Thermal Performance Analysis of a Direct-Heated Recompression Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycle Using Solar Concentrators

Jinping Wang, Jun Wang, Peter D. Lund and Hongxia Zhu
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Jinping Wang: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, Jiangsu, China
Jun Wang: Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Solar Energy Technology, Southeast University, Nanjing 211167, Jiangsu, China
Peter D. Lund: Department of Applied Physics, School of Science, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15100, FI-00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland
Hongxia Zhu: School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, Jiangsu, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-17

Abstract: In this study, a direct recompression supercritical CO 2 Brayton cycle, using parabolic trough solar concentrators (PTC), is developed and analyzed employing a new simulation model. The effects of variations in operating conditions and parameters on the performance of the s-CO 2 Brayton cycle are investigated, also under varying weather conditions. The results indicate that the efficiency of the s-CO 2 Brayton cycle is mainly affected by the compressor outlet pressure, turbine inlet temperature and cooling temperature: Increasing the turbine inlet pressure reduces the efficiency of the cycle and also requires changing the split fraction, where increasing the turbine inlet temperature increases the efficiency, but has a very small effect on the split fraction. At the critical cooling temperature point (31.25 °C), the cycle efficiency reaches a maximum value of 0.4, but drops after this point. In optimal conditions, a cycle efficiency well above 0.4 is possible. The maximum system efficiency with the PTCs remains slightly below this value as the performance of the whole system is also affected by the solar tracking method used, the season and the incidence angle of the solar beam radiation which directly affects the efficiency of the concentrator. The choice of the tracking mode causes major temporal variations in the output of the cycle, which emphasis the role of an integrated TES with the s-CO 2 Brayton cycle to provide dispatchable power.

Keywords: concentrated solar power; parabolic trough; supercritical CO 2 Brayton cycle; direct-heated; performance analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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