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

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将解决在沉积性能增强涂层之前对蒸汽冷凝器管进行改造、清洗和预处理的挑战。通过消除通常在冷凝器表面形成的液体绝缘膜的积聚，涂层将蒸汽侧传热系数提高了七倍以上，使冷凝器能够通过涡轮机吸引更多的蒸汽。这种涂层的成功应用将大大提高蒸汽发电厂的循环效率，从而大大降低燃料成本、温室气体排放和热污染。蒸汽发电厂是全国绝大多数电力的来源。这种涂层技术可以扩展到其他系统，包括海水淡化和加热、通风、空调和制冷（HVAC/R），这些系统也依赖于冷凝器来高效运行。该项目的智力价值包括获得工业环境中金属氧化物污染和沉积的系统知识，以及开发可扩展的预处理策略，以弥合实验室和现场部署涂层沉积之间的差距。由于疏水涂层的应用尚未达到商业规模，因此目前对热交换器表面状况的系统研究很少或没有。本研究的结果将适用于工业设备上的工业涂料，而不仅仅是热交换器，包括蒸馏塔和水分分离器。

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.