Efficiency Power Cycles Research Articles

Proposal and comparison of two heat recovery measures for the coal-based Allam cycle: Double expansion and lower turbine backpressure

Improving the thermodynamic efficiency of the coal-fired semi-closed supercritical CO2 cycle (coal-based Allam cycle) can be achieved by implementing self-heat recuperative coal drying and recompression with more syngas heat integrated with the efficient power cycle. To prevent the heat exchanger from overtemperature during syngas heat recovery, two measures are considered: double expansion and lower turbine backpressure. For the double expansion, a portion of the recycle CO2 is fed into an expander and the exhaust is mixed with the flue gas in the main recuperator to raise the recycle flow rate. For the lower turbine backpressure, the turbine backpressure is decreased to reduce exhaust flue gas temperature. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that self-heat recuperative coal drying and recompression could enhance the net efficiency by 4.28 % points compared to the basic cycle, but the heat exchanger for raw syngas heat recovery faces overtemperature problem with the cold stream exceeding 777 °C. Both the measures proposed above can effectively reduce the temperature to 730–760 °C with slightly decreased efficiencies of 46.93 %∼47.68 % for double expansion and 47.12 %∼47.81 % for lower turbine backpressure. Furthermore, economic assessment shows that compared to the basic cycle, the cost of electricity decreases by 2.49 % and 5.04 % for the schemes with double expansion and lower turbine backpressure, respectively. Therefore, the proposed design with lower turbine backpressure demonstrates advantages in both thermodynamic and economic performance.

Transcritical Cycles With CO2-based Mixtures for CSP Applications: An Overview of the SCARABEUS Findings

This work summarizes the methodology developed within the H2020 EU project SCARABEUS for the analysis of innovative CO2-based mixtures used as working fluid in transcritical cycles for CSP applications. By adding a specific quantity of carefully selected dopant to CO2 it is possible to reach a high mixture critical temperature, suitable for air cooled cycles at very high minimum temperature in hot environments with high efficiencies. Along the methodology, some results related to the design of the turbine and the heat exchangers for the innovative mixtures are presented, including a focus on the system integration between the power block and the solar plant: as such, these results can be considered as interesting research outcomes to widen the knowledge on innovative solutions for efficient power cycles. The new power cycles are foreseen to drastically increase the profitability and cut the specific cost of CSP systems with respect to the state-of-the-art

Update on the ASTRI High-Temperature Solar Sodium Facility

The Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI) has been developing technologies designed to collect and store solar energy at high-temperature to drive more efficient power cycles, or for providing heat to high-temperature thermal industrial processes. ASTRI is pursuing two alternative pathways: one is based on the use of liquid sodium as a heat transfer fluid, and the other is based on the use of solid fluidous particles. The current work describes ASTRI’s completion of the design and construction of a nominal 1MW high-temperature solar sodium test facility, which will be operational at CSIRO’s solar field at the National Energy Centre in Newcastle, Australia, by 2024.

Testing of a 40-kWth Counterflow Particle-Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Narrow-Channel, Fluidized Bed Heat Exchanger

Particle-based primary heat exchangers (HXs) must deliver sCO2 fluid temperatures above 700°C to couple particle-based concentrating solar receivers and thermal energy storage (TES) sub-systems with efficient sCO2 power cycles. Particle-sCO2 HX designs have struggled to meet DOE cost targets (≤ $150/kWth) due to the amount of expensive nickel alloys necessary for manufacturing full-scale, particle-sCO2 HXs. Our team has demonstrated that mild bubbling fluidization of falling particles in a counterflow narrow-channel fluidized bed can reduce required HX surface area and thus, costs by increasing particle-wall heat transfer coefficients hT,w > 800 W m-2 K-1. This paper reports on the fabrication and testing of a stainless steel, particle-sCO2 HX with 12 fluidized-bed channels approximately 10.5 mm deep spaced between diffusion-bonded, micro-channel sCO2 plates. The HX with a core length of ≈0.56 m is fed with CARBOBEAD HSP particles through a short, fluidized freeboard zone just above the core. Testing to date in the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) at Sandia National Laboratories has shown that parallel bed fluidization maintains uniform particle inventory across the instrumented channels. Heat transfer thermal duty between the particle and sCO2 flows exceeds 30 kWth with sCO2 inlet temperatures of 200ºC and particle inlet temperatures up to 440ºC and mass flow rates of 0.2 kg s-1 fluidized by counterflowing gas flow rates of 0.005 kg s-1. Tests at higher particle and sCO2 inlet temperatures (600ºC and 400ºC respectively) are targeted to achieve > 40 kWth with model-predicted overall heat transfer coefficients U > 400 W m-2 K-1.

