WO2013064169A1

WO2013064169A1 - Replacing water as cooling medium with helium in major and minor industries and substitution of conventional cooling systems with cryogenic process to cool the cooling medium (helium)

Info

Publication number: WO2013064169A1
Application number: PCT/EP2011/069154
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ahmad Reza Shirazi
Original assignee: Ahmad Reza Shirazi
Priority date: 2011-10-31
Filing date: 2011-10-31
Publication date: 2013-05-10

Abstract

Conventional industrial cooling systems are excessive in water demand, energy consumption, environmental influence and cost. Such approach to industrial cooling is not technically, economically or environmentally feasible for a majority of the regions in the world. The invention aims at substituting conventional industrial cooling systems with a cooling process, more suitable for major regions in the world with scarce water resources. In a closed-circuit system, the cooling medium, helium, is cooled down by a Cryogenic process to a designed and preset level. Unlike water in a cooling system, the processed and cooled helium gas can be directly re-circulated in the closed cooling system without further treatment. The loss of helium in the system is negligible and therefore no additional helium gas is needed to replenish the system. The cooling system can be applied to every major and minor combustion or industrial process system such as power plants, iron melting and steel manufacturing, ceramic and cement manufacturing, petrochemical industries, oil and natural gas refinery etc.

Description

REPLACING WATER AS COOLING MEDIUM WITH HELIUM IN MAJOR AND MINOR INDUSTRIES AND SUBSTITUTION OF CONVENTIONAL COOLING SYSTEMS WITH CRYOGENIC PROCESS TO COOL THE COOLING MEDIUM (HELIUM) The ancient and recent history shows that the developed countries are situated in geographic areas in the world that usually have plentiful water resources.

Key and vital industries for countries such as power plants, iron melting and steel manufacturing, cement manufacturing etc., require enormous water resources for cooling and other purposes.

However, due to the geographical location of very highly populated countries in arid parts of the world, rapid growth of the world population as well as the industrial acceleration that takes place at this moment, the shortages of water resources will be a major concern for generations to come.

According to the U N's reports, water shortage in the world has a major negative impact on more than 1 ,400,000,000 human lives today and the situation deteriorates every day. Consequently, as the access to water is essential for human life, and for development of human activities such as industry, agriculture, health care, etc., the limited water resources in the world causes major food shortage, hygienic, health and other problems for world populations.

On the other hand, electricity production which in itself is an essential indicator of a country's development requires a large amount of water resources. Oil and gas industries, petrochemical industries, iron melting and steel manufacturing as well as cement manufacturing are vital industries which require consistent and substantial water resources. To mention some of the problems regarding water shortages which are encountered in the construction of power plants in developed and developing countries having insufficient water resources, one most concrete problem is that power plants must be built in regions with better but overstrained water resources and the produced electricity must be transported to populated areas with enormous cost and electricity losses. The transportation cost for energy carriers such as fossil or bio fuels to these industry locations is also considerable.

For example, in order to produce 1 MW electricity, approximately 2.2 cubic meter of fresh, pure, sweet and soft water is used for mostly cooling purposes and also to a lesser extent for other usages such as steam generation.

The water shortage has besides natural usage of water such as for hygienic and health purposes, agricultural development etc., also seriously prevented the developing countries from having a sustainable development. Moreover, the water shortage will also prevent the developed countries from continued sustainable development.

It is an objective of this invention to provide a means for promoting development and welfare in the world particularly in areas such as industry, agriculture, health care, etc.

The presented invention intends to provide a better and more reliable cooling technique that does not require a vast amount of the scarce water resources in the world to be used for cooling purposes in major and minor industries. In this invention, liquid water as cooling medium is completely replaced with helium gas. This is due to the fact that helium gas has significantly better properties than liquid water for cooling purposes due to its higher heat conductivity, the heat capacity of liquid water being 4.18 kJ/kg.K as compared to 5.20 kJ/kg.K for helium gas. In addition, the cooling of the medium (helium) in this invention requires only 1/5 of the amount of energy used by conventional cooling towers to cool down sufficiently to allow the helium to be recycled into the process. This is accomplished by employing Cryogenic process to cool the cooling medium. This is due to the nature of Cryogenic process that employ natural physical concept of gases. Since in this invention water as cooling medium is completely replaced with helium, vital heavy industries and power-plants can be constructed in arid parts of the world and the site-selection for these heavy industries can be chosen based on other key factors such as vicinity to consumption or vicinity to the energy carrier (refinery, mines) or both etc. This has great economical and environmental benefits. The cooling process in this invention is achieved by Cryogenic process that cools down the heated gas (the cooling medium, helium) by a sudden drop of pressure to the desired temperature. As it appears, the Cryogenic process compared to the present cooling towers with huge fans etc. and thereby huge energy consumption, has natural

