Part-Load Behaviour and Control Philosophy of a Recuperated Supercritical CO2 Cycle

Abstract

High efficiency, flexibility and competitive capital costs make supercritical CO2 (sCO2) systems a promising technology for renewable power generation in a low carbon energy scenario. Recently, innovative supercritical systems have been studied in the literature and proposed by DOE-NETL (STEP project) and a few projects in the EU Horizon 2020 program aiming to demonstrate supercritical CO2 Brayton power plants, promising superior techno-economic features than steam cycles particularly at high temperatures. The H2020 SOLARSCO2OL project1, which started in 2020, is building the first European MW-scale sCO2 demonstration plant and has been specifically tailored for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) applications. This paper presents the first off-design analysis of such a demonstrator, which is based on a simply recuperated sCO2 cycle. The part-load analysis ranged from 50% of nominal up to a 105% peak load, discussing the impact on compressor and turbine operating conditions. The whole system dynamic model has been developed in TRANSEO MATLAB® environment. Full operational envelop has been determined considering cycle main constraints, such as maximum turbine inlet temperature and minimum pressure at compressor inlet. The off-design performance analysis highlights the most relevant relationships among the main part-load regulating parameters, namely mass flow rate, total mass in the loop, and available heat source. The results show specific features of different control approaches, discussing the pros and cons of each solution, considering also its upscale towards commercial applications. In particular, the analysis shows that at 51% of load an efficiency decrease of 20% is expected.