Abstract
In this article, the performance improvement of supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) Brayton cycles through heat recovery and advanced heat exchanger (HX) design is reviewed. The configuration of sCO2 cycles and the bottleneck of the design of an efficient sCO2 cycle is first evaluated. It was found that heat rejected in the precooler is a large waste that could potentially enhance the overall sCO2 system performance. Then integration of the absorption cycle, organic Rankine cycle, and thermal desalination plant to the sCO2 cycle to recover the waste thermal energy is reviewed and discussed. Results showed that these bottoming heat recovery cycles could substantially improve the overall sCO2 system efficiency. The combined system of sCO2/absorption chiller, sCO2/ORC increases the cycle efficiency to about 78% and 79%, respectively. Also, a combined system of sCO2/desalination produces about 200 000 m3/day with a cost of less than $1.0/m3. Based on the review, the evaluation criteria are proposed for decision‐makers. Another bottleneck of the design of the sCO2 system is the HXs (recuperators) used in the sCO2 cycle which are relatively large and negatively affect the cycle compactness and performance. Therefore, various types of recuperators proposed and designed for sCO2 cycles are reviewed and evaluated. This review highlights the need for further research to enhance heat recovery, reduce the cost of bottoming cycles, and improve the design of HXs.
Published Version
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