Experimental performance of a waste heat recovery and utilization system with a looped water-in-steel heat pipe

An experimental facility is described for the recovery, by means of heat-pipes, of waste-heat from exhaust gases, and the utilization of the recovered energy to cool ambient air. To this end, heat of combustion gases, generated in a stainless-steel combustion chamber, is recovered from the stack by means of a heat-pipe system. The recovered heat is utilized to run a modified commercial aqua-ammonia absorption chiller. Chilled water from the chiller is supplied to a fan-coil type cooling tunnel to cool the intake air of a (conceptual) gas turbine engine to boost its performance. It is concluded from test results that the experimental facility performs well, and that it behaves as predicted by modeling and simulation studies. The system is able to extract between 70 and 93% of the technically recoverable energy from exhaust gases, and utilizes the extracted energy to cool air. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.