Scientists at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore have developed a super critical carbon di oxide Brayton test loop facility that would help generate clean energy from future power plants including solar thermal.
This is India’s first test-bed for waterless super critical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle test loop for power generation. The technology – developed by Prof. Pradip Dutta and Prof. Pramod Kumar of the Department of Chemical Engineering, IISc — is perhaps the first test loop coupled with solar heat source in the world.
This early stage research could potentially be useful for meeting the energy needs of the country. The power plants with closed cycle CO2 as the working fluid have the potential to replace steam based nuclear and thermal power plants, thus reducing the carbon foot print significantly.
“I am sure all these intense scientific efforts and collective endeavours would enable us to realise the vision of an affordable, efficient, compact, reliable Clean Energy systems which will be robust and suitable in diverse geographic conditions,” said Science & Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan.
This test loop is designed to generate the necessary data for future development of scaled up S-CO2 power plants, which would require overcoming several technological challenges –developing critical components such as the turbine, compressor and heat exchangers that can work at the desired pressure and temperature ranges and using materials that can withstand these conditions.
This innovation research could potentially be game changer for meeting the energy needs of the country in terms of higher efficiency and capacity at lower operating costs and size.
The minister announced plans to set up a research centre on Clean Coal Technologies at IISc. The Science & Technology Ministry has made an investment of Rs 500 crore in research endeavours at IISc during the last three years.
Today’s thermal power plants use steam to carry heat away from the source and turn a turbine to generate power. However, it could generate more power if, instead of steam, supercritical CO2 (SCO2) is used. The term “supercritical” describes the state of carbon dioxide above its critical temperature of 31°C and critical pressure of 73 atmospheres making it twice as dense as steam.