A novel coal-based Allam cycle coupled to CO2 gasification with improved thermodynamic and economic performance

Coal-based Allam cycle is an advanced low-carbon and efficient power cycle that uses syngas produced by coal gasification to drive the semi-closed supercritical CO2 cycle for electric power generation. To improve the thermodynamic and economic performance, a novel coal-based Allam cycle coupled to CO2 gasification is proposed. Compared to the reference system, the steam for gasification is eliminated and the mole fraction of H2 within the raw syngas is reduced, which could effectively decrease the moisture fraction of the combustion flue gas and give enough margin to intensify heat integration. Thereby, more process heat has been saved to drive the efficient supercritical CO2 cycle and the raw syngas cooling heat is further recovered by the main recuperator. Results show that the net efficiency of the novel system soars to 43.99%, which is enhanced by 0.67% points. Moreover, the exergy efficiency increases by 0.65% points with the total exergy destruction and loss reduced by 1.23%. In addition, the total plant investment (TPI) and the cost of electricity (COE) are reduced by 1.42% and 1.39%, respectively, which proves that the novel system is also superior for commercial application.

Hydrodynamics of a Multisized Particle Mixture in Shallow Fluidized Bed With Immersed Tubes

Abstract Inert solid particles have made the integration of more efficient power cycles with super high operating temperatures into the concentrated solar power (CSP) station feasible. Fluidized bed heat exchangers with feature of high heat transfer coefficient have great application potential in the particle-based CSP. However, the parasitic loads of the additional fluidizing gas loop and the finely sieved monosized particles may deteriorate the economic efficiency of the integrated system. In order to cope with this problem, a conceptual design of a shallow fluidized bed (SFB) heat exchanger is proposed for the new generation CSP technology. Fluidization characteristics of bauxite particles with a nonuniform particle size distribution in SFB with immersed tubes are investigated with a combination of experimental measurements and computational fluid dynamics simulations. Results show that the static bed height and opening area ratio of the distributor has insignificant influence on the range of semifluidized region and the minimum fluidization velocity Umf. The standard deviation of bed pressure drop σ in the grid region can be used as an alternative criterion for identifying the fluidization state. A range of superficial velocity that distinguishes two different solid circulation patterns exists, with its boundary values being four times and eight times the Umf, respectively. The immersed tubes can inhibit the asymmetric particle circulation patterns from developing in the SFB, but cause a substantial increase in the σ within the grid region.

Performance Comparison of Helium and sCO2 as Coolants for Modular Finger-Type Divertors

Several studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology have evaluated the thermal and fluids performance of the helium-cooled modular divertor with multiple jets (HEMJ) over the past decade. This finger-type divertor was studied both experimentally at nearly prototypical conditions and numerically at fully prototypical operating conditions using experimentally validated simulations. Recently, supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) has been studied as the primary coolant in power cycles and other applications in various systems, in part because CO2 achieves the high densities typical of supercritical fluids at relatively low temperatures and pressures, with a critical point of (7.38 MPa, 31°C). This density makes it possible to realize very compact and efficient sCO2 power cycles. The feasibility of sCO2 as a coolant for plasma-facing components, specifically the divertor, was therefore evaluated as part of the Fusion Energy System Studies design study activities. This work compares the thermal-fluid performance of helium and sCO2 in the HEMJ divertor geometry using numerical simulations at prototypical conditions: inlet temperatures Ti = 600°C to 700°C, pressures p ≈ 10 MPa, and steady-state incident heat fluxes on the tile q″ < 17 MW/m2. The performance is quantified here as the maximum heat flux that can be accommodated by the plasma-facing tile, the pumping power fraction, defined as the ratio of the coolant pumping power to the incident thermal power, and the operating stress limits based on ASME pressure vessel criteria. As expected, helium requires lower mass flow rates and pumping power fractions within imposed maximum temperature limits for the HEMJ pressure boundary. However, it also appears that neither helium nor sCO2 can remove 10 MW/m2 of incident heat flux while meeting ASME pressure vessel criteria. Finally, the numerical modeling reveals that sCO2 may remove slightly higher incident heat fluxes than helium due to the imposed stress limits due to the sCO2 coolant resulting in smaller local temperature gradients, albeit at a considerably higher pumping power fraction.