advantages. The helium gas in such a cooling system can directly, after cooling and without any treatment, be re-circulated in a closed system and therefore will not require supply of additional helium gas, contrary to water based cooling systems that require constant replenishments and treatment of water to operate. As comparison, the cooling system described in this invention requires only 1/5 of energy compared to the energy needed by conventional cooling towers to attain the same cooling effect.

The procedure of the invention can be applied to every major and minor combustion or industrial process system such as power plants, iron melting and steel manufacturing, ceramic and cement manufacturing, petrochemical industries, oil and natural gas refinery etc.

An important aspect of this invention, besides creating opportunities to construct heavy industries in any desired location, such as in arid parts of the world, is facilitating the site- selection of power plants and heavy industries. Since the mentioned heavy industries demand a vast quantity of high quality water for cooling purposes and to a lesser extent for other usage such as steam generation, these industries have traditionally been placed in the vicinity of water resources and the produced electricity or the produced goods have needed to be transported to the consumption region, in some cases a distance of 1000 km or more, entailing major costs (expensive high voltage electricity grid) and high losses (3 % losses for electricity transportation).

The costs for the transportation of energy carriers such as natural gas, coal, and oil etc for consumption of these industries are also significant.

As an example, another important advantage of the present invention when compared to conventional cooling towers is that usually 1/3 of the initial investment for the construction of a power plant is attributed to the cooling systems. However, the system presented in this invention requires 1/5 or less of the initial investment cost for the construction of a power plant.

Contrary to general belief, helium gas is not a rare element. Due to the enormous natural gas production in the world, vast amounts of this valuable element can be recovered during natural gas refining, if there is a substantial market for it.

Although E U countries have comparatively plentiful water resources, in a report from E U Commission with the title: "Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC), Reference Document on the application of Best Available Techniques to Industrial Cooling Systems", December 2001 , more energy efficient, less water resource demanding technologies and also less environmental influence by industrial cooling systems are urgently inquired. In this report, the environmental impact, the energy consumption as well as the water quantity and quality that is needed for various and current conventional cooling systems is outlined.

Due to the high water consumption of conventional industrial cooling systems,

construction of power plants and other heavy and vital industries is not feasible for major regions of the world, thus preventing sustainable development in the world, particularly in developing countries. Unless new and reliable techniques that would not require vast amounts of water resources are employed, sustainable industrial, agricultural etc development of countries in arid areas of the world seems unattainable.

For example, in the mentioned E U report, the quantity of fresh, pure, sweet and soft water for cooling purposes alone, has been projected to be as much as 3-5 cubic meter per second for a power plant of 125 MW capacity and 14-24 cubic meter per second for a power plant of 600 MW capacity. The same report indicates an energy consumption (direct and indirect energy consumption) for cooling or recycling of the medium (water or air) as high as 10-34 kW per MW electricity production, depending on the kind of cooling system and the cooling medium (water or air). This is equivalent to 1.0 to 3.4 percent of the total electricity production of a power plant. In this report, the total cost for the cooling process has been estimated to be between 18-76 Euros per MW electricity production (2001 prices), depending on the particular cooling system. The specifications for conventional air based cooling systems are also described in that EU report. The cooling systems that employ air as cooling medium are usually ineffective and consume considerable quantities of energy. This is due to the fact that air is a poor heat conductor (1.01 kJ/kg.K) compared to water (4.18 kJ/kg.K) or helium (5.20 kJ/kg.K). 5 In the same EU report, the C0₂ emissions for the energy consumption of the conventional industrial cooling systems have been estimated to be as high as 50-170 ton per year and MW electricity production for various cooling systems.

