Researchers have reduced the size of steam turbines using supercritical CO2 as a medium, hinting at smaller power plants.
Steam turbines, traditionally large due to their medium, can now achieve comparable output with a fraction of the footprint using a new medium.Steam turbine technology, nearly two centuries old, appears to have been overlooked in the progression of developmentThe key element missing from the equation is the medium employed – the utilization of sCO2 has the potential to downsize steam turbines
Over the years, the design was licensed, expanded in scale, and became the mechanism to generate electricity at major power stations around the globe.The fundamental principle behind electricity generation has remained largely unchanged since Michael Faraday’s discovery in 1831. Faraday discovered that moving a magnet inside a coil of wires induces an electric current to flow through the wire.
This transition from the Rankine cycle, traditionally employed in steam turbines, to the Brayton cycle, utilized in heat engines that utilize air as their working fluid, liberates researchers from conventional constraints. Within the Brayton cycle, enhancing the pressure ratio can yield notably superior energy efficiencieshad previously reported that a three-foot turbine uses sCO2 can generate the same output as a 65-foot steam turbine.
In addition to experimenting with a different medium, the research team at SwRI is also integrating an upcoming renewable energy technology – concentrated solar power , into this project. This approach uses an array of mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver tower where a high-temperature fluid is heated. This fluid can be used to spin a turbine and generate electricity. The technology is still new and far from becoming economically feasible.
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