SBIR-STTR Award

Supercritical CO2 power cycles are being developed for both utility-scaled power generation applications, as well as smaller waste heat recovery applications. Supercritical CO2 cycles are more efficient than current cycles, and the associated turbomachinery components are significantly smaller than that for current steam turbine-based power generation. However, sCO2 cycles operate at a combination of high pressure and high temperature, resulting in turbomachinery design issues that must be addressed so that the sCO2 systems can be developed as quickly as possible with minimum cost. Of particular importance is obtaining acceptable bearing, seal, and rotordynamic performance. The purpose of this SBIR program is to develop and implement a magnetic bearing solution for sCO2 application. Magnetic bearings have several advantages over currently-used bearings, including allowing for an improved different turbomachinery design/layout configuration to be used, so that sealing will be easier. An added benefit is that magnetic bearings can be used as a real-time measurement and diagnostic tool, a capability which is especially useful in diagnosing bearing and rotordynamic problems. This capability will allow sCO2 system technology to develop faster, and with lower risk. The commercial application for the proposed technology is a better bearing/seal/rotordynamic solution, for not only utility scale sCO2 systems, but also for smaller waste heat recovery systems that use sCO2 cycles.

The technology development for the supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power plant is well underway, and the first pilot plants are now under construction. The new pilot plants are sized for a 10 MW net power output; a good size to gain valuable data for larger utility scale power plants. This is also a very good size for the smaller, distributed power applications. The distributed power application is envisaged as the primary application for the roll out of the technology. The reliability of the plants during the introductory phase will be very important. A panel of power plant executives at the recent DOE conference on sCO2 has made it clear that the initial cost, operating cost, and up-time reliability must be demonstrated before any significant investment at the public utility level is seen. Pursuant to this point, the reliability of the system will be the next great focus for the sCO2 systems. When a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is done at a system level, machinery design with fault tolerance will be a priority. Machinery up-time and system contamination effects will be high on the list of risks. The new machines proposed for the pilot plants use oil bearings and gas seals. A turbocompressor with two gas seals and another machine with integral gear and 4 gas seals will be installed in the plants. It is well understood that reliability for turbomachinery is highly dependent upon the bearing and sealing systems. Upsets, surges, fluid-driven instability, start-up variations, and variation in thrust loading are all acceptable if the bearings and seals can tolerate them. Concepts NREC has proposed a design approach to improve reliability by addressing the bearing and seals. This approach includes: 1) Reduce the number of seals down to one seal. 2) Eliminate the oil entirely with magnetic bearings. Elimination of the oil removes a source of seal distress, and also serves to eliminate the possibility of fouling of the heat exchangers. The magnetic bearings will provide improved monitoring capability and can be used for active fluid force measurement in a machine.