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Washington State University Innovation for Sustainable Energy

Meeting Minutes 2017-7-20

Meeting start time: 2:00 p.m.

Members Present: Lee, Sage, Mathew, Jose

Fixed Issues:

  • Leaks had been found on the VT and fixed utilizing indium and pipe tape sealing methods (Jose)

Known Issues:

  • During testing on 7/18/2017 a full gas bottle was drained in ~10 minutes by the system at a working pressure of 350 psi. This has created issues regarding available resources as well as time management. After discussing the issue with Jake, it seems that installing the gas boosters is the next route that should be taken as well as possibly closing the system. Since Nitrogen is relatively cheap, its monetary expense is not much of an issue currently.

 

From today:

  • A J-T valve was installed on the hot-end of the vortex tube to control back pressure and flow on the system.
  • Currently testing to optimize J-T valve position at 350 psi for optimal cooling capability.
  • Operating with fully open J-T valves at 350 psi saw a drop in ~18 K in roughly 10 minutes.
  • Operating with a fully closed J-T valve on the hot-end saw cooling but at the expense of efficiency. The observations are explored as follows:
  1. Initially saw ~ 1K of cooling on the cold-end.
  2. Cold-end then began warming back up.
  3. After ~ 4 minutes, gradual cooling on the cold-end could be seen.

** We think that cooling may be occurring even with a fully closed J-T valve on the hot-end for a few reasons. One idea is that while the hot and cold gas is being separating, as the hot gas reaches the J-T valve it is forced back into the VT, mixing with the cold-gas that is then forced out the cold-end. This then decreases the rate of cooling on the cold-end, leading to the idea that closing the hot-end is extremely inefficient.

 

Current Issues:

  • Still do not have a recording system for temperature measurements. Lee is currently working to get the measurement set up through LabView or Excel.

Meeting Minutes 2017-6-28

Meeting start time: 2:00 pm

Members Present: James Matilas, Sage Pratt, Mathew Hunt, Jake Leachman, Eli Shoemake

 

  • Reviewed liquefier safety systems
  • Plumbed gas bottle and liquefier system
  • Safely anchored down the entire system within the storage container
  • Wired up thermocouples to a National Instruments thermocouple reader

 

We are now set to begin testing on Thursday 6/29/2017

Meeting Minutes 2017-6-20

Meeting start time: 2:00 pm

Members Present: Jose Ramos, Sage Pratt, Aaron Clark, Mathew Hunt, Eli Shoemake

 

Update on Gas-Booster Progress:

  • Haskel AGD-15 gas booster is operational.
  • Jose has put in a work order for pressure relief for the booster.

Social Media Progress:

  • Aaron has set-up both the Twitter and Facebook pages for ISE
  • The Lentil Festival requires paying a $175 fee and filling out a registration form
  1. Jake suggested going to John Schnieder to look at club funding to see if that cost can be covered through WSU.
  2. Jake also suggested speaking with Jacob Chen – a chef from food services that may be able to help us with Food permits.

Liquefier Updates:

  • Threaded Die is on order, once it has arrived, VCR fittings will get threaded.
  • TIG welded new VCR fitting for a better sealed connection to the VT.

 

What’s next?

  • Install VT into liquefier.
  • Install pressure relief on the gas booster.
  • Conduct testing and continue with community outreach.

Meeting Minutes 2017-6-15

Meeting start time: 2:00 pm

Members Present: Jose Ramos, James Mitalas, Aaron Clark, Mathew Hunt, Eli Shoemake

  • Discussed community outreach events:
  • Setting up a booth at the Palouse Lentil Festival where we could give out ice-cream, flyers and stickers to people.
  • Setting up a booth at the Voiland College day of welcome where we’d serve LN2 ice-cream as well as recruit.
    • This could include having a spin wheel to earn stickers or other prizes.
    • To enter or get ice cream you’d have to show us you’ve liked us on either Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat.
  • Aaron is working towards building out our social media presence. That includes Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
  • We are considering getting in contact with the Alumni organization to establish a connection there as well as with other organizations.

 

Technical Updates:

  • It has been determined that the Haskel AGD-15 gas booster is operational and that all we need is the proper pressure relief for it.
  • Ran through plumbing of the system with Eli, making through connections are correct.

Meeting Notes 2017-6-8

Meeting start time: 3:00 pm

Members/Grad Students/Mentors Present: Eli, James, Mathew, Sage

  • Began assembly the initial nitrogen experiment
  1. Brazed together VCR fittings with SS tubing
  2. Assembled cross for various measurements to be attached to the nitrogen dewar
  3. Sealed 3 thermocouples to a pass-through plug using a two-part epoxy (J-B Weld)
  4. Installed nitrogen gas bottle into storage container for safe experimentation
  5. Face VCR fitting for VT.

Meeting Notes 2017-6-6

Meeting start time: 3:00 pm

Members/Grad Students/Mentors Present: Eli, James, Jose, Mathew, Sage

  • Discussed and decided on how much LH2 we’d like to be able to produce for the final design
  1. Considered NFPA Documentation
  2. To comply w/ NFPA, decided that liquefying 150 L of H2 max per day was acceptable.
  3. Corresponds to 88.54 SLM total flow throughout the system
  4. Ideally wanting 40% of the total flow coming out of cold side.
  5. Corresponds to 885.4 L/min inlet flow.
  • Eli started design documentation to record future needs & updates.
  • Worked through safety documentation for initial testing.
  1. Got oriented with documentation
  2. Modified for the needs of ISE.
  3. Formatted so changes can be made as further iterations are made.

Meeting Notes 2017-5-30

Meeting start time: 3:30 pm

Members/Grad Students/Mentors Present: Jake, Eli, Kevin, Mathew, Jose, Aaron, Sage.

 

  • Today’s meeting started with a presentation of the Linde-Hampson cycle, the basic cycle that the LN2 test runs off of. The point of the presentation was to educate all members on the actual system process that is taking place and how it moves from point A to B.
  • It was explained to Jake that our system would be bare bones, so he asked us a few questions including: have we taken into account the fact that when venting from the gas bottle, both temperature and pressure in the gas bottle will drop as well. This means that our test will not be based on steady-state, but transient.
  • Jake ran through the thermodynamics of the gas bottle venting ( no picture was taken at the time, one will be added later ) and it was found that our transient measurements would for the enthalpy term.
  • Then we ran through with Jake what we plan on doing next for testing. We set a deadline by the end of the week next week to begin liquefying Nitrogen!!!!!!!!
  • Then with the help of Eli, the team cleaned and seal the VT fully, including a small indium extrusion demo.
  • Testing to measure volumetric flow rate from a gas line will be taken tomorrow (5/31/2017)

 

 

What’s left for initial testing:

  • Stainless steel tubing and a 1/16th die are on order for the VCR connection into the VT.
  • Modifications geometry wise must be made in the recuperator so that the VT will fit.
  • Safety paperwork must still be written
  • Waiting to hear on the progress from the gas booster team.