Can fusion energy be cost-competitive and commercially viable? An analysis of magnetically confined reactors

Driven from investments toward net zero transition global interest in fusion energy is growing. This policy perspective addresses challenges for its commercialization, given the potentially long timeframe to deployment and competing/complementary technologies. We focus on magnetically confined fusion power, specifically tokamaks, as the route to commercialization is clearer and there is some cost data available. For fusion to be competitive beyond 2040, costs will likely need to be at or below ∼$80–100/MWh at 2020 price. This will be hard to achieve for early fusion designs both small or large, for which modelling shows energy costs will be greater than $150/MWh even accounting for production learning. This is due to the low power availability from pulsed operation; frequent replacement of vessel components; and low efficiency power cycles. Technology improvements to improve both cycle efficiency and power availability, along with production standardization and long-life components, have the potential to reduce generation costs and enable magnetically confined fusion to be commercially viable. We therefore recommend focusing commercialization efforts on plants with higher thermal efficiency and potential for higher availability as these maximize the probability of fusion energy proving commercially viable. We also recommend that fusion energy be deployed within a proportionate regulatory regime that recognizes its relatively low radiological hazard. Finally, construction of fusion reactors should be planned in fleet/program terms, as commitment to constructing many units will be necessary for it to become commercially viable.

Development of an efficient ammonia-water power cycle through heat exchanger network analysis and artificial neural network

• The heat integration of the reference Kalina cycle is studied. • Increasing the internal heat recovery can improve the thermal performance. • The improvement in COP can be as high as 8.5%. • A thermal relation embedded artificial neural network is proposed. • The generation performance can be increased by at least 25% at small training sets. This paper presents an efficient ammonia-water power cycle based on the basic Kalina cycle. The heat exchanger network analysis (HEN) is applied to identify all the possible heat-saving configurations. There are 13 different cycles proposed, and each is analyzed and optimized under the same working condition. The results show that there exists a saturation region between the cycle complexity and thermal performance. The thermal efficiency of the optimum cycle has been increased by 8.5% compared to that of the reference Kalina cycle under the heat source temperature of 550℃ and cooling temperature of 24.5℃. The artificial neural network (ANN) surrogate model is also provided to alternatively determine the maximum thermal efficiency under the condition that there is sufficient training data available. The results are compared with those obtained from the thermal model within 0.06% to 1.2% differences. The common practices of ANN in the thermal systems are treated as black-box. Ignorance of thermal principles can lead to a misleading result when using the black-box model, especially for the small size of the training set. In this paper, a thermally constrained ANN architecture is proposed by considering the first law of thermodynamics. The results indicate that, as compared to the black-box model, the generalization performance can be increased at least by 25% with the optimum network configuration of 15-6-3-3 for 50 instances in the training set.

Analysis and Performance Optimization of Supercritical CO2 Recompression Brayton Cycle Coupled Organic Rankine Cycle Based on Solar Tower

Abstract Supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) Brayton cycle has been proved to be an efficient power cycle to replace the traditional steam Rankine cycle. The thermal efficiency of SCO2 cycle can be further improved by coupling another type of cycle (the bottom cycle) at the waste heat end. A supercritical carbon dioxide recompression Brayton cycle (SCRBC) coupled organic Rankine cycle (ORC) based on solar tower is designed and established. According to the requirements of the waste heat temperature range of the top cycle, R600 is selected as the working medium of ORC. Under the design conditions, the effects of split ratio on the net power, the thermal efficiency, and the exergy loss of the combined cycle are studied. The variation of thermal efficiency of each part of the system with split ratio under different turbine inlet pressures and temperatures is further analyzed, and the influence of turbine inlet pressure and working fluid mass flow ratio ε (mass flow ratio of CO2 to R600) on the system performance is analyzed. Genetic algorithm-based multiobjective optimization is used to obtain the Pareto solution set for the thermal performance and unit investment cost of the system. The results show that the thermal efficiency of the combined cycle can be increased by more than 2% compared with that of a single top cycle. There is an optimal split ratio to maximize the thermal efficiency of the combined cycle, and the positions of the optimal split ratio are different for different turbine inlet pressures. Finally, through the multiobjective optimization method, several groups of Pareto solutions can be found, which can provide some reference for engineering design.

