Renewable Energy 64 (2014) 43e51

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

A solar energy storage and power generation system based

on supercritical carbon dioxide
Jia Liu a, b, Haisheng Chen a, *, Yujie Xu a, Liang Wang a, Chunqing Tan a
a
b

Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 11 June 2013
Accepted 28 October 2013
Available online

This paper proposes a new type of solar energy based power generation system using supercritical
carbon dioxide and heat storage. The power generation cycle uses supercritical carbon dioxide as the
working uid and integrates the supercritical carbon dioxide cycle with an efcient high-temperature
heat storage. The analysis shows that the new power generation system has signicantly higher solar
energy conversion efciency in comparison to the conventional water-based (steam) system. At the same
time, the heat storage not only overcomes the intermittent nature of solar energy but also improves the
overall system efciency. The study further reveals that the high temperatures and high pressures are
favorable for solar energy storage and power generation. Moreover the expander and the heat storage/
regenerator are found to be the key components that determine the overall system performance.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Solar power system
Supercritical CO2
Heat storage
Heat regenerator

1. Introduction
The application of solar energy to generate electricity and heat
has become increasingly important, and have received considerable
attention [1e5] during the past few decades. Solar collector is the
heart of solar thermal power technologyethe most proven and
lowest cost large-scale solar power technology available today [1].
Large number of researchers have been working on developing new
and more efcient solar collectors [5e10] and currently the parabolic trough collectors are able to produce steam up to a temperature of w850 K [9]. However, almost all the studies are based on
water (steam) as the working uid and aim to improve collector
performances by changing solar collector structures, improving the
absorptivity of the coating or reducing heat loss of the collector [5e
10]. Little work is devoted to study the inuence of the type of
working uid on the collector performances. This leads to an upper
limit of solar heat to power ratio of about 40% [9] using steam,
which urgently needs to be improved.
More recently, some work has been conducted on alternative
working uids for improving the solar thermal power cycles such as
ammonia, ammonia/water mixture, air and silicon oil etc [10e13].
However, it was found that air thermodynamic cycle efciency is
low; ammonia is toxic and silicon oil is very viscous and difcult to
handle [10e13]. Carbon dioxide (R-744) is a non-ammable and
non-toxic uid and friendly to environment. Its critical pressure
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 10 82543148.
E-mail address: chen_hs@mail.etp.ac.cn (H. Chen).
0960-1481/$ e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2013.10.045

and temperature are 73.8 bar and 31.1
C, respectively, which are
much lower and easier to put into a critical state than those of other
alternative working uids. This gives carbon dioxide a great potential for a higher heat to power ratio working uid [11,14,15]. On
top of this the thermodynamic and transport properties of CO2 at
supercritical conditions also seem very favorable in terms of heat
transfer and pressure drop compared to other typical uids [11].
Nevertheless only a small number of studies were dedicated to
investigate the aspects of thermodynamic and transport properties
[11], system design [11e13] using subcritical, transcritical and supercritical cycles, and measurements on components [13,16] in CO2
based thermal power cycles. Hence there is a lack of a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis on the system, which otherwise
could have been a good guidance for experimental investigations
and system optimisation.
On the other hand, a major barrier for the extensive application
of solar energy is its intermittency and non-controllability [16,17].
Integration of an energy storage technique could obviously provide
an important (and even crucial) approach to deal with the intermittency of solar energy and the associated unpredictability of its
output, letting the surplus to be stored during the periods when
intermittent generation exceeds the demand and later be used to
cover periods when the load is greater than the generation [17,18].
Solar thermal plants can store excess high temperature heat in
molten-salt or thermal oil storage tanks, and packed beds which are
generally used to store solar heat for domestic water and space
heating have been investigated and appear to be more efcient and
economical for heat storage in solar thermal power plant.

