Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a coating for steam condensers used in fossil fuel steam-cycle generation that is made with fluorinated diamond-like carbon, or F-DLC. The researchers reported in Nature Communications that this coating could boost the overall process efficiency by 2%. In addition, they demonstrated the coating’s suitability for industrial use by performing the longest durability test ever reported.
Fossil fuel power generation depends on a process called the steam cycle, in which fuel is burned to boil water, the resulting steam spins a turbine and the turbine drives an electric generator. The steam then reaches a condenser which both reclaims water from the steam and maintains a pressure difference across the turbine so the steam flows. Improving the condensers’ heat transfer properties would allow a pressure difference to be maintained while burning less fuel.
The researchers’ new F-DLC coating improves heat transfer because the material is hydrophobic. When the steam condenses into water, it does not form a thin film that coats the surface, like water does on many clean metals and their oxides. Instead, the water forms droplets on the F-DLC surface, putting the steam into direct contact with the condenser and allowing heat to be directly transferred. The researchers found that this improved the heat transfer properties by a factor of 20, which translates to a 2% overall process boost.
The F-DLC uses carbon, fluorene, and a little bit of silicon. It can coat almost any common metal, including copper, bronze, aluminum and titanium.
To demonstrate F-DLC’s durability, the researchers subjected coated metals to steam condenser conditions for 1,095 days, the longest test reported in the literature. The coated metals maintained their hydrophobic properties for this entire length of time. The researchers also found that the coated metals maintained their hydrophobic properties after 5,000 scratches in an abrasion test.
The research team is now collaborating with UIUC’s Abbott Power Plant to study the coating’s performance for six months of steady condensation exposure under industrial conditions.
F-DLC-coated metals were provided by Oerlikon Balzers Coating.
Researchers from Sabanci University also contributed to this study.
Image – Copper steam condenser pipes coated with F-DLC (top) and without a coating (bottom). The F-DLC coating allows the condensed water to form into droplets rather than a thin film covering the pipe.
For more information:
University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering
