Advanced Cooling Technology

June 2009

About the Newsletter

This Advanced Cooling Technology (ACT) Project quarterly newsletter
is a brief summary of new projects, available and pending reports,
and the status of ongoing research as of the end of the 2nd quarter
of 2009. This issue describes the activities that have taken place
since ACT was launched in July 2008, including the initial meeting
of advisors to determine the first round of projects to fund. In addition,

An EPRI Progress Report

Hybrid Cooling Systems This project will address the following issues:
Sizing the air-cooled condensers (ACC) and cooling towers to optimize
between cost and performance
Obtaining data on existing installations
Operational issues, such as when to operate wet tower
Operation of tower during hot (dry) months in cases of drought and
other water shortage
Hybrids applied to first generation of nuclear units for with water
conservation

updates are provided for base-funded cooling related work in

Program 55 and projects funded through the Technology Innovation
Program.
If you have comments about the newsletter, please contact Kent
Zammit ([email protected]; 805-481-7349. Additional information can also be obtained from the advanced cooling web site at
www.epri.com\advancedcooling.

Advanced Cooling Technology

Technical Advisory Committee
2009 Research Prioritization
In April 2009, ACT advisors reviewed, discussed and prioritized
potential research projects for 2009 funding. Results of the prioritization follow, including brief descriptions of each funded project.
First Tier (Funded)
Desiccant Water Recovery The Energy and Environmental Research
Center at the University of North Dakota (EERC) currently is developing a liquid desiccant-based capture method to remove water vapor
from stack gasses to be used as makeup water to the plant. Little is
known about the projected cost and efficiency of such a desiccantbased capture system. EERC would be able to use EPRI funding as
cost share for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding the
Center is already receiving.

Membranes for Water Capture At least two entities are developing

membrane systems to simultaneously remove carbon dioxide and water
vapor. There were concerns expressed about its practicality. The two main
concerns relate to the structural stability of these small membrane fibers
and the potential loss of vacuum as fibers are broken and leak flue gas into
the vacuum plenum. There was also concern about the size and weight of
such a system and plugging of the membranes from flue gas
constituents.
Second Tier (Unfunded)
Indirect Dry Cooling ESKOM and others have adopted indirect dry
cooling for full scale application, but it does have additional efficiency
impacts associated with the addition of a condenser. This technology may
have applicability to nuclear units, where a secondary cooling loop already
exists and there are safety concerns with piping steam out to an air cooled
condenser outside the containment building. In such installations, a heat
rate penalty of an additional heat exchanger would not be added. Advisors agreed it was probably better to concentrate on the hybrid system
project and cover nuclear units in that work.
Dry Cooling on Nuclear Units The advisors expressed concern that this
application would ever be attempted. Possible application would be to
new advanced gas reactors.
Condensable Vapor Capture A condensable vapor capture system could
be employed to remove a portion of the water vapor from cooling tower
plumes. In this system, chilled water is atomized into a cold water fog and
fed co-currently with the saturated air. Water vapor condenses on the fog
drops, after which the flow passes through a de-mister to capture the
droplets. Advisors discussed the source of chilled water for spraying into

Glocon Fans
Glocon has a new fan that is based on an improved air foil design patented by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for wind
turbine application. Glocon is seeking to pilot test this at a utility, and
one member company has indicated interest. It promises to reduce fan
horsepower by 15%, therefore generating more net power from a plant
for the same water use. Advisors reviewed this project on the June 10,
2009 webcast, and EPRI will also seek DOE-National Energy Technology Laboratory participation in cosponsoring such a demonstration.

the cooling tower. Best source may be the makeup water, but the relative
benefits of spraying this water into the hot cooling tower plume rather
than injecting into cold water basin are unknown. This project might
benefit from analysis on Aspen or other code. Advisors agreed to limit
funding for now until concept is better understood.
Third Tier (Unfunded)
Optimized Cooling Systems By monitoring the operating parameters of
the cooling system components in addition to other plant parameters, the
optimum operation of the system could be determined. Since the interrelationships are complex and those parameters are ever-changing during
normal operation, real time solutions require advanced computational
capabilities. Dynamic programming and other computer-based solution
techniques could be explored in operating power plant applications to
develop an online optimization methodology. This project would offer
some potentially economic and easy solutions to existing cooling towers.