Furthermore, there is a natural temperature limitation for the utilization of liquid water (0- 10 100° C) as cooling medium. The conventional cooling systems besides wasting water, with high energy consumption, substantial water treatments and consequently in an expensive process, cool down the cooling medium (water) 10-20 degrees, at the most. However, in this invention, the temperature of the cooling medium (helium) in the proposed cooling process, that is the Cryogenic process, without any waste of precious 15 water or helium and with much less energy consumption and consequently in an

inexpensive process, can be designed to decrease the temperature of cooling medium (helium) between 10 to 100 degrees or more. Therefore, much less mass quantity of cooling medium (helium) is needed compared to water (air) based cooling systems.

20 The helium gas besides being an excellent heat conductor, is inert and therefore has no environmental influences.

In addition, the conventional water based cooling system, due to the nature of the cooling process, consumes vast quantities of high quality water and consequently emits this vast

25 amount of water as hot liquid water and mostly as water vapor into the atmosphere.

These extensive amounts of water vapor from conventional water based cooling system alongside enormous quantities of artificial produced water vapor from combustion of fossil and bio fuels and also from other industrial activities has imbalanced the naturally occurring quantities of water vapor in the atmosphere. Chemically bound water molecules

30 in the bio fuels as well as in the minerals are also released by combustion and other

industrial process activities.

The consequences of these conducts have enormous impact on the global climate. The artificially produced water vapor in the atmosphere causes long lasting droughts in some

35 parts of the world and causes unusual and unseasonable floods and in some cases hurricanes in other parts of the world. This is due to the fact that the water molecules in the atmosphere function as macro and global agent of heat carrier / transporter by evaporation of water in lower latitudes and precipitation in higher latitudes (the natural global transfer pattern of water vapor in the atmosphere).

Since the number of these effective heat carriers / transporters (heat capacity of water vapor is 2.08 kJ/kg.K) increase intensively due to the combustion and other industrial activities, more heat will naturally be transported from lower latitudes (droughts) to higher latitudes (floods or hurricanes). The influence of water vapor in the atmosphere due to the combustion of fossil and bio fuels and industrial processes has been described in details in an international PCT patent application No.: PCT/SE201 1/050056.

There are collective efforts to reduce C0₂ emissions from industrial activities in the world. However, it must be emphasized that, this artificially produced water resulting from human and industrial activities has much higher impact on climate than has C0₂, due to the double effect of water vapor in the atmosphere.

The first impact is the fact that water vapor has much higher heat capacity (2.08 kJ/kg.K) compared to C0₂ (0.82 kJ/kg.K), and thus more effect on the atmosphere as green house gas.

Also high and unnatural concentrations of water vapor in the atmosphere create more clouds than usual and clouds generally entrap the heat in the atmosphere and the increase of the climate temperature as a result with highly dangerous consequences for life.

There are worldwide efforts being made to replace fossil fuels with hydrogenous fuels. This will naturally increase the already high emissions of water vapor into the atmosphere. Accordingly, it can be predicted that this will result in environmental consequences if no restrictions are put on water vapor emissions.

The negative impact on the environment intensifies daily due to an increase in the consumption of hydrogenous, bio and fossil fuels in the world. The significance of the impact of water vapor on the environment has been overlooked worldwide compared to C0₂ environmental impact. By means of the invention and the nature of the process that is used in which helium as cooling medium is recycled in a closed system and a Cryogenic process is employed to cool the medium, hot liquid water or water vapor emissions into the atmosphere can be prevented. In this manner, the influence on the global climate can be minimized to a degree where it is negligible.

Another disadvantage of conventional cooling methods using water as cooling medium is the necessity of treating the water before recycling. In the mentioned E U report, numerous chemical and biological water treatments for prevention of corrosion and other objectives have been listed and each of these treatments consumes vast quantities of chemicals. The manufacturing of these chemicals have additional negative impact on the environment.

In this invention, unlike water, the helium in the closed cooling system after cooling does not require any additional treatment before recycling and will not cause corrosion or other problems associated with water cooling systems.

Another advantage of the proposed system is that due to the closed system, there will be no or insignificant losses of the cooling medium, helium.

As mentioned, the conventional cooling systems consume as much as 1.0 to 3.4 percent of the total electricity production of a power plant. The cooling system presented in this invention, due to the nature of the process, consumes 1/5 of that amount of energy, thus surplus electricity will naturally increase the total output electricity production of the power plant to the electricity grid by employing this invention.