Energy and Exergy analysis and selection of the appropriate operating fluid for a combined power and hydrogen production system using a Geothermal fueled ORC and a PEM electrolyzer

This research aims to introduce an efficient power cycle that simultaneously produces power and hydrogen by PEM electrolyzer. This cycle is driven by geothermal energy. Comprehensive thermodynamic modeling (energy and exergy) has been performed to compare four different operating fluids' performance on the proposed system. EES software was used for modeling. A parametric study has also been applied to investigate the effect of important parameters on the system's energy and exergy performance. As a brief novelty statement, the unique model can be mentioned in which both power and chemicals can be produced, and hydrogen output can be used as a storage system that transforms energy into an energy carrier. The results showed that R245fa operating fluid with 3.5% and %67.6 of energy and exergy efficiency had the highest performance. The operating fluids R114, R600, and R236fa are also in the next ranks of performance characteristics. As the geothermal fluid temperature increases, the production of power and hydrogen increases, but the energy and exergy efficiency decrease. Also, it can be noted that the hydrogen unit significantly increases the exergy efficiency of the plant. As an example, in the R245fa case, it increases from 36% to 67.6%.

The Potential of Gas Switching Partial Oxidation Using Advanced Oxygen Carriers for Efficient H2 Production with Inherent CO2 Capture

The hydrogen economy has received resurging interest in recent years, as more countries commit to net-zero CO2 emissions around the mid-century. “Blue” hydrogen from natural gas with CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is one promising sustainable hydrogen supply option. Although conventional CO2 capture imposes a large energy penalty, advanced process concepts using the chemical looping principle can produce blue hydrogen at efficiencies even exceeding the conventional steam methane reforming (SMR) process without CCS. One such configuration is gas switching reforming (GSR), which uses a Ni-based oxygen carrier material to catalyze the SMR reaction and efficiently supply the required process heat by combusting an off-gas fuel with integrated CO2 capture. The present study investigates the potential of advanced La-Fe-based oxygen carrier materials to further increase this advantage using a gas switching partial oxidation (GSPOX) process. These materials can overcome the equilibrium limitations facing conventional catalytic SMR and achieve direct hydrogen production using a water-splitting reaction. Results showed that the GSPOX process can achieve mild efficiency improvements relative to GSR in the range of 0.6–4.1%-points, with the upper bound only achievable by large power and H2 co-production plants employing a highly efficient power cycle. These performance gains and the avoidance of toxicity challenges posed by Ni-based oxygen carriers create a solid case for the further development of these advanced materials. If successful, results from this work indicate that GSPOX blue hydrogen plants can outperform an SMR benchmark with conventional CO2 capture by more than 10%-points, both in terms of efficiency and CO2 avoidance.

Thermoeconomic analysis of a multigeneration system using waste heat from a triple power cycle

Multigeneration systems represent an appealing concept, due to their multiple benefits compared to standalone systems, which has motivated researchers to develop different types of multigeneration systems for several applications. Considering their significance, in this study, a novel multigeneration is proposed that uses the waste heat of a thermodynamically efficient triple power cycle with a 100 MWe capacity. The proposed system, which can generate power, freshwater, cooling, and domestic hot water concurrently, is evaluated using detailed thermodynamic and economic analyses. The triple cycle includes a simple Brayton cycle coupled with a supercritical carbon dioxide recompression cycle and a high-temperature organic Rankine cycle. The waste energy of the recompression and organic Rankine cycles is recovered by a half effect absorption chiller, a multi-effect distillation unit, and two heat exchangers. The results show that for an optimized triple cycle, up to 1,804 kW cooling and 8,472 m3/day of hot water can be generated from the hot supercritical carbon dioxide stream with a levelized cost of cooling and hot water of 0.0362/ton-hr and $0.6823/MWth, respectively. The integration of a multi-effect distillation unit with 7 effects can generate 4,167 m3/day freshwater with a levelized cost of water of $1.142/m3. Overall, the proposed multigeneration system offers a very promising application and a number of benefits such as a generating multiple useful products with no adverse effect on the thermodynamic efficiency of the triple power cycle.

