NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

A Comparison of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide 

Power Cycle Configurations with an Emphasis 

on CSP Applications

2013 SolarPACES

Las Vegas, NV

September 19, 2013

Ty Neises, NREL

Ty.Neises@nrel.gov

NREL/PR-5500-60654
 NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Background

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• Thermodynamic properties of CO2 deviate from normal 

trends near the critical point (31°C, 7.4 MPa)

 Increased density allows for high back work ratio in the cycle, 

which boosts efficiency

 Increased thermal capacitance results in pinch points in heat 

exchangers and also impacts heat rejection decisions
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Attractive Features of s-CO2 Brayton Cycle

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• Simpler cycle design than steam Rankine

• Potentially achieves higher efficiency than steam Rankine

• High density working fluid yields compact turbomachinery

• Viable turbine designs from 10 to 300 MWe

• Low-cost, low-toxicity, low-corrosivity fluid; thermally 

stable at temperatures of interest to CSP (550°C to 

750°C)

• Single phase reduces operational complexity; integrates 

well with sensible heat storage in CSP systems

• Multiple high-efficiency cycle configurations possible to 

match to a specific application
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Considerations for CSP Integration

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Factors for integrating s-CO2 power cycles into CSP plants

1. Superior performance vs. steam Rankine at dry cooling

2. Economic integration of TES

For sensible heat storage:

 The required mass of HTF is proportional to the hot and cold 

tank temperatures.

 All else equal, a cycle with a larger temperature difference is 

preferred to a cycle with a smaller temperature difference

EEEEEyTTT = mmmm ∗ s sssss h e ∗ (Thoo − Tc cc)
Configurations

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Partial Cooling

Simple Recompression
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Modeling Background and Research Objective

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Modeling Background

• One reheat stage increased efficiency around 1.2% for a recompression cycle 

(Dostal, 2004)

• Partial cooling cycle achieves competitive efficiency with the recompression 

cycle while offering larger HTF temperature differences (Dostal, 2011)

• Dry-cooled partial cooling and recompression cycles have potential to 

achieve > 50% efficiency (NREL, 2013)

Summary

• Recompression and partial cooling efficiencies are similar, but studies have 

not investigated the heat exchanger requirements

Objective

• Model the heat exchangers using a conductance (UA) model and compare 

the efficiency, HTF temperature difference, and other useful cycle 

performance metrics as a function of allocated conductance
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Recuperator Modeling Approaches

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1. Select HX effectiveness and minimum temperature difference

• Simplest approach to approximate HX performance

• Does not consider temperature profile within HX (e.g. pinch points)

• Non-dimensional metric – does not correlate to HX size

2. Select HX conductance (UA) 

• Calculates HX performance based on approximation of HX size

• Correlates performance and size without requiring specific physical 

dimensions – useful for relative comparisons

• Does not capture effects of specific design decisions or varying fluid 

properties

3. Select a HX design

• Requires realistic dimensions and heat exchanger material properties

• Most complex and computationally expensive approach

• Provides the best data with which to compare different cycles
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Design and Optimized Parameters for Case Studies

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Design Parameters Value Comments

Turbine efficiency 93% Projection of mature, commercial size axial flow turbine efficiency

Compressor efficiency 89% Projection of mature, commercial size radial compressor

Heat exchanger effectiveness 97% 5°C minimum temperature difference, neglect pressure drops

Heat exchanger conductance (UA) Varied MW/K Neglect pressure drops

Turbine inlet temperature 650°C SunShot target for CSP power tower outlet temperatures

Compressor inlet temperature 50°C Possible under dry cooling with 35°C ambient temperature

Upper pressure 25 MPa Upper limit given available and economic piping

Turbine Stages 2 One stage of reheat at average of high and low side pressures

Net power output 35 MW Estimate of power cycle requirements for a 100 MW-thermal SunShot

target power tower with a solar multiple of 1.5

Optimized Parameters Relevant Cycles

Pressure ratio (PR) All

Fraction of total UA allocated to HTR Recompression, Partial Cooling (not applicable for effectiveness approach)

Ratio of pressure ratios (rpr) Partial Cooling (sets intermediate pressure)
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Results – Recuperator Effectiveness Model

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• Similar efficiencies for complex cycles

• Much larger recuperator for the recompression cycle

• Smaller pre-cooler for recompressoin cycle (rejects more 

heat at higher temperatures, Seidel 2010)

Effectiveness model does not give complete picture

ε = 97%

ΔTmin = 5°C
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Results – Recuperator Conductance Model

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• Significantly different results when recuperator conductance is 

specified

• At smaller conductance values, the recompression cycle reverts 

to simple cycle behavior (Bryant 2011, Dyreby 2012)

• As conductance reaches largest values

 Recompression cycle efficiency reaches partial cooling efficiency

 Recompression ΔT decreases more rapidly than partial cooling ΔT
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Modeling Limitations

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• Neglecting pressure drops

 Larger pressure difference in partial cooling cycle

 Lower densities in partial cooling cycle may require more or 

larger channels

• Conductance HX model does not consider the impact of 

absolute pressures and pressure differentials

• Does not consider impact of varying fluid properties on 

heat transfer coefficients

• Pre-cooler model is not optimized with the cycle design

 Trade-offs between cycle efficiency, pre-cooler size, and fan 

parasitics should be considered
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Integration with Direct CO2 Receivers

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• Ongoing research of direct s-CO2 receivers

 NREL, Brayton Energy, OSU/PNNL, CSIRO

• Potential advantages of integration with partial cooling cycle:

1. Lower average temperature of receiver may help reduce thermal losses

2. Enables longer flow paths in receiver

1. Stabilizes mass flow rate through parallel tubes

2. Reduces deviation of absorbed energy per tube

3. Lower total mass flow rate reduces header piping sizes

4. Greater potential to decrease the high pressure in the receiver
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Conclusions

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• Using a conductance model for the recuperator provides a 

more equivalent comparison than an effectiveness model

• The partial cooling cycle outperforms the recompression 

cycle until large quantities of conductance are modeled

• The partial cooling cycle offers a larger temperature 

difference across the primary heat exchanger, which is 

critical to TES integration in CSP systems. It also may 

offer benefits to direct receiver designs.

• Studies of first-principle models are available for simple 

and recompression cycles. This work suggests that similar 

studies would be worthwhile for the partial cooling cycle in 

order to better understand heat exchanger dimensions 

and off-design performance.
NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

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