The most technical, economical and environmental incitement for power plants and heavy industries is the implementation of this invention in combination with the invention with the title "Extraction of the Water in Flue Gas from Combustion and Industrial Processes", International PCT patent application No.: PCT/SE201 1/050056.

In that new invention, the water vapors in the combustion and industrial processes flue gases is extracted and liquefied by applying Cryogenic process and thereby producing pure, clean, sweet and soft water in liquid form. The technical process of that invention is in some aspects similar to the process in this invention presented here. Since power plants and heavy industries equipped with these inventions in addition to heat/chill and electricity production (or industry products), instead of consuming precious water can produce clean water with minimized environmental impact (due to the prevention of water vapor emissions in the atmosphere and injection of the residual flue gases into underground reservoirs, see below), consequently to construct these heavy and essential industries will be more technical, economical and environmentally feasible for major regions in the world.

The combination of these inventions reduces the initial construction investments for heavy industries. The equipment cost for implementation of these two inventions in combination is half the cost for a corresponding conventional cooling system. The energy consumption for conventional cooling systems with water (or air) as cooling medium and energy intensive fans etc. and water treatment before recycling etc., is also much higher compared to energy consumptions for these inventions collectively.

The process cost for these two inventions combined, is also one third compared solely to the process cost for conventional cooling systems.

Although each invention provides considerable benefits on its own, there are a number of advantages resulting in combining the inventions. By extracting the water vapor from combustion and other industrial processes flue gases, as described in

PCT/SE201 1/050056, the composition of the residual of the processed flue gases (mainly C0₂ and N₂ and other environmentally harmful gases such as CO, NO_x, SO_xand highly toxic dioxins in waste combustion) is precisely the proper composition for use as injection gas for injection into hydrocarbon underground reservoirs. Such injection gas is used in order to increase the internal pressure of hydrocarbon reservoirs and also to reduce heavy oil viscosity and thereby enhance the extraction ratio of hydrocarbons from underground reservoirs and improve the productivity of hydrocarbon fields. Currently, the injection gas that is being used for this purpose is refined natural gas. By employing the teachings of PCT/SE2011/050056 it has been made possible to substitute the valuable natural gas with an economically viable and technically highly suitable alternative.

The processed de-watered flue gases can also evidently be injected in-situ of power plants and industrial sites. The injection of industrial flue gases into underground reservoirs has currently technical difficulties, solely due to the water vapor content of the combustion and industrial flue gases, because the water vapors condensate during injection and prevent effective gas injection.

To exploit the industrial flue gases as injection gas instead of vast quantities of valuable natural gas that is used today, besides significantly decreasing the environmental impact of heavy industries, is naturally another economical incitement to implement the invention in PCT/SE2011/050056.

The combination of the present invention with the invention in PCT/SE2011/050056 provides a further innovative approach and that is, some percent or all of the energy carried from the heated cooling medium (helium) can be recovered by heat exchanger and be used in district heating and / or the utilities of the industry, employing these inventions in combination. The internal energy consumption for utilities of heavy industries can accordingly decrease notably. Once more, the total energy output of the power plant increases.

This total technical concept will also further alleviate environmental problems such as hot liquid water emissions, water vapor emissions into air both from the cooling systems as well as from the combustion and industrial processes.

The combination of a helium based cooling system according to the present invention and extraction of water vapor produced from combustion and industrial processes as described in PCT/SE2011/050056, both performed by Cryogenic technology, can solve the utility and construction problems of heavy industries in an economical manner for vast areas in the world with major water problem as well as the inquired E U Commission water resources, environmental and energy specification conditions can be fulfilled and beyond.

In some parts of the world, during summer and during peak of electricity consumption, due to the lack of water for cooling, the power plants are forced to shut down the combustion process. For the same reason, other heavy and vital industries productions are stopped or reduced. This has naturally major negative influences on the national economy. The cooling system presented in this invention in particular when combined with the above mentioned invention described in PCT/SE201 1/050056 that is the extraction of water from industrial flue gases provide opportunities for heavy industries to be self- sufficient in regard to water for cooling and other purposes.

