Loop thermosiphon thermal collector for waste heat recovery power generation

ABSTRACT

A loop thermosiphon thermal collector was developed for the waste heat recovery power generation with electric capacity of 500 W. The heat collector with heat transfer area of 0.159 m² (500 mm width and 300 mm depth) was connected to the condenser with a shrunken heat transfer area by a loop. The thermal performance of the apparatus was declined when increasing the water filling rate to 90% as the working fluid occupied the internal volume. In the range of water filling rate between 30% and 60%, the effective thermal conductivity was around100 times of the conductivity of copper.

KEYWORDS:

• Loop thermosiphon
• waste heat recovery
• effective thermal conductivity

Additional information

Funding

A part of this study was supported by the market development technology construction program by Niigata Industrial Creation Organization (NICO), “Development of power generation system by unused low-temperature waste heat”, Shin-san-so 841, 2011-2013. The authors are grateful to express our appreciation for the financial aid.