Study of solar energy powered transcritical cycle using supercritical carbon dioxide

Abstract

SUMMARYIn this paper, the performance of solar energy powered transcritical cycle using supercritical carbon dioxide for a combined electricity and heat generation, is studied experimentally. The experimental set-up consists of evacuated solar collectors, pressure relief valve, heat exchangers and CO 2 feed pump. The pressure relief valve is used to simulate operation of a turbine and to complete the thermodynamic cycle. A complete effort was carried out to investigate the cycle performances not only in summer, but also in winter conditions. The results show that a reasonable thermodynamic efficiency can be obtained and COP for the overall outputs from the cycle is measured at 0.548 and 0.406, respectively, on a typical summer and winter day. The study shows the potential of the application of the solar energy powered cycle as a green power/ heat generation system.

Performance comparison and parametric optimization of subcritical Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and transcritical power cycle system for low-temperature geothermal power generation

“…So it is theoretically the ideal cycle for the heat sources when a variable temperature is obtained during the heat exchanging process [19]. Zhang [20][21][22][23] conducted thermodynamic analysis and experiment investigation of CO 2 -based Rankine cycle powered by solar energy. It was found that CO 2 could efficiently convert the low-temperature solar energy into electricity and hot water.…”

Parametric optimization design for supercritical CO2 power cycle using genetic algorithm and artificial neural network

“…Zhang et al investigated a thermodynamic cycle powered by solar energy for both power and heat generation using supercritical carbon dioxide as a working fluid on theoretical aspect [2][3][4], and they examined the effects of various design conditions and climate conditions on the performances of this CO 2 -based Rankine cycle. They also set up an experimental system to validate the feasibility of this supercritical carbon dioxide cycle [5][6][7][8]. Cayer et al [9] expressed a detailed analysis of a carbon dioxide trans-critical power cycle using an industrial low-grade stream of process gases as its heat source.…”

Comparative analysis of CO2-based transcritical Rankine cycle and HFC245fa-based subcritical organic Rankine cycle using low-temperature geothermal source

“…The characteristics of different working fluids in view of their selection in ORC applications have been studied [1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Also, some researches concerning CO 2 as the fluid for a transcritical Rankine cycle, called CO 2 -based transcritical Rankine cycle instead of transcritical ORC, have been carried out theoretically and experimentally mainly using solar energy or for waste heat recovery [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”