44

J. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 64 (2014) 43e51

This paper studies a novel solar energy storage and power

generation system based on supercritical carbon dioxide. The system uses carbon dioxide rather than water (steam) as the working
medium, and therefore possesses the following advantages: pushes
the upper limit of the steams heat to power conversion efciency;
the whole cycle runs in the supercritical condition rather than
transcritical condition that further improves the thermal power
performance; integrates a thermal storage system which can store
and recycle the intermittent and non-controllable solar heat hence
enhancing the stability of the system. The paper rst conducts a
detailed thermodynamic analysis in view of investigating the
feasibility and typical performance of the system, and then does a
parametric analysis to provide guidance to experimental studies
and system optimisation.
2. System description
Fig. 1 shows the proposed solar energy storage and power
generation system based on supercritical carbon dioxide. It consists
of eight main components, a solar energy collector, a high temperature heat storage/exchange tank (HX2), a low temperature heat
storage/regenerator (HX1), a heat exchanger (HX3), an expander,
two pumps and relative valves and a control system. Parabolic
trough, solar tower and solar disc collectors can be used in the
experimental system to achieve the solar heat depending on the
working temperature. Parabolic trough system is usually applied
for medium temperature applications (<700 K), while the solar
tower can achieve temperature as high as 1000 K [1,2,9], and
therefore produces higher heat to power efciency. Heat delivered
by the solar collector system is strongly inuenced by the season,
weather and time of day, and heat storage unit can be used to
smooth the solar heat uctuation. The heat storage/exchange tank
(HX2) and the heat storage/regenerator (HX1) used here are packed
bed thermal storage tanks containing spherical granite. Other types
of thermal storage systems such as molten salt, mineral oil and
metal can also be used [19,20]. The heat exchanger (HX3) is a
condenser where CO2 is condensed back to liquid, either by water
or by air, it can be shell and tube type or other suitable types. The

Fig. 2. TemperatureeEntropy diagram of the ideal working process.

working pressure of the heat exchanger (HX3) is 8 MPa, and the

heat load is about 180 kW when the cooling air (or water) ow rate
is 1 kg/s. These components are interconnected in a loop and the
whole system is closed. As only a theoretical analysis is carried out
in this paper, the structures of the components are not discussed in
details.
The principle of operation of the system is described as follows:
(1) Solar energy at a high temperature is collected and stored in
HX2.
(2) The working uid (CO2) at room temperature and supercritical pressure (e.g. 80 bar) is pumped to a certain high
pressure.
(3) The working uid is heated by the regenerator HX1 and then
further heated by the solar heat stored in HX2 to a certain
high temperature.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the solar energy storage and power generation system based on CO2.

J. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 64 (2014) 43e51

(4) The working uid at a high pressure and a high temperature

expands in the expander to drive the generator and produce
power.
(5) The exhaust working uid after expansion ows through the
HX1 to extract the remaining heat and then further cooled
down to the room temperature via HX3 by using ambient air
or cooling water.

45

Q45 0
The specic exergy transfer in the expansion Process 4e5 is:

Ex45 h4  h5

(10)

The specic work produced in the isobaric heat recycling Process 5e6e1 is zero.

W561 0

3. Thermodynamic analysis methodology

Fig. 2 shows the theoretical working cycles of the system in
the temperatureeentropy plane (TeS diagram). The state
numbers in Fig. 2 correspond to those in Fig. 1. It consists of four
working processes: (1) Pumping Process 1e2 in which the carbon
dioxide is pumped isentropically from the low pressure (State 1)
to the high pressure (State 2). (2) Heating Process 2-3-4 with the
pressurized carbon dioxide being heated (State 3) and further
heated (State 4) isobarically. (3) Expansion Process 4e5 with the
working uid expanding in an expander isentropically to produce work output. And (4) Cooling Process 5-6-1 in which the
working uid after expansion (State 5) is cooled (State 6) and
further cooled (State 1) isobarically. In the following, thermodynamic analysis of these processes is detailed for both ideal and
practical conditions.

The specic heat transfer in Processes 5e6, 6e1 and 5e6e1 is

respectively:

Q56 h5  h6

(11)

Q61 h6  h1

(12)

Q561 Q56 Q61 h5  h1

(13)

One can see that due to the utilization of the heat storage/
regenerator (HX1), a large amount of heat Q56 h5  h6 is
recycled hence improving the overall performance of system. The
specic exergy transfer in the Processes 5e6, 6e1 and 5e6e1 is
respectively:

Ex56 h5  h6  T0 S5  S6

(14)

Ex61 h6  h1  T0 S6  S1

(15)

The specic work consumed by the pump during the Process 1e

2 can be expressed as:

Ex561 h5  h1  T0 S5  S1

(16)

W12 h2  h1

Applying the rst and second law of thermodynamics to the

processes 2e3 and 5e6, the following equations must be satised:

3.1. Ideal case

(1)

8
>
>
<

The specic heat transfer in Process 1e2 is zero.

