Donald Erickson

• CEO at Energy Concepts Company

Ambient temperature markedly impacts combustion turbine performance. A typical aeroderivative turbine loses 25% of ISO capacity at 38°C ambient. There are two traditional options to mitigate that degradation: evaporative cooling and mechanical chilling. They boost turbine performance, but consume significant water and/or electric load. Also, the tu...

A double lift absorption chiller ("ThermoChiller") has been installed in the Aurora Ice Museum at Chena Hot Springs, Alaska. The ThermoChiller runs on 163°F hot spring water, and provides 15 tons of -20°F chilling. This will allow the Ice Museum to stay frozen year round, and thus allow summer visitors to experience winter amenities at the resort....

Low-temperature heat is a widely encountered source of energy that is currently used little. Absorption cycles are uniquely capable of upgrading low-temperature heat to useful form (refrigeration or power) at high efficiency and low cost. A new dual-function ammonia-water absorption cycle is being developed that accepts heat in the range of 120°C t...

The emerging Distributed Energy Resources (DER) program envisions extensive use of small to midsize turbines for on-site power production. Their output decreases substantially at warm ambient conditions when it is most needed. Therefore inlet air cooling had received much scrutiny as a way to avoid this degradation. This study examines three approa...

The gas-fired Generator-Absorber heat eXchanger (GAX) heat pump is being considered for space conditioning in residential and light commercial applications. In order to meet the national building codes for ammonia absorption heat pumps, a secondary fluid is used to interface with the air-coils. Proper choice of a secondary fluid maximizes the econo...

About 1.06 quads of energy are consumed in the U.S. alone in the production of commercial hot water. The primary energy efficiency is about 90% for gas heaters and 32% for electric. In both cases, high-quality, highly exergetic energy is directly converted one-for-one into very low quality energy, yielding very low second law efficiencies. A gas-fi...

Absorption cycle performance has traditionally been characterized in terms of the cycle lift, defined as the difference between the condenser and evaporator temperatures. Two other temperatures that govern the cycle performance are the generator and absorber outlet solution temperatures. When the cycle is powered by high-temperature heat, the gener...

The advanced Vapor eXchange Generator Absorber heat eXchange (VX GAX) cycle has similar components as the basic GAX cycle but is a three-pressure cycle and makes more complete use of the GAX temperature overlap. Less external heat is supplied to the generator, and the cycle efficiency is increased. A breadboard prototype of a gas-fired heat pump us...

The advanced Vapor exchange Generator Absorber heat exchange (VX GAX) cycle has similar components as the basic GAX cycle but is a three-pressure cycle and makes more complete use of the GAX temperature overlap. Less external heat is supplied to the generator, and the cycle efficiency is increased. A breadboard prototype of a gas-fired heat pump us...

A sieve-tray design methodology for highly compact ammonia-water columns is introduced. A conceptual design of the distillation column for an 8 ton vapor exchange (VX) generator-absorber heat exchanger (GAX) heat pump is presented, illustrating relevant design parameters and trends. The design process reveals several issues that have to be investig...

In an effort to increase the energy efficiency and reduce environmental emissions from refineries, the Commerce City Refinery of Ultramar Diamond Shamrock, the Office of Industrial Technologies at the U.S. Department of Energy and a team of contractors have collaborated to implement a novel project. A waste heat fired Absorption Refrigeration Unit...

Planetec Utility Services Co. Inc. and Energy Concepts Co. (ECC), with the help of the US Department of Energy (DOE), developed and commissioned a unique waste-heat powered LPG recovery plant in August 1997 at the 30,000 b/d Denver refinery, operated by Ultramar Diamond Shamrock (UDS). This new environmentally friendly technology reduces flare emis...

Rearrangement of the Colburn-Drew equations which model mass transfer in a binary mixture leads to a form that combines the mass transfer contribution of diffusion and bulk flow in one coefficient. For a two-film model, the relative mass transfer resistances of each film are then easily formulated.

In an effort to increase the energy efficiency and reduce environmental emissions from refineries, the Commerce City Refinery of Ultramar Diamond Shamrock, the Office of Industrial Technologies at the U.S. Department of Energy and a team of contractors have collaborated to implement a novel project. A waste heat fired Absorption Refrigeration Unit...

A computer program was developed for an ammonia-water-based generator absorber heat exchange (GAX) component that simulates the simultaneous heat and mass transfer for coexisting liquid film absorption and flow boiling desorption. Key input parameters were identified and used to simulate the variations of heat and mass transfer coefficients, total...

Triple effect absorption chillers can achieve 50% coefficient of performance (COP) improvement over double-effect systems. However, to translate this potential into cost-effective hardware, the most promising embodiments must be identified. In this study, 12 generic triple effect cycles and 76 possible hermetic loop arrangements of those 12 generic...

Waste heat powered absorption refrigeration is an economical and environmentally beneficial means of providing refrigeration. When the temperature is too low to power a conventional single effect absorption cycle, the double-lift cycle is needed. This paper describes several recently conceptualized double-lift cycles that incorporate internal heat...

GAX absorption heat pump cycles are characterized by the generator-absorber heat exchange (GAX) between the high-temperature end of the absorber and the low temperature end of the generator. The improved thermodynamic performance of the basic GAX cycle coupled with its mechanical simplicity has attracted substantial interest in using this cycle for...

A novel absorption cycle, with a significantly higher temperature lift than current technology, is under development. The cycle is based on an aqueous ternary hydroxide working fluid consisting of sodium, potassium and caesium hydroxide in the proportions 40:36:24 (NaOH:KOH:CsOH). The higher temperature lift is made possible by the unique propertie...

The Intermittent Solar Ammonia Absorption Cycle (ISAAC) refrigerator is a solar thermal technology which provides low cost, efficient, reliable ice-making to areas without ready access to electricity. An ISAAC refrigeration system consists of a compound parabolic solar collector, two pressure vessels, a condenser, a cold box or refrigerated space,...

Absorption heat pumping (AHP) offers a highly economic and widely applicable avenue to process heat integration and heat recovery in natural gas liquid (NGL) fractionation plants. Economically priced equipment is now available for any required capacity rating. Installations are increasing. In conventional heat pumping, heat at a low temperature is...

A first-of-its-kind Waste Heat Ammonia Absorption Refrigeration Plant (WHAARP™) was installed by Planetec Utility Services Co., Inc. in partnership with Energy Concepts Co. at Ultramar Diamond Shamrock's 30,000 barrel per day refinery in Denver, Colorado. The refrigeration unit is designed to provide refrigeration for two process units at the refin...