Eric,

I took the assumed heat load and assumed air to cool the FF module. I then got an estimate from a manufacture of industrial heat exchangers.

Quite an eyeopener.

This is what I sent them:

Dear Sir or Madame,

I would like to get a very rough cost estimate (order of magnitude) for a plate type gas to air heat exchanger. The hot gas will be clean air at 500F and be transferring the heat to clean ambient air (nom 100F). Fans will be sized as needed and gas/air side pressure drops should be normal for your equipments design. The duty would be 17 million BTU/hr. No special materials would be required. Most economical design is desired.

They requested additional information:

I have received your inquiry and have begun working on a HEX design. Can you provide me with the gas flow rates in lb/hr?

I responded:

Please don’t go to too much effort at this time. This is a very early, preliminary, Fatal Flaw, type of review. I only need an order of magnitude cost.

They sent me a formal bid. This means that you could actual order it and for the following price (plus tax and freight) get this heat exchanger for:

1 unit(s) at $334,000 each

Of course, this is the cost for a one off, custom design. If you were make a large number of identical items, the cost would be greatly reduced. But, I would belive that a min. estimated cost would be $100k. That is for the waste heat exchanger, without fans, etc.

This is why I am very disbeliving when a total assembled cost for a 5MW FF module of $300k or $500k is given.

I would really like to participate in a realistic effort to estimate what the cost of a FF module, with all necessary support equipment, controls, etc. would be.

Rematog