The Gas Technology Institute (GTI) (Des Plaines, Illinois), together with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) (San Antonio, Texas) and GE Global Research (Niskayuna, New York), was recently chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) (Washington, DC) to receive an $80 million award to design, build, and operate a 10 MWe supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) pilot power plant.
The goal of this project is to advance the technology development of sCO2 Brayton power cycles. In these cycles, high-power-density turbomachinery utilizes sCO2 as the working fluid.
Historically, Brayton cycles have only been used in spacecraft applications where compact, lightweight, high-energy-density power conversion is required.
But these advantages are now being applied to terrestrial power generation, GTI says, owing to the increase in efficiency and corresponding reduction in emissions.
GTI plans to develop the test facility at SwRI’s San Antonio campus. The project will operate at a turbine inlet temperature of at least 700 °C, aimed at advancing the high-temperature sCO2 power cycle performance from proof-of-concept to a validated prototype operational system.
For more information, visit gastechnology.org.