T2  T6
T3 < T5
Q56 Q23
>
>
:
Ex56 > Ex23

Q12 0
The specic exergy obtained during the Process 1e2 is:

Ex12 h2  h1

(2)

The specic work in Process 2-3-4 is zero.

The specic net heat absorption of the working cycle is therefore

given by:

Qnet Q234 Q561 Q23 Q34  Q56 Q61

W234 0
The specic heat absorbed in the isobaric Processes 2-3, 3-4 and
2-3-4 is respectively:

Q23 h3  h2

(3)

Q34 h4  h3

(4)

Q234 Q23 Q34 h4  h2

(5)

The specic exergy absorbed in the isobaric Processes 2-3, 3-4

and 2-3-4 is respectively:

Ex23 h3  h2  T0 S3  S2

(6)

Ex34 h4  h3  T0 S4  S3

(7)

Ex234 h4  h2  T0 S4  S2

(8)

Q34  Q61
As mentioned in Section 2, the Process 6e1 occurs in HX3 and
the heat (Q6e1) exhausts directly to environment. As a result, the
specic net heat absorption of the working cycle can be expressed
as:

Qnet Q34 h4  h3

(17)

The specic net work output of the working cycle is:

Wnet W45  W12 h4  h5  h2  h1

(18)

The heat to power efciency of whole working cycle (ht) can be

calculated by:

ht

Wnet
h  h5  h2  h1
4
h4  h3
Qnet

(19)

The specic work produced in the expansion Process 4e5 is

given by:

3.2. Practical case

W45 h4  h5

In practice the processes 1e2 and 4e5 can not be isentropic, i.e.
the efciencies of the pump and expander are lower than 100%.
Therefore, due to the increment of entropy, the processes 1e2 and

The specic heat transfer in Process 4e5 is zero.

(9)

46

J. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 64 (2014) 43e51

4e5 become the processes 1e20 and 4e50 in Fig. 3 respectively. At

the same time, there must be heat loss and temperature difference
during the heat transfer processes 2e3 and 5-6. The practical
temperature, T30 , must be lower than T50 , and T60 is higher than T6,
as shown in Fig. 3.
Assuming the internal efciency of the pump is hp, the practical
specic work consumed by the pump is:

W120 h20  h1

h2  h1

hp

120

(28)

The specic work produced in the expansion Process 4e50 is

given by:

(29)

where he refers to the internal efciency of the expander. Similarly,

the Process 4e50 is also adiabatic but non-isentropic. The heat
transferred from the internal energy of the working uid is:

(21)

Q45 h50  h5
But the net heat transfer in Process

(30)
4e50

is zero.

Q450 0
The specic exergy transfer in the expansion Process 4e50 is:

Ex450 h4  h50  T0 S4  S50

The specic exergy obtained during the Process 1e20 is:

Ex120 h20  h1  T0 S20  S1

Ex20 30 4 h4  h20  T0 S4  S20

(20)

It should be noted that the heat obtained by the working uid is

transformed from its internal energy, rather than from outside heat
supply. In other words, the Process 1e20 is adiabatic but nonisentropic. The net heat transfer from outside heat supply during
Process 1e20 is zero.

Qnet

(27)

W450 h4  h50 h4  h5 he

The specic heat obtained in Process 1e20 is:

Q120 h20  h2

Ex30 4 h4  h30  T0 S4  S30

(31)

The specic work produced in the isobaric heat recycling Process 50 -60 -1 is zero.

(22)
W50 60 1 0

The specic work in Process 20 e30 e4 is zero.

W20 30 4 0

The specic heat transfer in Processes 50 e60 , 60 e1 and 50 e60 e1 is

respectively:

The specic heat absorbed in the isobaric Processes 20 e30 , 30 e4

and 20 e30 e4 is respectively:

Q50 60 h50  h60

(32)

Q20 30 h30  h20

(23)

Q60 1 h60  h1

(33)

Q30 4 h4  h30

(24)

Q50 60 1 Q50 60 Q60 1 h50  h1

(34)

Q20 30 4 Q20 30 Q30 4 h4  h20

(25)

The specic exergy transfer in the Processes 50 e60 , 60 e1 and 50 e

60 e1 is respectively:

The specic exergy absorbed in the isobaric Processes 20 e30 , 30 e

4 and 20 e30 e4 is respectively:

