Project Details

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Development of high temperature sliding vane compressor for heat pump applications

Company: Echogen Power Systems (DE), Inc.

Major(s):
Primary: ME

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Echogen Power Systems is developing next-generation high-temperature steam-generating heat pumps (SGHP) for industrial applications. At present, there are no viable compressor technologies at the kW (shaft power) scales to meet the operating requirements of Echogen’s SGHP. Dr. Alex Rattner has been developing sliding vane expanders technology that has the potential to be used in compression systems. The objective of this project is to investigate the feasibility of using sliding vane turbomachinery technology in small-scale (< 1 MWth) steam-generating heat pumps. During the first phase, the student group will review the design of the existing expander and make design modifications based on learnings from the previous expander tests and requirements of the compression testing. The second phase will be to execute the design modifications and run the compressor to collect performance data. Based on the data students will make recommendations for design improvements and provide validation of performance. Students will have to work with Dr. Alex Rattner and should seek him out for questions.

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