IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i20p7773-d948594.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Actual Recuperators’ Effectiveness on the Attainable Efficiency of Supercritical CO 2 Brayton Cycles for Solar Thermal Power Plants

Author

Listed:
  • George Stamatellos

    (Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Thessaly, 38334 Volos, Greece)

  • Tassos Stamatelos

    (Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Thessaly, 38334 Volos, Greece)

Abstract

One of the most promising concentrated solar power technologies is the central receiver tower power station with heliostat field, which has attracted renewed research interest in the current decade. The introduction of the sCO 2 recompression Brayton cycles in the near future installations instead of the Rankine cycle is very probable, due to the prospects of a significant efficiency improvement, process equipment size and capital cost reduction. In this study, energy and exergy analysis of a recompression Brayton cycle configuration for a central receiver power station are performed. Special emphasis is given to the computation of actual performance for the High-Temperature Recuperator and the Low-Temperature Recuperator. The results define realistic thermal and exergetic efficiency limits for the specific cycle configurations applied on a central receiver solar power plant with variable turbine entry temperature. Thermal efficiency, predicted with the improved accuracy of heat exchanger computations, does not exceed the 50% target. Overall, a realizable total power plant efficiency of 37% at 900 K turbine entry temperature is predicted, which is a significant improvement on the current state-of-the-art with steam Rankine cycles.