Ex50 60 h50  h60  T0 S50  S60

(35)

Ex20 30 h30  h20  T0 S30  S20

Ex60 1 h60  h1  T0 S60  S1

(36)

Ex50 60 1 h50  h1  T0 S50  S1

(37)

(26)

Applying the rst and second law of thermodynamics to the

processes 20 e30 and 50 e60 , the following equations must be
satised:

8
>
>
<

T20  T60
T30 < T50
Q 0 0 Q20 30
>
>
: 5 6
Ex50 60 > Ex20 30
Similarly, the specic net heat absorption of the working cycle
can be expressed as:

Qnet Q30 4 h4  h30

(38)

The specic net work output of the working cycle is:

Wnet W450  W120 h4  h50  h20  h1

h4  h5 he  h2  h1 =hp
Fig. 3. TemperatureeEntropy diagram of the practical working process.

(39)

The practical heat to power efciency of whole working cycle

(htr) is then:

J. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 64 (2014) 43e51

Work/Heat (kJ/kg)

400

Table 1
Calculation results of work output and heat input at different temperatures.

Wnet,Ideal Case
Wnet,Practical Case
Qnet,Ideal Case
Qnet,Practical Case

300

47

Ideal case

200
Practical case

100

0
500

600

700

800

900

1000

1100

T4
K

DTR
K

Wnet
kJ/kg

Qnet
kJ/kg

600
700
800
900
1000
600
700
800
900
1000

0
0
0
0
0
5
5
5
5
5

77.34
97.17
115.91
133.92
151.64
61.28
78.13
94.06
109.37
124.43

227.33
247.15
265.89
283.90
301.62
238.40
255.26
271.18
286.45
301.55

T1 290 K, P1 80 bar, P2 200 bar, he 85%, hp 85%.

Temperature (K)
Table 2
Calculation results of work output and heat input at different pressures.

Fig. 4. Specic work output and heat input as a function of temperature.

htr

Wnet
h  h50  h20  h1

4
h4  h30
Qnet
h4  h5 he  h20  h1 =hp

h4  h30

Ideal case

(40)
Practical case

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Work output and heat input

P2
bar

DTR
K

Wnet
kJ/kg

Qnet
kJ/kg

100
150
200
250
300
100
150
200
250
300

0
0
0
0
0
5
5
5
5
5

31.11
83
115.91
138.91
155.98
25.69
67.91
94.06
111.81
124.54

123.5
214.4
265.89
301.82
328.96
187.32
237.08
271.18
297.06
317.55

T1 290 K, P1 80 bar, T4 800 K, he 85%, hp 85%.

Fig. 4 shows the specic work output and heat input as a

function of working temperature (T4). The other parameters in
Fig. 4 are taken as: (1) T1 290 K; (2) P1 80 bar; (3) P2 200 bar;
(4) he 85%; (5) hp 85%; and (6) the average temperature difference of heat storage/regenerator (HX2) is assumed as DTR 5 K
for the practical case while that for the ideal case is zero. The
thermal physical properties data are taken from REFPROP database
Table 1.
One can see that both the ideal and practical work output and
heat input show a nearly linear increase with the increasing
working temperature. High temperature is favorable for the power
generation at a given working pressure. At the typical condition of
T4 800 K, the ideal heat input, the ideal work output, the practical
heat input and the practical work output are 265.9 kJ/kg, 115.9 kJ/
kg, 271.18 kJ/kg and 94.1 kJ/kg respectively.
Fig. 5 shows the specic work output and heat input as a
function of working pressure (P2). The other parameters in Fig. 5 are

taken as: (1) T1 290 K; (2) P1 80 bar; (3) T4 800 K; (4)

he 85%; (5) hp 85%; and (6) DTR 5 K. It is shown that, for the
range of working pressure shown (100e300 bar), both the ideal and
practical work output and heat input increase monotonically with
increasing working pressure. This means that, at the same working
temperature (T4), a specic working uid can absorb more heat and
produce more work output at higher pressures, which is favorable
for the power generation system Table 2.
Furthermore the ideal heat input shows a more rapid increase
than that of the practical case with increasing pressure. In Fig. 5, at
low pressures, the heat input of the ideal case is lower while that is
higher at higher pressures. There is a cross point at w220 bar. This
is because the expansion process in the ideal case (Process 4e5 in
Fig. 2) is an isentropic process, whereas that in the practical case
(Process 4e50 in Fig. 3) is non-isentropic due to the energy loss in

60
Wnet,Ideal Case
Wnet,Practical Case
Qnet,Ideal Case
Qnet,Practical Case

300

Heat to Power Efficiency (%)

Work/Heat (kJ/kg)

400

200
100
0
50

100

150

200

250

300

Pressure (bar)
Fig. 5. Specic work output and heat input as a function of pressure.

