Supercritical CO2 Recompression Closed Brayton Cycle Analysis

On this research, the results of an analysis made of a Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) Recuperated Closed Brayton Cycle (RCBC) done by performing theorical calculations and comparing it to the results obtained with the use of the software ASPEN Plus will be presented. To demonstrate and determine that this software is a useful tool for modeling the proposed type of cycle, a preliminary comparison was made to verify with previous studies found in literature. A comparison and analysis between the possible working fluids and thermal energy sources was also performed to emphasize the decision of using CO2 as the cycle working fluid and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) as the thermal energy source with the studied cycle. The effects of the high temperature recuperator effectiveness, the turbine inlet temperature, and the recuperator pressure drop on the total cycle performance is also determined using a parametric approach. For all modeled settings, the recuperator efficacy and input temperatures are determined to be the most important parameters impacting overall cycle efficiency. Cycle efficiencies are found to be 25 percent and 44 percent, respectively, with recuperator effectiveness values of 80 percent and 95 percent, respectively