WVXU explores UC's power plant innovations

WVXU's Focus on Technology examined the University of Cincinnati's latest cooling innovations for power plants and refrigeration systems that rely on air instead of water.

The U.S. energy industry uses as much as 133 billion gallons of water every day to cool power plants. This is more than all of the nation's agriculture combined.

Raj Manglik and Milind Jog, professors of mechanical engineering in UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science, developed new condenser fins that help plants shed more heat in circulated air, making them more efficient. This innovation makes air cooling a more attractive option, especially in parts of the world where water is a scarce.

"This is a very innnovative and translational technology," Manglik told WVXU. "This can be adopted not just in power plants but also in largescale commercial and industrial air conditioning systems."

UC gets electricity from its own water-cooled plant near campus. But Joseph Harrell, associate vice president for UC's Facilities Management, told WVXU that he will be following Manglik's air-cooling developments closely.

Featured image at top: UC engineering professor Raj Manglik spoke to WVXU about UC's air-cooling technology. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services