HPC4mfg – High Performance Computing to Enable Next-generation Low- temperature Waste Heat Recovery

Project Description

The US manufacturing industry fails to recover an estimated 900 trillion BTUs of lowtemperature waste heat from its processes each year.1-3 A grand research challenge has been to develop waste heat recovery (WHR) technology that can be applied to industrial manufacturing processes and vehicle operations. Despite considerable investment, cost-effective solutions remain elusive. The research team proposes to develop an innovative direct-contact heat exchanger technology to deliver low-cost, compact, longer-lifetime, high-efficiency waste heat recovery that is optimized for a low temperature organic Rankine cycle. National laboratory expertise in high performance computing (HPC) and multiphase flows will be needed to realize this goal while advancing the fundamental understanding of two-phase, two-immiscible-fluid turbulent flow heat transfer and immiscible-fluid membrane separation for heat exchangers and membrane filtration systems. The team will leverage Eaton Corporation’s state-of-theart testing facilities to acquire process performance data with which to validate these fundamental models. These simulations will unlock the evelopment of smaller, higher efficiency thermodynamic components for use in a novel low-temperature heat recovery process.