Numerical Study of Compact Heat Exchanger Designs for Generation IV Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Conversion Cycles

2014 ◽  
Vol 176 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryce K. Y. Matsuo ◽  
Mark Anderson ◽  
Devesh Ranjan
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Power Conversion ◽  
Compact Heat Exchanger ◽  
Supercritical Carbon

Development of a Solar Receiver Based on Compact Heat Exchanger Technology for Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycles

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeb M. Besarati ◽  
D. Yogi Goswami ◽  
Elias K. Stefanakos
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Mechanical Strength ◽  
Pressure Vessels ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Compact Heat Exchanger ◽  
Operating Pressure ◽  
Supercritical Carbon

Supercritical carbon dioxide (s-CO2) can be used both as a heat transfer and working fluid in solar power tower plants. The main concern in the design of a direct s-CO2 receiver is the high operating pressures, i.e., close to 20 MPa. At such high pressures, conventional receivers do not exhibit the necessary mechanical strength or thermal performance. In this paper, a receiver based on compact heat exchanger technology is developed. The receiver consists of a group of plates with square-shaped channels which are diffusion bonded together to tolerate the high operating pressure. A computational model is developed and validated against data in the literature. Inconel 625 is used as the base material because of its superior resistance against corrosion in the presence of s-CO2. The receiver heats s-CO2 with mass flow rate of 1 kg/s from 530 °C to 700 °C under a solar flux density of 500 kW/m2. The influence of different parameters on the performance of the receiver is evaluated by a parametric analysis. Subsequently, a multi-objective optimization is performed to determine the optimal geometry of the heat exchanger considering the tradeoff between objective functions, such as unit thermal resistance and pressure drop. The design variables are hydraulic diameter, number of layers, and distance between the channels. The mechanical strength of the system is the constraint to the problem, which is evaluated using an ASME code for the pressure vessels. Finally, the temperature profiles inside the channels and the surface of the receiver are presented. It is shown that the fluid reaches the desired temperature while the maximum temperature of the surface remains well below the material limit.

scholarly journals DESIGN OF A 1 MWTH SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE PRIMARY HEAT EXCHANGER TEST SYSTEM

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Matthew Carlson ◽  
Francisco Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Test System ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Levelized Cost Of Electricity ◽  
Supercritical Carbon

Abstract A new generation of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies is under development to provide dispatchable renewable power generation and reduce the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) to 6 cents/kWh by leveraging heat transfer fluids (HTF) capable of operation at higher temperatures and coupling with higher efficiency power conversion cycles. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has funded three pathways for Generation 3 CSP (Gen3CSP) technology development to leverage solid, liquid, and gaseous HTFs to transfer heat to a supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) Brayton cycle. This paper presents the design and off-design capabilities of a 1 MWth sCO2 test system that can provide sCO2 coolant to the primary heat exchangers (PHX) coupling the high-temperature HTFs to the sCO2 working fluid of the power cycle. This system will demonstrate design, performance, lifetime, and operability at a scale relevant to commercial CSP. A dense-phase high pressure canned motor pump is used to supply up to 5.3 kg/s of sCO2 flow to the primary heat exchanger at pressures up to 250 bar and temperatures up to 715 °C with ambient air as the ultimate heat sink. Key component requirements for this system are presented in this paper.

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Heat Transfer in Horizontal Semicircular Channels

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Kruizenga ◽  
Hongzhi Li ◽  
Mark Anderson ◽  
Michael Corradini
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Turbulent Heat Transfer ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Brayton Cycle ◽  
Heat Exchanger Design ◽  
Transfer Behavior ◽  
Supercritical Carbon

Competitive cycles must have a minimal initial cost and be inherently efficient. Currently, the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle is under consideration for these very reasons. This paper examines one major challenge of the S-CO2 Brayton cycle: the complexity of heat exchanger design due to the vast change in thermophysical properties near a fluid’s critical point. Turbulent heat transfer experiments using carbon dioxide, with Reynolds numbers up to 100 K, were performed at pressures of 7.5–10.1 MPa, at temperatures spanning the pseudocritical temperature. The geometry employed nine semicircular, parallel channels to aide in the understanding of current printed circuit heat exchanger designs. Computational fluid dynamics was performed using FLUENT and compared to the experimental results. Existing correlations were compared, and predicted the data within 20% for pressures of 8.1 MPa and 10.2 MPa. However, near the critical pressure and temperature, heat transfer correlations tended to over predict the heat transfer behavior. It was found that FLUENT gave the best prediction of heat transfer results, provided meshing was at a y+ ∼ 1.

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