Supercritical Carbon Dioxide(s-CO2) Power Cycle for Waste Heat Recovery: A Review from Thermodynamic Perspective

Abstract

Supercritical CO2 power cycles have been deeply investigated in recent years. However, their potential in waste heat recovery is still largely unexplored. This paper presents a critical review of engineering background, technical challenges, and current advances of the s-CO2 cycle for waste heat recovery. Firstly, common barriers for the further promotion of waste heat recovery technology are discussed. Afterwards, the technical advantages of the s-CO2 cycle in solving the abovementioned problems are outlined by comparing several state-of-the-art thermodynamic cycles. On this basis, current research results in this field are reviewed for three main applications, namely the fuel cell, internal combustion engine, and gas turbine. For low temperature applications, the transcritical CO2 cycles can compete with other existing technologies, while supercritical CO2 cycles are more attractive for medium- and high temperature sources to replace steam Rankine cycles. Moreover, simple and regenerative configurations are more suitable for transcritical cycles, whereas various complex configurations have advantages for medium- and high temperature heat sources to form cogeneration system. Finally, from the viewpoints of in-depth research and engineering applications, several future development directions are put forward. This review hopes to promote the development of s-CO2 cycles for waste heat recovery.

Thermodynamic and economic comparison of supercritical carbon dioxide coal‐fired power system with different improvements

“…6 This cycle can well match various types of heat sources and can be applied in many fields, such as nuclear power, [10][11][12] solar power, [13][14][15] thermal power, [16][17][18] and waste heat recovery. [19][20][21] At the same time, the SCO 2 cycle has high efficiency, compactness, and low noise. Liu et al 5 compared the thermodynamic performance of CPUs with SCO 2 Brayton cycle and units with steam Rankine cycle.…”

“…Since the beginning of the 21st century, the SCO 2 power cycle has re‐entered people's awareness with the development of the fourth generation nuclear reactor (Gen IV, core temperature 500‐900°C) 6 . This cycle can well match various types of heat sources and can be applied in many fields, such as nuclear power, 10‐12 solar power, 13‐15 thermal power, 16‐18 and waste heat recovery 19‐21 . At the same time, the SCO 2 cycle has high efficiency, compactness, and low noise.…”

An innovative hybrid system for the polygeneration of power, heat, and liquid carbon dioxide using solid oxide fuel cell/electrolyzer technology and oxyfuel power generation cycle

“…Due to its excellent performance and application potential in a wide variety of energy sectors, the power plant utilizing CO 2 acting as active fluids has been an investigation hotspot. One of the most important indicators for selecting a suitable power cycle to recover lost heat is its operational temperatur 22 . The inlet temperature of the turbine in the two‐stage s‐CO 2 /t‐CO 2 integrated structure with a capacity of 55 MW is equal to 435°C 23 .…”

Parametric Study of a Supercritical CO2 Power Cycle for Waste Heat Recovery with Variation in Cold Temperature and Heat Source Temperature

“…The S-CO 2 power cycle for waste heat recovery can lead to high cycle efficiencies and a substantial reduction in size compared to alternative power cycles. This can be promising for waste heat sources at temperatures beyond 300 • C and available thermal power from hundreds of kW to tens of MW [3,4] as the steam Rankine cycle requires its complicated structure and large size to achieve high cycle efficiency, and the ORC has a limitation of operating temperature below 300 • C to prevent the decomposition of the working fluid [5].…”