NREL Patents
NREL has two patents; a) an advanced direct contact condenser the Laboratory applied to geothermal plants, and b) an improved fin-tab heat
exchanger that may be able to improve ACC performance. EPRI will
investigate and set up a webcast to discuss these technologies as
warranted.
Facility Tours
The advisors expressed interest in touring existing water conservation
facilities, including power plants, pilot demonstrations, etc. Since much
of this work has been done in Europe, South Africa and other places, it
may be difficult to get approvals for travel. EdF offered to host a meeting
as part of a European tour.

Wind Effects on Air Cooled Condensers EPRI has done extensive

research on the effects of wind, especially wind gusts, on the performance
of ACCs. Modeling shows that a simple wind wall could eliminate most
of these effects, but they remain to be demonstrated at full scale. EPRI is
currently working on a proposal with one vendor and one member to
demonstrate at full scale. This work could be done with minimal or no
ACT funding.

News Service Offered

EPRI has initiated a service that provides members of the ACT Program
with a weekly summary of news articles related to water sustainability and
water related power generation. To be added to the distribution, please
contact Kent Zammit, [email protected].

Organic Rankine Cycle This concept is similar to the ammonia bottoming cycle, but in this case, the heat source is derived from the flue gas. A
thermal oil loop transfers this heat to an ammonia or ammonia/water
based heat recovery system. One member has been approached by GE
with a plan to apply this in front of the scrubber instead of the stack.
EPRI will pursue further and possibly schedule a workshop on the technology for ACT.

Program 55 Funded Research

This section covers research funded under Program 55, Strategic Water
Issues: TMDLs, Availability, Climate, managed by Dr. Robert
Goldstein.

Additional Research Opportunities

and Activities

Water Resource Trend Analysis and Implications

for Power Industry
This project focuses on identifying trends in water resource availability
and quality and on providing a review of different factors that may lead
to changes in these attributes. Case studies, developed from the literature
and through basic analysis, will be used to document situations where a
water resource or water quality change has been attributed to one or more
factors, such as rapid land development, inter-basin water transfers, river
impoundments , or modification of landscapes for agricultural use (e.g.,
wetland draining). Similarities and differences among various U.S.
regions will be considered. The importance of water resource trends and
the factors that cause them will be related to operational needs of the
electric power industry, intersecting identified trends and major causative
factors with the needs of various types of generation facilities operated by
the electric power industry.

This section covers additional research opportunities that EPRI is pursuing or is being performed by other organizations.
Forward Osmosis
EPRI is investigating a forward osmosis concept by a company, OASYS,
which holds a patent on a draw solution that can be regenerated with low
grade heat. This may offer a big benefit to reducing desalination costs
(2/3 less power projected), using waste heat from power plants (exhaust
steam could be used for desalination, lowering cooling system size and
costs), and reduction of wastewater volume. Advisors reviewed this project on the June 10, 2009 webcast. EPRI allocated Polaris (Technology
Innovation Funding) to assess market potential of this technology, but
further investigation has brought up concerns of how close this technology is to commercialization. EPRI is currently forming a team of experts
in membranes, thermodynamic cycles and cooling systems to evaluate
how developed the technology is and how it might be integrated with
power plant cycles.
Advanced Cooling Technology

Tiered Approach to Water Availability Assessment

and Management
Over the past decade, EPRI-sponsored research led to the development of
2

June 2009

a three-tiered analytic system to evaluate water constraints, and options to

address these constraints, at existing and future power plants. This project
evaluates the three-tiered analytic approach in selected regions of interest.
Tasks will include:

two main elements to be addressed by this Program are the creation, over
a five to ten year period, of breakthrough technologies for air cooling and
desalination/water reuse to significantly reduce energy and economic
costs. This years Polaris funding supports the organization of an Executive Advisory Council (consisting of government, national energy laboratory, electric power company, university and water sector representation),
and development of requests for proposals on air cooling and desalination/water reuse for release in 2010.

