Comparative Performance Evaluation of Gas Brayton Cycle for Micro–Nuclear Reactors

Sungwook Choi, In Woo Son and Jeong Ik Lee
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Sungwook Choi: Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
In Woo Son: Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
Jeong Ik Lee: Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-27

Abstract: Gas Brayton cycles have been considered the next promising power cycles for microreactors. Especially the open-air and closed supercritical CO 2 (S-CO 2 ) Brayton cycles have received attention due to their high thermal efficiency and compact component sizes when compared to the steam Rankine cycle. In this research, the performances of the open-air and closed S-CO 2 Brayton cycle at microreactor power range are compared with polytropic turbomachinery efficiency. When optimizing the cycle, three different optimization parameters are considered in this paper: maximum efficiency, maximum cycle specific work, and maximum of the product of both indicators. For the air Brayton cycle, the maximum of the product of both indicators allows to consider both efficiency and specific work while optimizing the cycle. However, for the S-CO 2 Brayton cycle, the best performing conditions follow either maximum efficiency or the maximum cycle specific work conditions. In general, the S-CO 2 power cycle should be designed and optimized to maximize the cycle specific work for commercial-scale application. The results show that the air Brayton cycle can achieve near 45% efficiency when it can couple with a microreactor with a core outlet temperature higher than 700 °C. However, the S-CO 2 power cycle can still achieve above 30% efficiency when it is coupled with a microreactor with a core outlet temperature higher than 500 °C, whereas the air Brayton cycle cannot even reach breakeven condition.

Keywords: S-CO 2 Brayton cycle; air Brayton cycle; polytropic efficiency (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: 2023
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