Design of a Condenser-Boiler for a Binary Mercury-Organic Rankine Cycle Solar Dynamic Space Power System

A theoretical design was performed for the condenserboiler of a space-based solar dynamic power system. The base system is a binary Rankine cycle with mercury and toluene, as the working fluids. System output is 75 KWe with a combined efficiency of 41.1. Design goals were to develop the most reliable, mass efficient unit possible for delivery to a space station. The design sized the unit based on toluene properties and used a computer generated heat balance to thermodynamically match the two fluids. Molybdenum was chosen as the material due to mass effectiveness in heat transfer, strength, and resistance to mercury corrosion. The unit transfer 137.46 kilowatts of thermal power and can operate at varying mass flow rates. Effectiveness in heat transfer is 0.96 and mass performance is 0.016 kgKWth transferred. The design keyed on using only existing technologies and the results call for no new developments.