Carbon Dioxide for Solar

The DOE SunShot loop is made to display highly productive turbine expander and recuperator performance for advanced supercritical carbon dioxide concentrating clean power cycles.

Supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power cycles have the capability to reduce the cost of concentrating solar power (CSP) by improving the efficiency of converting high temperature solar heat into electricity.

Commercializing the Technology

Through three SunShot Initiative-funded projects, GE Global Research (GE) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have taken steps toward commercializing the technology. Using sCO2, carbon dioxide combines characteristics of liquids and gases as the fluid in turbine power cycles aides to improve CSP plant efficiency.

sCO2 is heated over 700 °C to drive a turbine and produce electricity. Using similar thermal energy inputs as a traditional CSP plant, a sCO2 power cycle makes more electricity for a given amount of heat, improving plant efficiency and reducing the price of electricity. Because of the physical characteristics of sCO2, the turbines are smaller than traditional steam-powered turbo machinery.

This results in less material utilization, decreased upfront capital costs, and helps to create the plant to be less expensive. To further this research quicker, SwRI and GE concentrated on vital spaces in making the innovation more dependable. The duo created a vital part for the sCO2Brayton cycle: a high-efficiency sCO2hot-gas turbo-expander.

The turbo-expander with flow of sCO2 to mimic real-world, variable generation scenarios at the 1 megawatt (MW) scale is being tested to ensure performance as expected. In conjunction SunShot awarded two projects to the GE and SwRI team to make parts for sCO2 technology.

GE made prediction models to validate the long-term reliability of the bearings and seals to make sure the 30-year lifetime required for the turbo machinery. In the second, the team is working on an optimal compression system to help a sCO2 power block work at a variety of temperatures and pressures.

Feasibility

Due to the team’s success at investing CSP technology to be more efficient, the Energy Department chosen GE, SwRI, and the Gas Technology Institute for an $80 million award to make a 10 MW pilot facility in San Antonio. The team will design, create, and show the feasibility of this high-efficiency, economical power cycle.

The new award will take the design and testing phase to showcase at the utility-scale level which is the last steps to commercialization. Successfully proving the viability of the technology goes beyond the clean energy generation. It can be also used for geothermal, nuclear, and fossil technologies. If successful, the facility has the potential to be highly productive and decreasing prices.

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