Consequently, the combination of these inventions, that is to prevent hot liquid water emissions, water vapor emissions etc. due to the conventional cooling systems and to extract the water produced by combustion systems or industrial activities due to utilization of fossil, bio or hydrogenous fuels, and also utilization of raw materials for industries, will not only prevent waste of precious water, provide furthermore fresh and pure water where it is most needed and therefore it will also have a great positive impact on global climate. In conclusion, the implementation of these inventions and the prospect of the

management of flue gases from power plants and major and minor industries have numerous technical, economical and environmental incitements. It provides the crucial tools to attain goal to essentially reduce the global emissions of C0₂ and other overlooked green house gases such as H₂0 and also hazardous gases (CO, NO_x, SO_x, dioxins etc.).

It presents an important opportunity for sustainable technical development such as industrial and agricultural development and for the development of healthcare and improved welfare in the world.

Reliable energy and water resources are two foremost pillars that contribute to the decisive factors for sustainable development and welfare in the world. Sustainable development without preserving the environment is not viable.

In all heavy industries such as power plants, steel and cement manufacturing etc.

processes, due to high temperature of the combustion or the industrial process, there is a necessity for cooling of the boiler or the process holder. This cooling is performed mostly using precious water as cooling medium. The water after recycling the wall of the combustion boilers, as an example, so called the "Water Wall", transports the heat from the boilers to the cooling towers.

Various cooling systems depending on the specific operational processes, consume and / or waste water in different quantities (see the E U Commission report with the title:

"Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC), Reference Document on the application of Best Available Techniques to Industrial Cooling Systems", December 2001 , for various cooling systems operational specifications).

For instance, to produce 1 MW electricity, approximately 2.2 cubic meter of pure, clean, sweet and soft water is consumed, mostly for cooling purposes and also to a much lesser extent for other usages such as steam generation. Consequently this amount of water is emitted partly as hot liquid water and mostly as water vapor into the atmosphere with negative environmental impact. The conventional industrial cooling systems consume as much as 1.0 to 3.4 percent of the total electricity production of a power plant, to cool the boiler by cooling medium (water) by 10 to 20 degrees, at the most.

In that E U report, the C0₂ emissions for the energy (direct and indirect) consumptions of the conventional industrial cooling systems have been estimated as high as 50-170 ton per year and MW electricity production for various cooling systems. Other environmental problems such as hot liquid water emissions, water vapor emissions into the atmosphere, both from the current conventional cooling systems are also considerable. The cooling medium, water, is extensively treated chemically and biologically, before recycling.

According to the above mentioned E U report, the total cost for industrial cooling has been estimated to be between 18-76 Euros per MW electricity production (2001 prices), depending on the various cooling systems.

This excessive water demanding, energy consuming, high environmental influence and expensive approach to industrial cooling is not technical, economical and environmentally feasible for the majority of the regions in the world.

This invention intends to substitute conventional industrial cooling systems with a cooling process, more suitable for major regions in the world with scarce water resources.

In this invention, liquid water as cooling medium is totally replaced with helium gas. The so called "Water Wall" of the boiler is therefore modified to "Helium Wall". This is due to the fact that helium gas has significantly better properties than liquid water or air for cooling purposes due to its higher heat conductivity (helium gas has a heat conductivity of 5.20 kJ/kg.K compared to liquid water 4.18 kJ/kg.K or air 1.01 kJ/kg.K ).

Helium gas contrary to the "general belief is not a rare element. Due to the enormous natural gas production in the world, vast amounts of this valuable element can be recovered during natural gas refining, if there is a substantial market for it.

In this invention, the cooling medium, helium, is cooled down by Cryogenic process, that is, the heated helium gas by sudden pressure drop, decreases in temperature to designed and preset level. The processed and cooled helium gas in such a cooling system can directly without any treatments be re-circulated (unlike water based cooling systems) in a closed system and therefore would not require additional helium gas.

This procedure can be applied to every major and minor combustion or industrial process systems such as power plants, iron melting and steel manufacturing, ceramic and cement manufacturing, petrochemical industries, oil and natural gas refinery etc.

Due to the nature of the Cryogenic process that employs natural physical concept of gases, the energy consumption of the proposed process in this invention, is 1/5 compared to conventional industrial cooling systems. As it appears, the Cryogenic process compared to the conventional cooling towers with huge fans etc. and thereby huge energy consumption, has natural advantages.

The conventional cooling systems cool down the cooling medium (water) 10-20 degrees, at the most. However, in this invention, the temperature of the cooling medium (helium) in the proposed cooling process, that is the Cryogenic process, can be designed to decrease between 10 to 100 degrees or more. Therefore, much less mass quantity of cooling medium (helium) is needed compared to vast quantities of fresh, pure and soft water needed for water based cooling systems.

