Preliminary analysis of supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle applied to the solar thermal plant

Abstract

The use of a highly compacted and efficient supercritical CO₂ (S-CO₂) Brayton cycle has become an effective way in utilizing solar energy. This work performs a comprehensive parametric study for S-CO₂ Brayton cycle applied to the solar thermal plant. Several different power cycle layouts including basic regenerative cycle, recompression cycle, intercool cycle and reheat cycle are analysed by the computational models consist of various components in this paper. Then, the optimization of parameters including the cycle turbine inlet temperature and so on, is also performed based on genetic algorithm to achieve the best cycle performance. The most promising cycle configuration is selected by comparison of the compromise between cycle and recuperator performance. This study provides some reference for the related research of the S-CO₂ Brayton cycle integrated with solar thermal systems.