Session: 30-11 System Testing

Paper Number: 154101

Start-Up and Transient Operation Modelling of a Demo sCO2 Recuperated Cycle 

The supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) cycles are a promising technology for the future of energy systems and power production systems. These cycles are currently widely studied for different applications, as they can easily adapt with various configurations. On the other hand, only some of them achieve high efficiency, even though generally they can achieve performances similar to more mature technology such as steam cycles or ORC, and reach better results only in conditions of complex configuration and high temperatures and pressures, where other technological problem may arise. Despite the non-optimal thermodynamic performances compared to more traditional technologies, the sCO2 cycles can still gain advantage of other foreseen advantages, such as the reduced footprint of the plant, especially for turbomachinery, simpler plants and auxiliaries, and cost-effective equipment. Another important aspect is the flexibility that the sCO2 plants could have and that could be highly advantageous especially in markets or applications that require a simple management or a quick variation of the power produced. In order to study also this aspects, the EU funded project SOLARSCO2OL aim at the construction of the first European MW-scale sCO2 plant coupled with a Concentrated Solar Plant (CSP).
This paper, developed in the framework of the SOLARSCO2OL project, is following other works in which a model of the demonstration plant was developed in the TRANSEO simulation tool. This work presents the update of the model and its utilisation in the testing of the control strategies developed for the demo plant. The controllers implemented are mainly proportional-integral-derivative (PIDs), and they are used to manage the plant during the simulation and verification of the start-up and transient operations.

Presenting Author: Simone Maccarini University of Genoa

Presenting Author Biography: Simone Maccarini was born in Genova in 1993. He obtained his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering – Energy and Aeronautics at University of Genova in March 2020. Later in 2020 he joined the Thermochemical Power Group research team at University of Genova. He obtained the PhD in Energy Systems in May 2024.
His main fields of interest are the analysis of supercritical carbon dioxide for power cycles and thermal storages.
His main activities focus on the thermo-economical performance evaluation of power cycles and their dynamic analysis.
He also worked within the SOLARSCO2OL, ROBINSON, and SCO2OPTES European projects and other national projects.

Authors:

Simone Maccarini University of Genoa
Swatara Tucker University of Genoa
Luca Mantelli University of Genoa
Alberto Traverso University of Genoa