Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycle Design and Configuration Optimization to Minimize Levelized Cost of Energy of Molten Salt Power Towers Operating at 650 °C

Neises, Ty; Turchi, Craig

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2019.01.078

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycle Design and Configuration Optimization to Minimize Levelized Cost of Energy of Molten Salt Power Towers Operating at 650 °C

Journal Article · Wed Jan 30 23:00:00 EST 2019 · Solar Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.01.078· OSTI ID:1494976

Neises, Ty ^[1]; Turchi, Craig ^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

This analysis investigates the design, cost, and performance of the simple, recompression, and partial-cooling configurations of the supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle integrated with a molten salt power tower concentrating solar power system. This paper uses a steady-state model to design each cycle with varying amounts of recuperator conductance to understand performance and cost trade-offs. The recompression cycle can achieve a higher thermal efficiency than the partial-cooling cycle, and the partial-cooling cycle achieves a higher thermal efficiency than the simple cycle. The partial-cooling cycle is the most expensive cycle because it requires more total turbomachinery capacity. However, the partial-cooling cycle has the largest temperature range of heat input. This feature leads to cheaper two-tank thermal energy storage, higher receiver efficiencies, and lower mass flow rates in the power tower. Crucially, the lower mass flow rates significantly reduce pump electricity consumption relative to the recompression-cycle system. Consequently, this study finds that the power tower system integrated with the partial-cooling cycle is both cheaper and generates more net electricity than systems integrated with the other two cycles. Finally, this paper presents a parametric study on the air-cooler approach temperature and shows that small approach temperatures can improve cycle efficiency and increase the temperature range of heat input, which can lead to smaller optimal approach temperatures than may be expected.

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1494976

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5500-72674

Journal Information:: Solar Energy, Journal Name: Solar Energy Journal Issue: C Vol. 181; ISSN 0038-092X

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Data for: Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycle Design and Configuration Optimization to Minimize Levelized Cost of Energy of Molten Salt Power Towers Operating at 650°C Neises, Ty W. https://doi.org/10.17632/ghvynpsr42 The current record is supplemented by this dataset	dataset	January 2019
Data for: Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycle Design and Configuration Optimization to Minimize Levelized Cost of Energy of Molten Salt Power Towers Operating at 650°C Neises, Ty W. https://doi.org/10.17632/ghvynpsr42.1 The current record is supplemented by this dataset	dataset	January 2019

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycle Design and Configuration Optimization to Minimize Levelized Cost of Energy of Molten Salt Power Towers Operating at 650 °C

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References (13)

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Linked Research (2)

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