Suggested Citation

  • George Stamatellos & Tassos Stamatelos, 2022. "Effect of Actual Recuperators’ Effectiveness on the Attainable Efficiency of Supercritical CO 2 Brayton Cycles for Solar Thermal Power Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-20, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:20:p:7773-:d:948594
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/20/7773/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/20/7773/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuxuan Ji & Zheng Wang & Mingxuan Wang & Yafei Liu & Haoran Xu & Peiwang Zhu & Shilei Ma & Zhigang Yang & Gang Xiao, 2022. "Experimental and Numerical Study on Thermal Hydraulic Performance of Trapezoidal Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger for Supercritical CO 2 Brayton Cycle," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Ho, Clifford K. & Iverson, Brian D., 2014. "Review of high-temperature central receiver designs for concentrating solar power," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 835-846.
    3. Iverson, Brian D. & Conboy, Thomas M. & Pasch, James J. & Kruizenga, Alan M., 2013. "Supercritical CO2 Brayton cycles for solar-thermal energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 957-970.
    4. Padilla, Ricardo Vasquez & Soo Too, Yen Chean & Benito, Regano & Stein, Wes, 2015. "Exergetic analysis of supercritical CO2 Brayton cycles integrated with solar central receivers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 348-365.
    5. Song, Yuhui & Wang, Jiangfeng & Dai, Yiping & Zhou, Enmin, 2012. "Thermodynamic analysis of a transcritical CO2 power cycle driven by solar energy with liquified natural gas as its heat sink," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 194-203.
    6. Rocco, M.V. & Colombo, E. & Sciubba, E., 2014. "Advances in exergy analysis: a novel assessment of the Extended Exergy Accounting method," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1405-1420.
    7. Singh, Rajinesh & Miller, Sarah A. & Rowlands, Andrew S. & Jacobs, Peter A., 2013. "Dynamic characteristics of a direct-heated supercritical carbon-dioxide Brayton cycle in a solar thermal power plant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 194-204.
    8. Yi Tu & Yu Zeng, 2022. "Numerical Study on Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical CO 2 in Zigzag Microchannels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    9. Tian, Y. & Zhao, C.Y., 2013. "A review of solar collectors and thermal energy storage in solar thermal applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 538-553.
    10. Haicai Lyu & Han Wang & Qincheng Bi & Fenglei Niu, 2022. "Experimental Investigation on Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in a Mini Vertical Upward Flow," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-14, August.
    11. Sarkar, Jahar, 2009. "Second law analysis of supercritical CO2 recompression Brayton cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1172-1178.
    12. Wang, Jiangfeng & Sun, Zhixin & Dai, Yiping & Ma, Shaolin, 2010. "Parametric optimization design for supercritical CO2 power cycle using genetic algorithm and artificial neural network," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(4), pages 1317-1324, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Padilla, Ricardo Vasquez & Soo Too, Yen Chean & Benito, Regano & Stein, Wes, 2015. "Exergetic analysis of supercritical CO2 Brayton cycles integrated with solar central receivers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 348-365.
    2. Wang, Kun & He, Ya-Ling & Zhu, Han-Hui, 2017. "Integration between supercritical CO2 Brayton cycles and molten salt solar power towers: A review and a comprehensive comparison of different cycle layouts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 819-836.
    3. Wang, Xurong & Dai, Yiping, 2016. "Exergoeconomic analysis of utilizing the transcritical CO2 cycle and the ORC for a recompression supercritical CO2 cycle waste heat recovery: A comparative study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 193-207.
    4. Liu, Yaping & Wang, Ying & Huang, Diangui, 2019. "Supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle: A state-of-the-art review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    5. Battisti, Felipe G. & Cardemil, José M. & da Silva, Alexandre K., 2016. "A multivariable optimization of a Brayton power cycle operating with CO2 as working fluid," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 908-916.
    6. Fallah, M. & Mohammadi, Z. & Mahmoudi, S.M. Seyed, 2022. "Advanced exergy analysis of the combined S–CO2/ORC system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    7. Akbari, Ata D. & Mahmoudi, Seyed M.S., 2014. "Thermoeconomic analysis & optimization of the combined supercritical CO2 (carbon dioxide) recompression Brayton/organic Rankine cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 501-512.
    8. Ma, Yuegeng & Zhang, Xuwei & Liu, Ming & Yan, Junjie & Liu, Jiping, 2018. "Proposal and assessment of a novel supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle integrated with LiBr absorption chiller for concentrated solar power applications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 839-854.
    9. Ma, Yuegeng & Morozyuk, Tatiana & Liu, Ming & Yan, Junjie & Liu, Jiping, 2019. "Optimal integration of recompression supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle with main compression intercooling in solar power tower system based on exergoeconomic approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1134-1154.
    10. Guo, Jiangfeng, 2016. "Design analysis of supercritical carbon dioxide recuperator," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 21-27.
    11. Sun, Lei & Liu, Tianyuan & Wang, Ding & Huang, Chengming & Xie, Yonghui, 2022. "Deep learning method based on graph neural network for performance prediction of supercritical CO2 power systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    12. Ma, Yuegeng & Liu, Ming & Yan, Junjie & Liu, Jiping, 2017. "Thermodynamic study of main compression intercooling effects on supercritical CO2 recompression Brayton cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(P1), pages 746-756.
    13. Li, Xiaoxiao & Duniam, Sam & Gurgenci, Hal & Guan, Zhiqiang & Veeraragavan, Anand, 2017. "Full scale experimental study of a small natural draft dry cooling tower for concentrating solar thermal power plant," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 15-27.
    14. Duniam, Sam & Veeraragavan, Ananthanarayanan, 2019. "Off-design performance of the supercritical carbon dioxide recompression Brayton cycle with NDDCT cooling for concentrating solar power," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    15. Sarkar, Jahar, 2015. "Review and future trends of supercritical CO2 Rankine cycle for low-grade heat conversion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 434-451.
    16. Marchionni, Matteo & Bianchi, Giuseppe & Tassou, Savvas A., 2018. "Techno-economic assessment of Joule-Brayton cycle architectures for heat to power conversion from high-grade heat sources using CO2 in the supercritical state," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1140-1152.
    17. S. Mohammad S. Mahmoudi & Ata D. Akbari & Marc A. Rosen, 2016. "Thermoeconomic Analysis and Optimization of a New Combined Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Recompression Brayton/Kalina Cycle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-19, October.
    18. Crespi, Francesco & Gavagnin, Giacomo & Sánchez, David & Martínez, Gonzalo S., 2017. "Supercritical carbon dioxide cycles for power generation: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 152-183.
    19. Al-Sulaiman, Fahad A. & Atif, Maimoon, 2015. "Performance comparison of different supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycles integrated with a solar power tower," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 61-71.
    20. Cheng, Kunlin & Li, Jiahui & Yu, Jianchi & Fu, Chuanjie & Qin, Jiang & Jing, Wuxing, 2023. "Novel thermoelectric generator enhanced supercritical carbon dioxide closed-Brayton-cycle power generation systems: Performance comparison and configuration optimization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:20:p:7773-:d:948594. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.