A supercritical CO2 test facility is currently being developed at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India to analyze the performance of a closed loop Brayton cycle for concentrated solar power (CSP) generation. The loop has been designed for an external heat input of 20 kW, a pressure range of 75–135 bar, flow rate of 11 kg/min, and a maximum cycle temperature of 525 °C. The operation of the loop and the various parametric tests planned to be performed are discussed in this paper. The paper addresses various aspects of the loop design with emphasis on design of various components such as regenerator and expansion device. The regenerator design is critical due to sharp property variations in CO2 occurring during the heat exchange process between the hot and cold streams. Two types of heat exchanger configurations 1) tube-in-tube (TITHE) and 2) printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) are analyzed and compared. A PCHE is found to be ∼5 times compact compared to a TITHE for identical heat transfer and pressure drops. The expansion device is being custom designed to achieve the desired pressure drop for a range of operating temperatures. It is found that capillary of 5.5 mm inner diameter and ∼2 meter length is sufficient to achieve a pressure drop from 130 to 75 bar at a maximum cycle temperature of 525 °C.
- Advanced Energy Systems Division
Design of an Experimental Test Facility for Supercritical CO2 Brayton Cycle
Garg, P, Kumar, P, Dutta, P, Conboy, T, & Ho, C. "Design of an Experimental Test Facility for Supercritical CO2 Brayton Cycle." Proceedings of the ASME 2014 8th International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the ASME 2014 12th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology. Volume 1: Combined Energy Cycles, CHP, CCHP, and Smart Grids; Concentrating Solar Power, Solar Thermochemistry and Thermal Energy Storage; Geothermal, Ocean, and Emerging Energy Technologies; Hydrogen Energy Technologies; Low/Zero Emission Power Plants and Carbon Sequestration; Photovoltaics; Wind Energy Systems and Technologies. Boston, Massachusetts, USA. June 30–July 2, 2014. V001T05A005. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ES2014-6549
Download citation file: