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Scaling considerations for a multi-megawatt class supercritical CO2 brayton cycle and commercialization

Pasch, James J.; Conboy, Thomas M.; Rochau, Gary E.; Holschuh, Thomas V.

Small-scale supercritical CO2 demonstration loops are successful at identifying the important technical issues that one must face in order to scale up to larger power levels. The Sandia National Laboratories supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle test loops are identifying technical needs to scale the technology to commercial power levels such as 10 MWe. The small size of the Sandia 1 MWth loop has demonstration of the split flow loop efficiency and effectiveness of the Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers (PCHXs) leading to the design of a fully recuperated, split flow, supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle demonstration system. However, there were many problems that were encountered, such as high rotational speeds in the units. Additionally, the turbomachinery in the test loops need to identify issues concerning the bearings, seals, thermal boundaries, and motor controller problems in order to be proved a reliable power source in the 300 kWe range. Although these issues were anticipated in smaller demonstration units, commercially scaled hardware would eliminate these problems caused by high rotational speeds at small scale. The economic viability and development of the future scalable 10 MWe solely depends on the interest of DOE and private industry. The Intellectual Property collected by Sandia proves that the ~10 MWe supercritical CO2 power conversion loop to be very beneficial when coupled to a 20 MWth heat source (either solar, geothermal, fossil, or nuclear). This paper will identify a commercialization plan, as well as, a roadmap from the simple 1 MWth supercritical CO2 development loop to a power producing 10 MWe supercritical CO2 Brayton loop.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2013
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Supercritical CO2 direct cycle Gas Fast Reactor (SC-GFR) concept

Wright, Steven A.; Vernon, Milton E.; Fleming, Darryn F.; Rochau, Gary E.

This report describes the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) direct cycle gas fast reactor (SC-GFR) concept. The SC-GFR reactor concept was developed to determine the feasibility of a right size reactor (RSR) type concept using S-CO{sub 2} as the working fluid in a direct cycle fast reactor. Scoping analyses were performed for a 200 to 400 MWth reactor and an S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle. Although a significant amount of work is still required, this type of reactor concept maintains some potentially significant advantages over ideal gas-cooled systems and liquid metal-cooled systems. The analyses presented in this report show that a relatively small long-life reactor core could be developed that maintains decay heat removal by natural circulation. The concept is based largely on the Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) commercial power plants operated in the United Kingdom and other GFR concepts.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
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Results 26–50 of 137
Results 26–50 of 137