Liquid-Fluidized-Bed Heat Exchangers for a 50-MW Plant

Abstract

Liquid fluidized bed and conventional heat exchangers were size for a 50-MW dual boiling plant for the Raft River resource. Thermal performance was calculated for low an high pressure preheaters, low an high pressure boiler, and condenser. A plant using liquid fluidized bed exchangers requires 56 percent of the heat transfer surface area compared to a plant with conventional tube and shell exchangers. Shell volume is great for fluidized bed exchangers; however, increased shell cost is partially offset by the lower design pressure achieve by putting the geothermal fluid on the shell side. With the working fluid on the tube side, the isobutane inventory in the exchangers is reduced by 45 percent. Parasitic pumping costs due to pressure drops are the same for both systems within the accuracy of calculation.