Design of Heat-Pipe Heat Exchanger (HPHE) for a Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Process Using Nuclear Energy

Coal is burnt in actual Fischer-Tropsch process to provide heat for steam generation required for coal gasification in a coal conversion-to-liquid (CTL) fuel process. In light of the world energy demand growth and consumption rate of the world reserves, the use of alternative energy resource for heat supply to a CTL process seems to be more attractive. It is expected that the use of alternative energy on the current process will not only contribute to the extension of the coal reserves life-time but will also significantly contribute to reduce the carbon foot-print. In this study, a high-temperature gas cooled reactor is considered to supply heat to a 240 MWth CTL process and a HPHE is conceptually designed for physical dimensions and its dynamic behaviour is observed. The process heat superheated steam is generated in a once-through heat pipe heat exchanger steam generator using sodium as working fluid. A heat pipe heat exchanger once through steam generator is modelled and simulated with the aim of predicting the transient and dynamic behaviour of the heat transfer process occurring in the HPHE.