Design and Investigations on Dry Gas Seal of the Shaft End for 450MWe Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Compressor

Author(s):  
Tao Yuan ◽  
Zhigang Li ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Qi Yuan

Abstract The dry gas seal is a promising sealing technology to control the leakage flow through the clearance between the stationary and rotational components of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SCO2) turbomachinery. The dry gas seal is firstly designed for the SCO2 compressor shaft end of the GE’s 450MWe Brayton cycle power generation system. Then the effects of the spiral angle and gas film thickness on the designed dry gas seal performance are numerically investigated using the three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and SST turbulence model. The accuracy of the numerical method is validated by comparison of the previous research data done by Gabriel et al. with air as the working fluid. The Current study analyzed the sealing performance parameters of the designed dry gas seal for SCO2 compressor shaft end at five gas film thicknesses and four spiral angles. These parameters include: opening force, leakage rate, stiffness, and opening force leakage ratio. Also, the impacts of the spiral angle on flow direction in the fluid film are analyzed. The obtained results show that the designed dry gas seal meets the requirement of the leakage flow rate of the SCO2 compressor shaft end. The dry gas seal with a spiral angle of 15° is the best solution due to its low leakage rate and its’ best comprehensive sealing performance. On some occasions where high stability is required, the dry gas seal with a spiral angle of 30° can be selected due to its’ highest film stiffness. The present work provides the reference of the dry gas seal design for the SCO2 compressor shaft end.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Yuan ◽  
Zhigang Li ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Qi Yuan

Abstract Dry gas seal is a kind of non-contact mechanical seal that offers lower leakage and longer operating life comparing to conventional seals. Due to its low leakage rate, a dry gas seal is used to control the leakage flow through the clearance between the stationary and rotational components of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SCO2) turbomachinery, especially at the shaft end of the SCO2 compressor and turbine. However, the high inlet temperature of the SCO2 turbine makes the SCO2 dry gas seal face a severe operation condition. The chamber temperature, cooling effects, and the deformation of the rotating ring of a newly designed external flush structure are numerically investigated using the fluid-thermal-solid coupling approach in this paper. Within the same cooling flow rate, the current study analyzed the effect of six external flush cooling arrangements on these parameters. The obtained results demonstrate that the designed tangential admission cooling structure has the best cooling performance which can decrease the temperature by 400K in the film region and 440K in the chamber region. In addition, the deformation of the rotating ring decreases by 50% under this cooling structure by comparing the no cooling design. The present work provides the reference for the chamber cooling structure design of the SCO2 dry gas seal.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Matthew Carlson ◽  
Francisco Alvarez

Abstract A new generation of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies is under development to provide dispatchable renewable power generation and reduce the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) to 6 cents/kWh by leveraging heat transfer fluids (HTF) capable of operation at higher temperatures and coupling with higher efficiency power conversion cycles. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has funded three pathways for Generation 3 CSP (Gen3CSP) technology development to leverage solid, liquid, and gaseous HTFs to transfer heat to a supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) Brayton cycle. This paper presents the design and off-design capabilities of a 1 MWth sCO2 test system that can provide sCO2 coolant to the primary heat exchangers (PHX) coupling the high-temperature HTFs to the sCO2 working fluid of the power cycle. This system will demonstrate design, performance, lifetime, and operability at a scale relevant to commercial CSP. A dense-phase high pressure canned motor pump is used to supply up to 5.3 kg/s of sCO2 flow to the primary heat exchanger at pressures up to 250 bar and temperatures up to 715 °C with ambient air as the ultimate heat sink. Key component requirements for this system are presented in this paper.


