UC Davis and Carnegie Mellon University received a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) to develop novel heat exchangers for high temperature and high pressure applications. Such heat exchangers can advance development of high efficiency modular power systems.

Heat exchangers transfer heat from one fluid to another without the fluids coming into contact with one another. They are widely used in power generation, space heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, and transportation. Professor Vinod Narayanan is leading UC Davis’ work as co-PI. Narayanan is a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Associate Director of the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center.

UC Davis researchers (from left to right -Aref Aboud, Adam Strong, Kha Ton, Ines-Noelly Tano, Vinod Narayanan, Erfan Rasouli, Caton Mande, and Zachary Delozier) at the Solar Thermal and Energy Enhancement Laboratory. Photo: Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis.

Over the next three years, Narayanan will work with professor Anthony Rollett’s lab at Carnegie Mellon University to develop an ultra-high temperature recuperator for the supercritical carbondioxide thermodynamic power cycle. The project includes material science and engineering, additive manufacturing, thermal and fluidic design, and cost analysis.

The research team also includes National Energy Technology Laboratory, HEXCES, General Electric, Extrude Hone, and the Colorado School of Mines.