Advanced Ceramic Composite Heat Exchangers for High-Temperature Fission and Fusion Applications

Principal Investigator:
Peterson

The production of hydrogen using thermochemical processes requires
heat delivered at temperatures between 800°C and 1000°C.
Metallic materials have great difficulty retaining strength in this
range. In this work, UCB is developing highly compact melt-infiltrated
carbon-carbon composite heat exchangers, that can exchange thermal
energy between high-pressure helium, molten fluoride salts, and
thermochemical hydrogen process fluids. Because the carbon coatings
of these heat exchangers are highly resistant to fouling by the
precipitation of metals, these heat exchangers are also of great
interest for inertial fusion applications, where resistance to plugging
by target debris is an important goal.

Research Sponsors: UNLV/DOE-NE