Author(s):  
John J. Dyreby ◽  
Sanford A. Klein ◽  
Gregory F. Nellis ◽  
Douglas T. Reindl

Continuing efforts to increase the efficiency of utility-scale electricity generation has resulted in considerable interest in Brayton cycles operating with supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2). One of the advantages of S-CO2 Brayton cycles, compared to the more traditional steam Rankine cycle, is that equal or greater thermal efficiencies can be realized using significantly smaller turbomachinery. Another advantage is that heat rejection is not limited by the saturation temperature of the working fluid, facilitating dry cooling of the cycle (i.e., the use of ambient air as the sole heat rejection medium). While dry cooling is especially advantageous for power generation in arid climates, the reduction in water consumption at any location is of growing interest due to likely tighter environmental regulations being enacted in the future. Daily and seasonal weather variations coupled with electric load variations means the plant will operate away from its design point the majority of the year. Models capable of predicting the off-design and part-load performance of S-CO2 power cycles are necessary for evaluating cycle configurations and turbomachinery designs. This paper presents a flexible modeling methodology capable of predicting the steady state performance of various S-CO2 cycle configurations for both design and off-design ambient conditions, including part-load plant operation. The models assume supercritical CO2 as the working fluid for both a simple recuperated Brayton cycle and a more complex recompression Brayton cycle.


Author(s):  
Jin Young Heo ◽  
Jinsu Kwon ◽  
Jeong Ik Lee

For the concentrating solar power (CSP) applications, the supercritical carbon dioxide (s-CO2) power cycle is beneficial in many aspects, including high cycle efficiencies, reduced component sizing, and potential for the dry cooling option. More research is involved in improving this technology to realize the s-CO2 cycle as a candidate to replace the conventional power conversion systems for CSP applications. In this study, an isothermal compressor, a turbomachine which undergoes the compression process at constant temperature to minimize compression work, is applied to the s-CO2 power cycle layout. To investigate the cycle performance changes of adopting the novel technology, a framework for defining the efficiency of the isothermal compressor is revised and suggested. This study demonstrates how the compression work for the isothermal compressor is reduced, up to 50%, compared to that of the conventional compressor under varying compressor inlet conditions. Furthermore, the simple recuperated and recompression Brayton cycle layouts using s-CO2 as a working fluid are evaluated for the CSP applications. Results show that for compressor inlet temperatures (CIT) near the critical point, the recompression Brayton cycle using an isothermal compressor has 0.2–1.0% point higher cycle thermal efficiency compared to its reference cycle. For higher CIT values, the recompression cycle using an isothermal compressor can perform above 50% in thermal efficiency for a wider range of CIT than the reference cycle. Adopting an isothermal compressor in the s-CO2 layout can imply larger heat exchange area for the compressor which requires further development.


2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeb M. Besarati ◽  
D. Yogi Goswami

A number of studies have been performed to assess the potential of using supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) in closed-loop Brayton cycles for power generation. Different configurations have been examined among which recompression and partial cooling configurations have been found very promising, especially for concentrating solar power (CSP) applications. It has been demonstrated that the S-CO2 Brayton cycle using these configurations is capable of achieving more than 50% efficiency at operating conditions that could be achieved in central receiver tower type CSP systems. Although this efficiency is high, it might be further improved by considering an appropriate bottoming cycle utilizing waste heat from the top S-CO2 Brayton cycle. The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is one alternative proposed for this purpose; however, its performance is substantially affected by the selection of the working fluid. In this paper, a simple S-CO2 Brayton cycle, a recompression S-CO2 Brayton cycle, and a partial cooling S-CO2 Brayton cycle are first simulated and compared with the available data in the literature. Then, an ORC is added to each configuration for utilizing the waste heat. Different working fluids are examined for the bottoming cycles and the operating conditions are optimized. The combined cycle efficiencies and turbine expansion ratios are compared to find the appropriate working fluids for each configuration. It is also shown that combined recompression-ORC cycle achieves higher efficiency compared with other configurations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Tello ◽  
Alejandro Muñoz ◽  
David Sánchez ◽  
Timoleon Kipouros ◽  
Mark Savill

