Vacuum Insulated Pipe: design of a district heating pipe and its cost comparison with a polyurethane insulated pipe

This thesis present the design of a new kind of pipe taking advantage of vacuum insulation technology. This work demonstrates that even though production costs of this technology are higher, operating cost are lower if compared with a conventional pipeline with the same size, allowing some savings. The energy analysis showed a decrease of heat losses per linear meter between about 33% and 75% when comparing the vacuum insulated pipe with conventional pre-insulated pipes