Research Areas Covered since 2005 and Proposed Dissertation Work by Florian Zink

SOFC System for Buildings Previous Work –Model development in Fortran –SOFC –Chiller/Heat Pump –Application to provide Electricity, Heat and Cooling My Contributions –Economic Analysis –Matching the model to actual energy usage data F. Zink, Y. Lu, L. Schaefer, A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System for Buildings, Journal for Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 48, 2007

LED Cooling to Maintain Color Output (Pitt/PSU) The color of LEDs is temperature dependent –Shift in wavelength is noticeable for a change in only a few Kelvin When used in advertisements, the color has to be maintained, thus a temperature control is necessary Temperature measurements to understand behavior: Heating past 50°C Surface 65°C Base

Cooling Strategy Using Peltier Coolers and a boiling chamber to bring temperature during operation to lower levels: ~ 40°C Surface and Base Peltier Power Aluminum Plate Condensation Area

SOFC/High Temperature GT (NETL) Development of Cycle incorporating prototype High Temperature Gas Turbine Modeling of Thermodynamic Cycle in EES, use of advanced Equation of State (Peng Robinson EOS) Individual components modeled: –GT –Condensers (including phase change) –Heat Exchangers (Epsilon-NTU model)

Considering Symbiotic Design for Waste Water Usage Class Project in ENGR 2200 Define Symbiosis: Usage of resources at a rate slower or equal than the recreation of that resource. Application to “Industrial Ecology”: Share resources such that ones waste can serve as another partner’s resource (input) Example Water (Kalundborg, DK) Identification of local opportunities for similar layouts of industrial parks.

Local Opportunities & Focus on Clairton, PA Name and Location of PlantOperator Output (MW) Springdale Power Station Allegheny Electric Allegheny Energy UnitsWest Penn Power 87.6 PPG Place Duquesne Light 2.3 Brunot Island Duquesne Light F R Phillips Duquesne Light 410 Cheswick Power Plant Duquesne Light 630 Neville Island Coke Works Duquesne Light 11.3 Clairton Works Duquesne Light 31 Mon Valley Works Duquesne Light 52.5

Combination of “Green” Philosophy, Modeling and Construction: Thermoacoustics Thermoacoustics: Based on Stirling cycle: –External Combustion Engine, 2 Pistons to compress and displace gas –Replace pistons by sound waves  remove all moving parts from system. Thermoacoustic Heat Engine: –Compliance, Stack (maintains temperature gradient) and Resonator (open end)

Thermodynamics within Stack Displacement  Compression  Heating  Displacement  Expansion  Cooling Excess heat supplied to system responsible for amplification of acoustic wave

Actual Engine Engine built with porous ceramic and Pyrex glass tube When heated to approx. 500°C, noise emitted reaches >100dB Cold HX Hot HX Resonator Hot HX

Application to Cooling Using sound waves in secondary stack to “destroy” pressure amplitude (reverse Stirling cycle) Cooling without moving components, temperatures of <60K reported. Uses in gas liquefaction, but other uses feasible –Vehicle AC –Replacement for conventional refrigeration First cooling observed here far from those applications

Cooling Measurements Onset of oscillations after 100 seconds. “Ambient” side of refrigeration stack heats up, cold side cools below ambient. Parasitic heat input becomes obvious: Goal is to maintain constant temperature at ambient side. Without oscillations temperatures equalize (to higher level  parasitic heat flow)

Goals of Future Research Amplify sound waves to higher levels –Contain noise to enclosure Decouple engine stack and refrigeration stack to avoid parasitic heat flow, sustain constant cooling to lower temperatures. Decrease size of cooling system Develop viable cooling alternative free of CFC/HCFC coolants (as used in vapor compression cycles)

Final Slide Support provided by NSF CBET