Abstract Recent research on turbomachinery design and analysis for supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power cycles has relied on computational fluid dynamics. This has produced a large number of works whose approach is mostly case-specific, rather than of general application to sCO2 turbomachinery design. As opposed to such approach, this work explores the aerodynamic performance of compressor blade cascades operating on air and supercritical CO2 with the main objective to evaluate the usual aerodynamic parameters of the cascade for variable boundary conditions and geometries, enabling “full” or “partial” similarity. The results present both the global performance of the cascades and certain features of the local flow (trailing edge and wake). The discussion also highlights the mechanical limitations of the analysis (forces exerted on the blades), which is the main restriction for applying similarity laws to extrapolate the experience gained through decades of work on air turbomachinery to the new working fluid. This approach is a step toward the understanding and appropriate formulation of a multi-objective optimization problem for the design of such turbomachinery components where sCO2 is used as the operating fluid. With this objective, the paper aims to identify and analyze what would be expected if a common description of such computational design problems similar to those where air is the working fluid were used.


Author(s):  
Alejandro Muñoz ◽  
David Sánchez ◽  
Mark Savill ◽  
Timoleon Kipouros ◽  
Carlos Tello-Castillo

Abstract Recent research on turbomachinery design and analysis for supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) power cycles has relied on Computational Fluid Dynamics. This has produced a large number of works whose approach is mostly case-specific, rather than of general application to sCO2 turbomachinery design. As opposed to such approach, this work explores the aerodynamic performance of compressor blade cascades operating on air and supercritical CO2 with the main objective to evaluate the usual aerodynamic parameters of the cascade for variable boundary conditions and geometries, enabling ‘full’ or ‘partial’ similarity. The results present both the global performance of the cascades and certain features of the local flow (trailing edge and wake). The discussion also highlights the mechanical limitations of the analysis (forces exerted on the blades), which is the main restriction to applying similarity laws to extrapolate the experience gained through decades of work on air turbomachinery to the new working fluid. This approach is a step towards the understanding and appropriate formulation of a multi-objective optimisation problem for the design of such turbomachinery components where sCO2 is used as the operating fluid. With this objective, the paper aims to identify and analyse what would be expected if a common description of such computational design problems similar to those where air is the working fluid were used.


Author(s):  
Takashi Sasaki ◽  
Masao Itoh ◽  
Hideyuki Maeda ◽  
Junichi Tominaga ◽  
Daizo Saito ◽  
...  

Toshiba has been developing a turbine and a combustor for a semi-closed recuperated Brayton cycle of supercritical carbon dioxide called the Allam cycle, which is capable of both sequestrating 100% of carbon dioxide generated by combustion and providing electricity with competitive efficiency as the advanced combined cycle. The 25 MWe class demonstration plant with natural gas for this innovative cycle is being constructed in the USA by NET Power LLC and its operation is expected to be in 2017. Toshiba is going to provide the main components of its turbine and combustor. This paper describes the specification of the turbine and the combustor and consideration necessary to realize them in the first of a kind design condition of 30MPa with a supercritical carbon dioxide as its working fluid. This paper also describes some of the validation tests to realize new technologies before this turbine and combustor are installed and operated in the demonstration plant.


Author(s):  
Eric M. Clementoni ◽  
Timothy L. Cox ◽  
Martha A. King

Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation (BMPC) is testing a supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton system at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. The Integrated System Test (IST) is a simple recuperated closed Brayton cycle with a variable-speed turbine-driven compressor and a constant-speed turbine-driven generator using S-CO2 as the working fluid designed to output 100 kWe. The main focus of the IST is to demonstrate operational, control, and performance characteristics of an S-CO2 Brayton power cycle over a wide range of conditions. Therefore, the IST was designed to operate in a configuration and at conditions that support demonstrating the controllability of the closed S-CO2 Brayton cycle. Operating at high system efficiency and meeting a specified efficiency target are not requirements of the IST. However, efficiency is a primary driver for many commercial applications of S-CO2 power cycles. This paper uses operational data to evaluate component off-nominal performance and predict that design system operation would be achievable.


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