How Do Vertical Heat Pipes Work in Geothermal and Solar Applications?

[Avis]

Hey guys,

For my degree project this year I am designing a Vertical heat pipe to be used in a geothermal heat/power production application. I was wondering if anyone knew of some good resources about this topic.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[parkland]

A vertical heat pipe, eh?

A good starting point might be solar water heaters, they can operate upright, and they have "U" tubes in them with a chemical or gas that absorbs heat, and transfers the heat to a header with water in it.

An interesting thing, although I don't know how useful, is that I remember doing a bunch of reading way back, and looking at putting a giant "U" pipe down a well, and the system would run on butane. The liquid butane would get pumped down the pipe, rise in temperature, expand, and at the other end drive some type of generator.
After that, it would flow into a big heat exchanger, liquefy, and get pumped back down.
This was a design to work when it's -30 out though haha.

 

[parkland]

And sorry, forgot to say there are also solar heating tubes that do not have a "u" tube, but rely solely on the chemical / gas condensing on the bulb on the header.

This is also how I believe CPU's in laptops cool, only with a special substance that does not rely on gravity.

I think there are also some solar devices that use simply distilled water under a severe vacuum so that it boils really easy, using the vapour to transfer heat to the top.