In the European Industry, 275 TWh of thermal energy is rejected into the environment at temperatures beyond 300 °C. To recover some of this wasted energy, bottoming thermodynamic cycles using supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2) as working fluid are a promising technology for the conversion of the waste heat into power. CO 2 is a non-flammable and thermally stable compound, and due to its favourable thermo-physical properties in the supercritical state, can lead to high cycle efficiencies and a substantial reduction in size compared to alternative heat to power conversion technologies. In this work, a brief overview of the sCO 2 power cycle technology is presented. The main concepts behind this technology are highlighted, including key technological challenges with the major components such as turbomachinery and heat exchangers. The discussion focuses on heat to power conversion applications and benefits of the experience gained from the design and construction of a 50 kWe sCO 2 test facility at Brunel University London. A comparison between sCO 2 power cycles and conventional heat to power conversion systems is also provided. In particular, the operating ranges of sCO 2 and other heat to power systems are reported as a function of the waste heat source temperature and available thermal power. The resulting map provides insights for the preliminary selection of the most suitable heat to power conversion technology for a given industrial waste heat stream.
Thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) data are needed for dimensioning of safety-critical parts, e.g. in power generation and in transportation by air, rail and road, and for designing of components, which operate at higher levels of efficiency and safety for longer periods of time. However, the current lack of a validated international standard for TMF leads to non-reproducibility of TMF data with negative implications on the design and economy of operation of many components. While a preliminary draft TMF standard has been written under the auspices of the International Standards Organisation (ISO), the "TMF-STANDARD" project addresses this issue at the European level, within the GROWTH programme of Framework Programme 5 funded by the European Commission.The R&D work in the TMF-Standard project has been started with the preparation of an inventory of institutions in the EU and the pre-accession states that perform TMF testing, and the testing methods and procedures which they apply. Afterwards, extensive pre-normative testing work has been carried out, the results of which have been considered in the drafting of a preliminary Codeof-Practice (CoP) that forms the base for the current validation round robin testing. The results of the validation tests are going to be subjected to statistical analysis, in order to substantiate the formulation of a validated CoP on strain-controlled TMF testing. The present paper summarizes the main objectives and achievements obtained so far within the TMF-Standard project, and gives an outlook on the further activities of the project.
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