Selection of study watersheds representing a diversity of geographic

conditions
Application of the tiered framework, including regional analysis (Tier
1), watershed-level water balance calculation (Tier 2), and mechanistic
watershed modeling using WARMF (Tier 3)
Scenario analysis evaluating water availability from 2005 to 2030 for
multiple scenarios of future population growth, land use, and changes
in technologies/strategies to improve water use efficiency in various
sectors. This task will also include evaluation of management options
available to a power plant to limit water use.

Economic Evaluation of Alternative Cooling

Technologies
Work is nearly completed on this EPRI Technology Innovation collaborative effort between EPRI and EdF. The goal is to update the 2004 EPRI
report, Comparison of Alternative Cooling Technologies for U.S. Power
Plants: Economic, Environmental, and Other Tradeoffs (1005358),
which addresses wet and dry cooling applications to coal-fired and gasfired combined cycle power plants. The current project updates the design
and economic data in the report and extends the assessment to nuclear
power plants. Two parallel projects conducted wind tunnel and numerical
modeling of air flow around ACC and through ACC fans and assessed
mitigation measures to reduce the impacts of high winds on ACC performance. The resulting three final reports will be published later in 2009.

This work ties together many different approaches used in previous EPRI
studies on water sustainability. The work will provide an assessment of
future sustainability and scope for management action by utilities for a
wider range of scenarios than previously tested using a variety of analytical tools. The final product will be recommendations for the appropriate
level of analysis for various geographic settings and project requirements.
Stormwater Recycling
The objective of this project is to evaluate nationally the potential for
stormwater use in power plants; including, available volumes, regulatory
barriers, potential contaminants and treatment concepts. The study will
estimate potential volumes of rainfall available to power plants for different U.S. regions.. It will identify possible regulatory barriers and requirements (federal and state) to using onsite and offsite rainfall. For offsite
rainfall, public information (federal and local) will be used to identify
potential volumes of stormwater, possible contaminants and treatment
requirements. For onsite rainfall and different types of power plants (coal,
oil/gas, combined cycle and possibly nuclear), potential chemical contaminants, segregation strategies and physical/chemical treatment
requirements will be identified. Best Management Practices currently in
use to control stormwater movement at construction sites; .e.g. straw logs
in conjunction with the use of sorbent booms will also be identified.
Order-of-magnitude costs associated with treating onsite and offsite rainfall for use will be estimated. For different types of power plants, potential
stormwater uses will be identified.

Advanced Cooling Research Roadmap

Work is underway to develop a detailed and well-documented research
plan on advanced power plant cooling systems. The overall objective of
the resulting research is to develop economically-feasible cooling technology options that minimize water consumption and the impacts on power
plant efficiency and reliability. The research roadmap will assemble a list
of recommended innovative projects for which initial effort at the research
laboratory stage is required, identify other relevant research efforts that
are already underway and could be accelerated by EPRI participation,
propose a set of recommended research groups or individuals to conduct
the recommended work and prepare estimates of the level of effort and
cost to conduct the proposed research. It is anticipated the plan will be
completed later in 2009.

Recent and Upcoming EPRI

Meetings
Heading Water and Advanced Cooling Workshop. July 8-9, 2008,
Charlotte, NC. Presentations available at www.epri.com\
advancedcooling.
Advanced Cooling Technology Workshop and Advisory Committee
Meeting. February 17-18, 2009, Dallas, TX. Presentations will be
posted shortly at www.epri.com\advancedcooling.
Advanced Cooling Webcast on Forward Osmosis and High Efficiency
Fan Blades. June 12, 2009. Presentations will be posted shortly at
www.epri.com\advancedcooling.
Cooling Tower Technology Seminar and Conference. August 18-20,
2009, Hyatt Regency, Cincinnati, OH. Contact Jeff Stallings for additional information, [email protected].
EPRI Fall Technical Advisory Meeting. October 5-8, 2009, Boulder,
CO. Contact Kent Zammit for information.