Another significant aspect of this invention is that, the conventional cooling systems consume approximately 1.0 to 3.4 percent of the total electricity production of a power plant. The cooling system presented in this invention, due to the nature of the process, consumes 1/5 of that energy quantity, thus surplus electricity will naturally and accordingly increase the total output electricity production of the power plant to the electricity grid, employing this invention.

The most technical, economical and environmental incitement for power plants and heavy industries is the implementation of this invention combined with the invention with the title "Extraction of the Water in Flue Gas from Combustion and Industrial Processes", International PCT Patent application No.: PCT/SE201 1/050056.

There are a number of advantages for combination of these two inventions. Since power plants and heavy industries equipped with these inventions beside heat/chill and electricity production (or industry products), instead of consuming precious water, can produce clean, pure and soft water with minimized environmental impact (due to the prevention of water vapor emissions and also injection of the rest of flue gases), consequently to construct these heavy and essential industries will be more technical, economical and environmental feasible for major parts of the world.

By implementation of these inventions together, the heavy industries in various power / production capacities will be self-sufficient of high quality and quantities of water for other water utilization such as steam generation and moreover produce pure, clean, sweet and soft water.

Another important benefit of the present invention, in particular in combination with the invention disclosed in International Patent Application PCT/SE2011/050056 when compared to existing cooling towers, is that usually 1/3 of the investments for construction of power plants, as an example, are due to the conventional cooling systems. Since the equipment costs for these two inventions combined is half the cost for the conventional cooling system, the implementation of these inventions requires less initial investments.

The energy consumption for conventional industrial cooling systems with water as cooling medium with energy intensive fans, chemical and biological treatments of water before recycling etc. is also much higher compared to energy consumptions for these inventions collectively. The operational cost for these two inventions combined is one third compared to the operational cost for conventional industrial cooling systems, due to the significant differences of the processes and required handling of the cooling medium (water or helium). The helium based cooling systems cause no corrosion in the cooling circuits (unlike water based cooling system) that can be expensive and can result to operational interruptions.

The combination of these inventions and also to apply the innovative approach, that is, to recover carried heat from the cooling medium, helium, by heat exchanger for utilities and other internal energy usage in industries, will reduce the internal energy consumptions of the power plants and heavy industries and consequently the energy output (electricity and heat/chill) of power plants increases even more. Thus construction and operation of these industries will be more economically feasible.

The shortage of water has prevented construction of power plants and heavy industries in some parts of the world. This invention in particular when implemented together with the invention described in PCT/SE201 1/050056 provides an opportunity to construct these vital industries as well and facilitates the site-selection of such industries.

The implementation of these inventions and the prospect of the management of flue gases from power plants and major and minor industries have numerous technical, economical and environmental incitements. It provides the crucial tools to attain goal to essentially reduce the global emissions of C0₂ and other overlooked green house gases such as H₂0 and also hazardous gases (CO, NO_x, SO_x, dioxins etc.).

In conclusion, these inventions present an important opportunity for sustainable industrial, agricultural and health care development and welfare in the world, both in developed and in developing countries.

Conventional industrial cooling systems are excessive in water demand and energy consumption, have high negative environmental influence and are expensive. Such approach to industrial cooling is not technically, economically or environmentally feasible for a majority of the regions in the world.

This invention intends to substitute conventional industrial cooling systems with a cooling process which is more suitable for major regions in the world having scarce water resources.

In this invention, the cooling medium, helium, is cooled down by a Cryogenic process, that is, the heated helium gas is subjected to a decrease in temperature to a designed and preset level by a sudden pressure drop. The processed and cooled helium gas in such a cooling system can directly without any treatment (unlike water based cooling systems) be re-circulated in a closed system and therefore would not require to be supplemented by additional helium gas.

The invention will be described in the following with reference to Fig. 1 shown on the attached drawing.

With reference to Fig. 1 , the sequence of the method steps of the invention is set out below and involves lowering the temperature of the cooling medium into a designed and preset level before re-circulating the cooling medium to combustion and industrial process boilers. The operational temperatures of the processes determine the dimensions of the different components of the plant based on this invention and the plant will be designed accordingly. The helium gas after recycling the combustion or industrial boiler wall, with proper pumps and piping is lead to the designed plant by a valve.

