Advanced supercritical carbon dioxide cycles
The supercritical carbon dioxide cycle (sCO2) has been chosen as the most promising cycle to meet the SunShot goals with a power block that has the potential to achieve thermal efficiencies of 50+% with a turbine inlet temperature of 720oC. While this cycle has significant potential, it is a fairly new cycle and therefore the costs and performance of the cycle are not known to the level required for detailed economic analysis. There are also multiple cycle configurations that may be used and the choice of configuration could depend on size, cost constraints, efficiency, cooling mode, O&M costs, etc. Each of the variants has particular advantages and drawbacks that have to be understood. The most cost effective way to understand these variants is to use models that allow us to predict the performance of the cycles linked to the heat source (solar thermal energy). In order to do this these models, need to be developed and improved to better predict the costs and performance of the cycle. One of the issues identified with the supercritical Brayton cycle is the fact that a large amount of internal heat exchange is required in order for it to realize its efficiency potential. To address this, recuperators of the Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) design have been primarily considered. While PCHEs are fairly advanced technology and have significant potential there are several drawbacks associated with them. The first being their cost; it is estimated that the two recuperators in a recompression Brayton cycle will cost more than 30% of the entire power block. Another major issue is the in service performance and lack of ability to repair or easily clean the recuperators. If there is a defect in a diffusion bond, fouling or plugging of the channels or mechanical damage due to rapid thermal transient then the entire PCHE may need to be replaced. The third issue is the lack of data and information on the performance of PCHEs at the scale that would be required even for a small 10 MWe plant. To date PCHE heat exchangers have not been constructed at this size and it is necessary to have multiple modules headered together in order to be able to recuperate up to the 40 MWth required in even a small, 10 MWe plant.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- Contributing Organization:
- Colorado School of Mines, Sandia National Laboratories, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, FlowServe, Comprex,LLC
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0007120
- OSTI ID:
- 1566743
- Report Number(s):
- Final-Report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Modeling and experimental testing of periodic flow regenerators for sCO2 cycles
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journal | January 2019 |
Effect of supercritical CO2 on the performance of 740H fusion welds
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journal | January 2019 |
Cost comparison of printed circuit heat exchanger to low cost periodic flow regenerator for use as recuperator in a s-CO2 Brayton cycle
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journal | December 2017 |
Experimental Testing of s-CO2 Regenerator for Use as a Replacement to High Cost Printed Circuit Recuperators for Use in s-CO2 Recompression Brayton Cycle
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conference | June 2016 |
The performance of Haynes 282 and its weld in supercritical CO2
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journal | June 2019 |
Similar Records
Cost comparison of printed circuit heat exchanger to low cost periodic flow regenerator for use as recuperator in a s-CO2 Brayton cycle
Supercritical CO2 Recuperators, Presented at The ASME Turbo Expo 2017, June 29, 2017, by Dr. John Kelly, President, Altex Technologies Corporation