Analytical and computational study of a novel waste-heat-recovery radial expander

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It is estimated that 20-50% of the energy consumed by Canadian manufacturing processes is ultimately lost via**waste heat emitted in hot exhaust streams, cooling water, and heat transfer from hot surfaces and products.**Recovering energy from this waste heat is an emission-free substitute for costly purchased fuels or electricity,**and will significantly reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of Canadian industry. The**proposed research project will conduct an analytical and computational analysis of a novel waste heat recovery**concept that extracts work from a pressurized fluid stream with a relatively low inlet temperature. The device is**a radial turboexpander that recovers waste heat through frictional forces arising from the interaction between**the rotating machinery and fluid within the device. The geometrical simplicity of the conceptualized**turboexpander will make it much cheaper to manufacture and operate compared to existing heat recovery**technologies, and is expected to achieve a high enough efficiency so as to be economical for extracting power**from waste heat in oil and gas processing facilities. Through first-principles analytical analysis and in-depth**computational fluid dynamics simulations of the fluid flow within the expander, the research project will**identify the optimum expander configuration for maximum power and efficiency, investigate the sources of**aerodynamic losses within the device, and improve the expander design based on the knowledge of the loss**sources that are present. The project will lead to a novel device that can extract power from waste heat sources**with much higher efficiencies and lower costs than are currently available, bringing significant financial and**environmental savings to Canada's energy, oil and gas, and manufacturing industries.