One compressor with the proper capacity has been designed in this step of the process, in order to increase and equalize the pressure of the process gas (helium) into the designed operational pressure in the first chamber.

This step is an automatic valve. This valve will be open until the designed operational pressure is reached in the first chamber. The valve will automatically shut when the preset pressure is reached in the first chamber.

This is the first process chamber. The function of this first chamber is to equalize the pressure of a batch of the process gas before entering the main process chamber. The dimension of this first chamber will be depended on the process data such as the quantity of the gas (helium) to be process at each batch as well as the temperature and the pressure of the process gas.

This chamber will be isolated at the outside and coated inside. In order to help and start the cooling process of the gas or for heat recovery purposes, spirals for recycling of cool water have been designed inside the chamber.

In this step of the process, a programmed pressure gauge has been designed in order to signal out the pressure of the first chamber and monitor the valve 3 (above) and valve 6 (below) operations and performances.

Another automated valve has been designed after the first process chamber that will be shut until the pressure in the first chamber reach preset level. It will be open and the valve in the item 3 (above) will be shut and the process gas will enter the main process chamber. It will automatically shut down when the first chamber has evacuated its process gas contents. As has been pointed out, the function of these valves will be monitored. This part of the plant is the main process chamber. The dimension and the volume of this chamber are proportional to and designed for, the total volume of the process gas and are directly related to the dimension of the first chamber (4).

The operational pressure inside the main chamber calculates in

accordance to the process data such as the quantity of the process gas to be processed at each batch and the temperature of the helium gas before the cooling process and the desired temperature to be reached.

The operational pressure inside the main chamber is however less than the operational pressure inside the first chamber.

When releasing the contents of the first chamber into the main chamber, the pressure will suddenly drop and the gas will expand and thereby a controlled decrease of the gas temperature will occur.

In order to increase the efficiency of the process, the contact surface area inside the main chamber have been increased by constructing "steps" at various heights inside the main chamber.

The main chamber is also isolated at the outside and coated inside.

Due to the nature of the process, that is sudden and intense pressure changes, the first and the main chambers must be gas tight.

There is another programmed pressure gauge that monitors the pressure inside the main chamber. Since the predominant feature of the process in this plant is pressure fluctuations, the monitoring of the pressures is essential.

In this part of the plant, there is another automated valve which connecting the vacuum pump 10 (below) and the main chamber. This valve will be shut when the preset operational pressure is reached in the main chamber. It is essential that this valve would be shut when the main process that is the drop of the pressure (temperature) is continuing.

Here is a vacuum pump that achieves and maintains the predetermined operational pressure in the main chamber via the valve in item 9.

There are thermocouples that monitor the temperatures inside the first and the main chamber.

This part is the main control unit of the system (PC or PLC) that monitors and controls the valves, the pressure gauges, the thermocouples, the compressor, the pump, etc. in order to automate and improve the process.

The drawing shows the process data for processing one cubic meter of the cooling medium (helium) by the Cryogenic process.

Claims

Method and process for replacing water or air as cooling medium, character zed in that helium gas by recycling in a closed system, achieve the cooling requirements of major and minor industries and combustion systems.

Method and process for industrial cooling, c h a r a c t e riz e d in that the new cooling medium, helium, in major and minor industrial and combustion processes, by employment of Cryogenic process and apparatus, described in this invention, that is the heated helium gas by sudden pressure drop decreases in temperature to designed and preset level for recycling and the cooling medium, helium, transport and releases the heat from the combustion and industrial boilers processes.

Method and process for cooling, c h a r a c t e riz e d in that the new cooling medium, helium, in major and minor industrial and combustion processes by employment of industrial heat exchanger or any other gas cooling processes, the heated cooling medium, helium, decreases in temperature to designed and preset level for recycling and transport and releases the heat from the combustion and industrial boilers processes.

Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that by employment of said method and /or approach, that is to utilize helium gas as cooling medium and obsolete of water in industries for cooling purposes creates opportunity to construct power plants and heavy industries in arid regions of the world and also much more economical and technical feasibility for these vital heavy industries constructions especially in the developing countries.

Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1 , 2, and 3, characterized in that the said method and /or approach, that is to utilize helium gas as cooling medium and obsolete of water in industries for cooling purposes, facilitates the site- selection for the heavy industries, where these heavy polluting industries until now have to be located in the vicinity of major water resources for cooling and other usage of water in order to operate with costly transportation of energy carriers to the industry site and costly opposite transport of products and electricity with costly high voltage electricity grid to consumption region.

Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1 , 2, and 3, characterized in that by employment of said method and /or approach and a more suitable site- selection of power plants and heavy industries, substantial transportation costs of energy carrier to these industries can be avoided as well as the output of these industries such as produced electricity can be transported in shorter distances for consumption and therefore less electricity losses due to the transportation of electricity can be achieved and furthermore these heavy polluting industries can be distanced from populated or environmental sensitive locations.

Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that by employment of said method and /or approach, that is to utilize helium gas as cooling medium and obsolete of water in industries for cooling purposes prevent emissions of hot liquid water and water vapor in the atmosphere and by reducing the environmental impact of excess water vapor creates opportunity to a sustainable development for the developed and developing countries in the world.

Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that the said method and/or approach of using helium gas as cooling medium in a closed system can be employed to power plants for any combustion systems or capacity and for all major and minor industrial processes such as Steel manufacturing, Cement and Ceramic manufacturing, Petrochemical process industries, Oil and Natural gas refinery etc.

Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that by employment of said method and /or approach requires less initial construction investment as well as the maintenance and process costs are much lower of said method and approach compared to conventional industrial water or air based cooling systems.

10. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1 , 2 and 3, characterized in that by employment of said method and /or approach requires less operational energy consumption compared to conventional industrial water or air based cooling systems in order to attain equal cooling effect.

11. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2, 3 and 10, c h a ra c t e riz e d in t h at by employment of said method and /or approach requires less operational energy compared to conventional industrial water or air based cooling systems hence the output energy that is heat/chill and electricity, of the power plant increase accordingly.

12. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2, and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in tha f by employment of said method and /or approach, the energy from heated cooling medium, helium, can be extracted by industrial heat exchanger and to be utilized for district heating or internal utilities usages of the power plants or heavy industries.

13. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2, 3 and 12, c h a ra c t e riz e d in t h at by employment of said method and /or approach the energy that can be extracted from heated cooling medium, helium, can be utilized for internal utilities usages of power plant and industries or for the district heating thus the internal energy consumption of the industry decreases and the output energy that is heat, from the power plants and heavy industries increase accordingly.

14. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that the said method and/or approach provides for above mentioned industries with various production capacities to be self-sufficient and independent of water resources for cooling and would not require and consume vast quantities of precious water resources.

15. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that by employment of said method and /or approach the cooling medium, helium, unlike conventional water based cooling system, do not requires chemical or biological treatments and consequently is more feasible from technical, economic and environmental viewpoints for major regions in the world.

16. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that by employment of said method and /or approach the cooling medium, helium, unlike conventional water based cooling system, do not cause corrosions in the cooling circuit and consequently do not cause operational interruptions and therefore is more reliable.

17. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1 , 2 and 3, character!^' zed in that by employment of said method and /or approach, the cooling process unlike conventional water based cooling systems do not cause waste of precious water.

18. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that by employment of said method and /or approach the cooling medium, helium, recycles in a closed system and there will be no or insignificant losses of the cooling medium and therefore will not require additional helium gas.

19. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1 , 2 and 3, character!^' zed in that by employment of said method and /or approach, in the helium based cooling system, the cooling medium, helium, can be cooled down significantly (10-100° C or more) in accordance to this invention in contrast to water based cooling system that cool the liquid water 10-20° C at the most, and therefore lesser quantity of the cooling medium (helium) will be required compared to water quantity of water based cooling systems.

20. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that by employment of said method and /or approach of using helium gas as cooling medium in a closed system solves the utility problems for heavy industries in an economically sense manner for a large part of the world, especially in the arid regions of the world and provides valuable and sustainable industrial, agricultural, ... development opportunities for the developed and developing countries.

21. Method as claimed in Patent Claims 1, 2 and 3, c h a ra c te riz e d in that by employment of said method and /or approach, that is to utilize helium gas as cooling medium in a closed Cryogenic system and obsolete of water as cooling medium and also obsolete of water and air based conventional industrial cooling systems, the cooling process and the cooling medium have no environmental influences.