SBIR Phase I: Heat exchanger coating retrofit pre-treatment feasibility study

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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will address the challenge of retrofit cleaning and pretreatment of steam condenser tubes prior to the deposition of a performance-enhancing coating. By eliminating the buildup of the insulating film of liquid that normally forms on condenser surfaces, the coating increases the vapor-side heat transfer coefficient by more than a factor of seven, allowing the condenser to pull more steam through the turbine. The successful application of this coating would enable significant increases in cycle efficiencies of in the installed base of steam power plants that generate the vast majority of national electricity, leading to substantial reductions in fuel costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and thermal pollution. This coating technology can be extended to other systems including desalination and heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R), which also rely on condensers to operate efficiently. The intellectual merit of this project comprises the acquisition of systematic knowledge of metal-oxide fouling and deposits in industrial environments, and the development of scalable pretreatment strategies to bridge the gap between laboratory and field-deployed coating depositions. Because this application of hydrophobic coatings has not been achieved at a commercial scale, there currently exists little to no systematic research on the condition of heat exchanger surfaces. The results of this study will be applicable to industrial coatings on industrial equipment beyond just heat exchangers, including distillation columns and moisture separators.