Operation of a 50-kWth chemical looping combustion test facility under autothermal conditions

The United States Department of Energy is developing transformational fossil fuel combustion technologies that result in more efficient power cycles and/or substantial reductions in GHG emissions. Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) has the potential to achieve a lower cost of electricity than a supercritical pulverized coal power plant with an amine absorption system. Although the concept and research on chemical looping has a long history, CLC has numerous technical issues that must be addressed prior to a commercial debut. This effort is directed toward the following major issues for CLC: (1) demonstrating continuous solids handling, operability, and reactor performance at autothermal conditions and (2) preliminary assessments of oxygen carrier attrition and relative material make-up costs. These are critical issues that should be addressed under realistic conditions prior to directing resources toward larger scale demonstrations. This paper will also describe NETL’s small 50-kWth natural gas circulating CLC test facility located in Morgantown, WV. Despite its small size, this experimental test unit has operated at autothermal conditions for 11 h using a copper-iron-alumina oxygen carrier developed at NETL. This paper will describe the test facility and operating experiences using NETL’s “Gen 2.0” oxygen carrier material. Natural gas conversion to CO2 ranged from 70 to 90% over approximately 75 oxidation-reduction cycles during the autothermal operating period. Estimates for the process specific attrition rate during autothermal operation are also presented. Finally, estimates for the oxygen carrier makeup cost, specific to the NETL process configuration, are several orders of magnitude greater than the NETL target. Future work should focus on reducing the oxygen carrier material cost and improving the attrition resistance of the oxygen carrier material under autothermal test conditions.

Heat Transfer Models of Moving Packed-Bed Particle-to-sCO2 Heat Exchangers

Particle-based concentrating solar power (CSP) plants have been proposed to increase operating temperature for integration with higher efficiency power cycles using supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2). The majority of research to date has focused on the development of high-efficiency and high-temperature particle solar thermal receivers. However, system realization will require the design of a particle/sCO2 heat exchanger as well for delivering thermal energy to the power-cycle working fluid. Recent work has identified moving packed-bed heat exchangers as low-cost alternatives to fluidized-bed heat exchangers, which require additional pumps to fluidize the particles and recuperators to capture the lost heat. However, the reduced heat transfer between the particles and the walls of moving packed-bed heat exchangers, compared to fluidized beds, causes concern with adequately sizing components to meet the thermal duty. Models of moving packed-bed heat exchangers are not currently capable of exploring the design trade-offs in particle size, operating temperature, and residence time. The present work provides a predictive numerical model based on literature correlations capable of designing moving packed-bed heat exchangers as well as investigating the effects of particle size, operating temperature, and particle velocity (residence time). Furthermore, the development of a reliable design tool for moving packed-bed heat exchangers must be validated by predicting experimental results in the operating regime of interest. An experimental system is designed to provide the data necessary for model validation and/or to identify where deficiencies or new constitutive relations are needed.

Ignition delay times of methane and hydrogen highly diluted in carbon dioxide at high pressures up to 300 atm

The need for more efficient power cycles has attracted interest in super-critical CO2 (sCO2) cycles. However, the effects of high CO2 dilution on auto-ignition at extremely high pressures has not been studied in depth. As part of the effort to understand oxy-fuel combustion with massive CO2 dilution, we have measured shock tube ignition delay times (IDT) for methane/O2/CO2 mixtures and hydrogen/O2/CO2 mixtures using sidewall pressure and OH* emission near 306 nm. Ignition delay time was measured in two different facilities behind reflected shock waves over a range of temperatures, 1045–1578 K, in different pressures and mixture regimes, i.e., CH4/O2/CO2 mixtures at 27–286 atm and H2/O2/CO2 mixtures at 37–311 atm. The measured data were compared with the predictions of two recent kinetics models. Fair agreement was found between model and experiment over most of the operating conditions studied. For those conditions where kinetic models fail, the current ignition delay time measurements provide useful target data for development and validation of the mechanisms.

