Analysis and Development of a Small-Scale Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO 2 ) Brayton Cycle

Raj C. Patel, Diego C. Bass, Ganza Prince Dukuze, Angelina Andrade and Christopher S. Combs
Additional contact information
Raj C. Patel: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Diego C. Bass: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Ganza Prince Dukuze: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Angelina Andrade: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Christopher S. Combs: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Carbon dioxide’s (CO 2 ) ability to reach the supercritical phase (7.39 MPa and 304.15 K) with low thermal energy input is an advantageous feature in power generation design, allowing for the use of various heat sources in the cycle. A small-scale supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2 ) power cycle operating on the principle of a closed-loop Brayton cycle is currently under construction at The University of Texas at San Antonio, to design and develop a small-scale indirect-fired sCO 2 Brayton cycle, acquire validation data of the cycle’s performance, and compare the cycle’s performance to other cycles operating in similar conditions. The power cycle consists of four principal components: A reciprocating piston compressor, a heating source, a reciprocating piston expander to produce power, and a heat exchanger to dissipate excess heat. The work explained in the present manuscript describes the theory and analysis conducted to design the piston expander, heating source, and heat exchanger in the cycle. Theoretical calculations indicate that using sCO 2 for the Brayton cycle generates 4.5 kW of power with the inlet pressure and temperature of 17.23 MPa and 358.15 K to the piston expander. Based on the fully isentropic conditions, the thermal efficiency of the system is estimated to be 12.75%.

Keywords: supercritical carbon dioxide; Brayton cycle; efficiency; piston expander; design (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: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/10/3580/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/10/3580/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:10:p:3580-:d:815290

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().