Thermally Sprayed Heat Exchanger for Low-grade Heat
Recovery
Jerry Han, MSc Student, xuerui@ualberta.ca
Supervisors: Dr. André McDonald and Dr. Sanjeev Chandra
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto
Sub Project 2.2.3 - Functional Coatings for Heat Management
Background and Motivation
Flaring is a recognized and commonly utilized method to combust waste gases which may come as a by-
product of oil and gas production. Flaring results in safe processing of harmful or highly combustible
gases which may otherwise accumulate and create safety risks, but the flaring process releases
greenhouse gases (GHG) and excessive heat.
Source: (L) Introduction to Thermo-Fluids Systems Design, McDonald and Magande , (R) Shutterstock
Low-grade heat capture from flaring:
• Pre-heat or vaporize fluids as part of a Rankine cycle
• Further heating could occur in a boiler with reduced heating capacity, conserving additional energy
• Mitigating both GHGs and low-grade heat emissions from fueling the boiler
• If the heat capture is sufficient to superheat the fluid, directly fed into turbine
Novel heat exchanger fabrication method:
• Conventional metal working joining methods: welding, cladding, or brazing
• Substitute conventional joining methods with thermal spray coating as the mechanical bond
• Rezaey used twin wire-arc thermal spray to deposit a thick layer of stainless steel powder to bond
between the wire mesh and stainless tube
Source: Rezaey et al. (2014), (L) Mechanical bonding of 4 PPI wire mesh to the stainless steel tube: (a) Side view of the mesh attached to
the tube (b) Top view of a thermal-sprayed sample, (R) SEM micrograph of coated joint, tube and wire interface with coating cross section
Operational challenges:
• Flare temperatures are in the order of 500 to 1,100 degrees Celsius. Stainless steel metallurgical
structure changes may occur, causing softening, carbide precipitation, or embrittlement
• The particulate matter present in flare gases can erode coatings
• Delamination can occur due to thermal cycling
This project will utilize thermal spray coatings to protect a heat exchanger from harsh flare gas
environment while recovering low-grade heat. From a single tube to multiple passes, designs leading up
to the prototype have been tested to quantify the performance characteristics such as heat transfer and
pressure drop.
Source: Rezaey et al. (2014), Various stages of development and testing of meshed tube heat exchangers
Objectives
The following points are the objectives of the project split into three phases:
(i) Develop a high-efficiency, high strength coatings-based heat exchanger
a) Current prototype developed by Dr. Chandra’s research team at the University of Toronto
had been tested in an air-to-air scenario within a lab environment. Prototype heat
exchanger transported to University of Alberta in January 2019.
b) Prepare the prototype heat exchanger for testing by designing and sourcing auxiliary
components such as ducting, piping, enclosures, mounts, and calibrating existing
thermocouples.
c) Use the heat exchanger in a variety of liquid-to-air test scenarios to test thermodynamic
performance and material durability.
(ii) Couple the heat exchanger to a Rankine Cycle to produce electricity
(iii) Deploy the technology into operation in the Oil & Gas industry of Alberta
RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2015
www.PosterPresentations.com
Methods and Materials
The prototype heat exchanger is a 4 layer sandwich structure. Each layer has 5 stainless steel tube
passes. Two layers are plain tubes, and the other two layers have mesh thermal spray bonded to the
tubes, arranged in a staggered format. The figure below shows two testing orientations for plain tube
vs. meshed tube performance. The heat exchanger cross section area for hot flue gases is 17” X 17”
with 1” OD stainless steel tubes.
Source: Rezaey et al. (2015), Images taken from PowerPoint Presentation for work completed as of September 23, 2015
Phase 1 of the project involves preparing the prototype heat exchanger for various real world testing
cases:
• Currently, the hot gas source is a tank-less water heater flue gas exhaust
• A small pump will be used to pump water through the prototype heat exchanger
• The system will be an open system with a cold and hot reservoirs
• A mounting and positioning apparatus has been designed to modify the original mounting method to
accommodate for more flexibility in hot flue gas sources as well as positions
Source: Rezaey et al. (2015), (L) Image of prototype heat exchanger placement, mounted on top of stack. (R) New designs for mounting
and positioning of prototype heat exchanger, completed April 2019.
Next Steps
Remaining work for Phase 1 of the project include:
• Ducting and adapters for connection to flue gas source
• Procurement and assembly of the new positioning apparatus
• Validating thermocouples (existing thermocouples need to be tested and calibrated)
• Test performance of coating under various conditions, corrosion effects, temperature fluctuations,
different flue stacks or exhaust gas sources
Phase 2 goals:
• Utilizing the prototype heat exchanger as an evaporator component as part of a Rankine cycle
• Build or purchase Rankine cycle in order to quantify the performance of the prototype heat
exchanger in an energy generation case
Acknowledgements
The researchers would like to thank the following people for their guidance and support in this project:
Dr. Larry Pershin (University of Toronto)
Milad Rezvani Rad (University of Alberta)
Shahed Taghian Dehaghani (University of Alberta)
We acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
(NSERC) and Alberta Innovates.
References
[1] Y. Fu, J. Wen, and C. Zhang, “An experimental investigation on heat transfer enhancement of sprayed wire-mesh heat
exchangers,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 112, pp. 699–708, Sep. 2017.
[2] R. Rezaey, “Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer in Laser Sintered and Wire Mesh Heat Exchangers,” University
of Toronto, 2017.
[3] R. Rezaey, S. Salavati, L. Pershin, T. Coyle, S. Chandra, and J. Mostaghimi, “Fabrication of Wire Mesh Heat Exchangers
for Waste Heat Recovery Using Wire-Arc Spraying,” Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 609–615, Apr.
2014.
[4] A. G. McDonald and H. L. Magande, Introduction to thermo-fluids systems design. Chichester, West Sussex, United
Kingdom: Wiley, 2012.