Technology Innovation Funded

Research
This section covers research funded under EPRIs Technology Innovation
Program.
Polaris Project on Water Availability for Electric
Power Generation
The objective of this project is to establish the foundation of the Technical Innovation Water Availability Program that will be funded starting in
2010 by EPRIs Strategic Research Initiative. This project will allow the
Strategic Water Availability Program to start at full speed in 2010. The
Advanced Cooling Technology

June 2009

Existing EPRI Reports

Technology Research Opportunities for Efficient Water Treatment and Use,
EPRI 1016460, 2008
Use of Alternative Water Sources for Power Plant Cooling, EPRI 1014935,
2008
Water Use for Electric Power Generation, EPRI 1014026, 2008
Power Generation and Water Sustainability, EPRI 1015444, 2007
Running Dry at the Power Plant, EPRI Journal, 1015362, 2007
An Energy/Water Sustainability Research Program for the Electric Power
Industry, EPRI 1015371, 2007
Water Resources for Thermoelectric Power Generation, EPRI 1014487,
2006
Air-Cooled Condenser Design, Specification, and Operation Guidelines,
EPRI 1007688, 2005
Framework to Evaluate Water Demands and Availability for Electric
Power Production Within Watersheds Across the U.S.: Development and
Applications, EPRI 1010116, 2005
The Formation and Fate of Trihalomethanes in Power Plant Cooling
Water Systems, EPRI 1009486, 2004
Comparison of Alternate Cooling Technologies for U.S. Power Plants: Economic, Environmental and other Tradeoffs, EPRI 1005358, 2004
A Survey of Water Use and Sustainability in the U.S. with a Focus on
Power Generation, EPRI 1005474, 2003
Spray-Cooling Enhancement of Air-Cooled Condensers, EPRI 1005360,
2003
Use of Degraded Water Sources as Cooling Water in Power Plants, EPRI
1005359, 2003
Water & Sustainability (Volume 4): U.S. Electricity Consumption for
Water Supply and Treatment, EPRI 1006787, 2002
Water & Sustainability (Volume 3): U.S. Water Consumption for Power
Production The Next Half Century, EPRI 1006786, 2002
Water & Sustainability (Volume 2): An Assessment of Water Demand,
Supply and Quality in the U.S. The Next Half Century, EPRI 1006785,
2002
Water & Sustainability (Volume 1): Research Plan, EPRI 1006784, 2002
Electric Efficiency Through Water Supply: A Roadmap, EPRI 1019360,
2009

Advanced Cooling Research Roadmap

This report contains a detailed and well-documented research plan on
advanced power plant cooling systems. The overall objective of the plan is
to develop economically-feasible cooling technology options that minimize water consumption and the impacts on power plant efficiency and
reliability. The research roadmap assmbles a list of recommended innovative projects for which initial effort at the research laboratory stage is
required, identifies other relevant research efforts that are already underway and could be accelerated by EPRI participation, proposes a set of
recommended research groups or individuals to conduct the recommended work and prepare estimates of the level of effort and cost to
conduct the proposed research.
Electricit de Frances CYBIAM Binary Water/
Ammonia Dry Cooling Cycle Research: 1978-1992
The binary water/ammonia dry cooling cycle uses an ammonia cooling
cycle to cool the steam condenser of a conventional steam cycle and discharges the heat to the atmosphere using an air-cooled ammonia condenser. The the scope of the EDF research included: (1) evaluation of
alternate fluids for use in the secondary cooling cycle, which led to the
selection of the ammonia cycle; (2) design, construction, and testing of a
22 MWe pilot unit, known as CYBIAM, to demonstrate the feasibility of
integrating the ammonia cooling cycle with the low pressure turbine and
steam condenser; and (3) and performance and economic comparison of
the ammonia-cooled and conventional water-cooled steam cycle for a
1300 MW nuclear power plant. This report will be published later in
2009.
Wind Tunnel Modeling of Wind Effects on AirCooled Condenser Performance
The objective was to study the air flow through an air-cooled condenser
using a scale model of an air-cooled gas-fired combined cycle power plant
and the University of California at Daviss atmospheric boundary layer
wind tunnel. The research focused on the effect of wind speed and direction on recirculation of air flowing through the air-cooled condenser and
several mitigation measures that would reduce the recirculation. This
report will be published later in 2009.

Pending Reports
Economic Evaluation of Alternative Cooling
Technologies
This report updates the 2004 EPRI report, Comparison of Alternative
Cooling Technologies for U.S. Power Plants: Economic, Environmental,
and Other Tradeoffs (1005358), which addresses wet and dry cooling
applications to coal-fired and gas-fired combined cycle power plants. The
report updates design and economic data and extends the assessment to
nuclear power plants.

1019610

June 2009

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