Parabolic trough solar collectors integrated with a Kalina cycle for high temperature applications: Energy, exergy and economic analyses

Asa promising option for future power generation is the concentrating solar power systems with various types, among which Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors (PTSC) are the most proven technology with lowest cost available today. Benefits of this renewable energy source are challenged by means of relatively low energy conversion efficiency. To overcome the dilemma, one approach is employing an efficient thermodynamic power cycle in order to enhance the overall power plant efficiency. The Kalina cycle (KC) is considered asan efficient alternative over the conventional or organic Rankine cycles in last few years. In the present work, the integration of a novel configuration of the KC, which is proper for utilizing high temperature heat sources, with PTSC is proposed and analyzed. Thermal, thermodynamic and economic models are developed to investigate the integrated system performance from the viewpoints of energy, exergy and economics. The results indicate that, exergy efficiencies of around 64% is achievable for power cycle unit while the overall power plant exergy efficiency reaches to around 14%. The results of economic analysis revealed that if a lower LCOE is to be reached increment of the number of collectors per row is more beneficial than the increment of parallel rows of the collectors.

Characterization of Particle Flow in a Free-Falling Solar Particle Receiver

Falling particle receivers are being evaluated as an alternative to conventional fluid-based solar receivers to enable higher temperatures and higher efficiency power cycles with direct storage for concentrating solar power (CSP) applications. This paper presents studies of the particle mass flow rate, velocity, particle-curtain opacity and density, and other characteristics of free-falling ceramic particles as a function of different discharge slot apertures. The methods to characterize the particle flow are described, and results are compared to theoretical and numerical models for unheated conditions. Results showed that the particle velocities within the first 2 m of release closely match predictions of free-falling particles without drag due to the significant amount of air entrained within the particle curtain, which reduced drag. The measured particle-curtain thickness (∼2 cm) was greater than numerical simulations, likely due to additional convective air currents or particle–particle interactions neglected in the model. The measured and predicted particle volume fraction in the curtain decreased rapidly from a theoretical value of 60% at the release point to less than 10% within 0.5 m of drop distance. Measured particle-curtain opacities (0.5–1) using a new photographic method that can capture the entire particle curtain were shown to match well with discrete measurements from a conventional lux meter.

Energy and exergy analysis of a closed Brayton cycle-based combined cycle for solar power tower plants

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology offers an interesting potential for future power generation and research on CSP systems of all types, particularly those with central receiver system (CRS) has been attracting a lot of attention recently. Today, these power plants cannot compete with the conventional power generation systems in terms of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) and if a competitive LCOE is to be reached, employing an efficient thermodynamic power cycle is deemed essential. In the present work, a novel combined cycle is proposed for power generation from solar power towers. The proposed system consists of a closed Brayton cycle, which uses helium as the working fluid, and two organic Rankine cycles which are employed to recover the waste heat of the Brayton cycle. The system is thermodynamically assessed from both the first and second law viewpoints. A parametric study is conducted to examine the effects of key operating parameters (including solar subsystem and power cycle parameters) on the overall power plant performance. The results indicate that exergy efficiencies of higher than 30% are achieved for the overall power plant. Also, according to the results, the power cycle proposed in this work has a better performance than the other investigated Rankine and supercritical CO2 systems operating under similar conditions, for these types of solar power plants.

Fluidized-bed Technology Enabling the Integration of High Temperature Solar Receiver CSP Systems with Steam and Advanced Power Cycles

Solar Particle Receivers (SPR) are under development to drive concentrating solar plants (CSP) towards higher operating temperatures to support higher efficiency power conversion cycles. The novel high temperature SPR-based CSP system uses solid particles as the heat transfer medium (HTM) in place of the more conventional fluids such as molten salt or steam used in current state-of-the-art CSP plants. The solar particle receiver (SPR) is designed to heat the HTM to temperatures of 800 °C or higher which is well above the operating temperatures of nitrate-based molten salt thermal energy storage (TES) systems. The solid particles also help overcome some of the other challenges associated with molten salt-based systems such as freezing, instability and degradation. The higher operating temperatures and use of low cost HTM and higher efficiency power cycles are geared towards reducing costs associated with CSP systems. This paper describes the SPR-based CSP system with a focus on the fluidized-bed (FB) heat exchanger and its integration with various power cycles. The SPR technology provides a potential pathway to achieving the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) target of $0.06/kWh that has been set by the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot initiative.