that could spawn innovation across a range of disciplines.