350

t,Ideal Case
tr,Practical Case

50
40
30
20
10
500

600

700

800

900

1000

Temperature (K)
Fig. 6. Heat to power efciency as a function of temperature.

1100

J. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 64 (2014) 43e51

Table 3
Calculation results of heat to power efciency at different temperatures.

Ideal case

Practical case

50

T4
K

DTR

ht

600
700
800
900
1000
600
700
800
900
1000

0
0
0
0
0
5
5
5
5
5

34.0
39.3
43.6
47.2
50.3
25.7
30.6
34.7
38.2
41.3

Heat to Power Efficiency (%)

48

40
30
20

T=600K
T=700K
T=800K
T=900K

10

T=1000K

0
65

T1 290 K, P1 80 bar, P2 200 bar, he 85%, hp 85%.

70

75

80

85

90

95

Expander Efficiency (%)

Table 4
Calculation results of heat to power efciency at different pressures.

Practical case

P2
bar

DTR

ht

100
150
200
250
300
100
150
200
250
300

0
0
0
0
0
5
5
5
5
5

25.2
38.7
43.6
46
47.4
13.7
28.6
34.7
37.6
39.2

T1 290 K, P1 80 bar, T4 800 K, he 85%, hp 85%.

the practical expander transforms into heat. As a result, the temperature drop in practical case is less and a less heat input is needed
during the process 3e4 (Fig. 3). On the other hand, the temperature
difference of the practical heat regenerator (DTR) leads to a decrease
in heat recovery capacity of the process 50 e60 and more heat input
is required during the process 3e4 (Fig. 3) in the practical case. The
above two factors are paradoxical. At low pressures, the effect of
temperature difference of the practical heat regenerator is dominant and the heat input of the practical case higher. While at high
pressures, the non-isentropic effect is the dominant factor and the
heat input of the practical case is lower.
4.2. Heat to power efciency
Fig. 6 shows the heat to power efciency as a function of temperature. The other parameters for Fig. 6 are taken as: (1)

P=100bar
P=150bar
P=200bar
P=250bar
P=300bar

50

Heat to Power Efficiency (%)

Ideal case

(a) At different temperatures (P2=200bar)

40
30
20
10
0
65

70

75

80

85

90

95

Expander Efficiency (%)

(b) At different pressures (T4=800K)

Fig. 8. Practical heat to power efciency as a function of expander efciency.

T1 290 K; (2) P1 80 bar; (3) P2 200 bar; (4) he 85%; (5)

hp 85%; and (6) DTR 5 K. It can be seen that both the ideal and
practical heat to power efciencies increase with increasing temperature, which again shows high temperature is favorable for the
power generation system. At the typical condition of T4 800 K,
the heat to power efciencies for the ideal and practical cases are
43.6% and 34.7% respectively. While at T4 1000 K, the heat to
power efciencies for the ideal and practical cases are 50.1% and

60
Table 5
Calculation results of practical heat to power efciency under different expander
efciencies.

Heat to Power Efficiency (%)

t,Ideal Case
tr,Practical Case

50
40
30
20
10
50

100

150

200

250

300

Pressure (bar)
Fig. 7. Heat to power efciency as a function of pressure.

350

T4
K

P2
bar

ht %
he 70%

he 75%

he 80%

he 85%

he 90%

600
700
800
900
1000

200
200
200
200
200

21.2
25.7
29.6
33.0
36.0

22.8
27.5
31.4
34.8
37.9

24.3
29.1
33.1
36.5
39.6

25.7
30.6
34.7
38.2
41.3

27.1
32.1
36.2
39.7
42.8

800
800
800
800
800

100
150
200
250
300

11.3
24.3
29.6
32.2
33.6

12.1
25.8
31.4
34.1
35.6

12.9
27.2
33.1
35.9
37.4

13.7
28.6
34.7
37.6
39.2

14.5
30.0
36.2
39.3
40.9

T1 290 K, P1 80 bar, hp 85%, DTR 5 K.

J. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 64 (2014) 43e51

(1) T1 290 K; (2) P1 80 bar; (3) T4 800 K; (4) he 85%; (5)

hp 85%; and (6) DTR 5 K. Both the ideal and practical heat to
power efciencies increase with increasing the working pressure
and the increase tends to level off at high pressures. At P2 300 bar,
the heat to power efciencies for the ideal and practical cases are
47.4% and 39.2% respectively. It is also found the heat to power
efciencies for the ideal and practical cases can be, respectively, as
high as 54.6% and 46.6% at the condition of P2 300 bar and
T4 1000 K, which are also about 10% higher than the corresponding values of conventional steam Rankine cycle [9] Table 4.

50
40
30
20

T=600K
T=700K
T=800K
T=900K
T=1000K

10

4.3. Inuence of expander

0
0

2.5

7.5

10

Temperature Difference (K)

(a) At different temperatures (P2=200bar)

P=100bar
P=150bar
P=200bar
P=250bar
P=300bar

60
50

Effects of the expander efciency on the practical heat to power

efciency are shown in Fig. 8a and b at different temperatures and
pressures. Other parameters taken in Fig. 8 are: (1) T1 290 K; (2)
P1 80 bar; (3)hp 85%; and (4) DTR 5 K. It is found that the heat
to power efciency increases by w5e7% when the expander efciency increases from 70% to 90%. This indicates the expander is the
key component in determining the overall performance of the
system. Careful design and manufacture of the expander are
needed in the future development of such a power generation
system Table 5.

40
30

T=600K
T=700K
T=800K
T=900K
T=1000K

60

20
10
0
0

2.5

7.5

10

Temperature Difference (K)

(b) At different pressures (T4=800K)

Heat to Power Efficiency (%)

Heat to Power Efficiency (%)

60

Heat to Power Efficiency (%)

49

Fig. 9. Practical heat to power efciency as a function of regenerator temperature

difference.

50
40
30
20
10
65

70

75

80

85

90

95

Pump Efficiency (%)

41.3% respectively. These heat to power efciencies are about 10%

higher than those of conventional steam Rankine cycle [9] Table 3.
The heat to power efciency as a function of working pressure
(P2) is plotted in Fig. 7. Similarly, the other parameters are taken as:

T4
K

P2
bar

ht %
DTR 0 K

DTR 2.5 K

DTR 5 K

DTR 7.5 K

DTR 10 K

600
700
800
900
1000

200
200
200
200
200

28.7
33.9
38.2
41.8
45

26.9
31.9
36.1
39.6
42.7

25.7
30.6
34.7
38.2
41.3

24.8
29.6
33.6
37.1
40.1

24.1
28.8
32.8
36.2
39.2

800
800
800
800
800

100
150
200
250
300

21.7
33.8
38.2
40.2
41.3

15.1
30.3
36.1
38.7
40.1

13.7
28.6
34.7
37.6
39.2

12.9
27.5
33.6
36.7
38.4

12.3
26.6
32.8
36
37.7

T1 290 K, P1 80 bar, he 85%, hp 85%.

P=100bar
P=150bar
P=200bar
P=250bar
P=300bar

60

Heat to Power Efficiency (%)

Table 6
Calculation results of practical heat to power efciency under different regenerator
temperature differences.

(a) At different temperatures (P2=200bar)

50
40
30
20
10
65

70

75

80

85

90

Pump Efficiency (%)

(b) At different pressures (T4=800K)

Fig. 10. Practical heat to power efciency as a function of pump efciency.

95

50

J. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 64 (2014) 43e51

Table 7
Calculation results of practical heat to power efciency under different pump
efciencies.
T4
K

P2
bar

ht %
hp 70%

hp 75%

hp 80%

hp 85%

hp 90%

600
700
800
900
1000

200
200
200
200
200

24.6
29.4
34.4
37.2
40.3

24.9
29.9
34.5
37.6
40.7

25.3
30.3
34.6
37.9
41.0

25.7
30.6
34.7
38.2
41.3

26.0
30.9
34.8
38.4
41.5

800
800
800
800
800

100
150
200
250
300

13.4
28.0
34.4
36.2
37.4

13.5
28.2
34.5
36.7
38.1

13.6
28.4
34.6
37.2
38.7

13.7
28.6
34.7
37.6
39.2

13.8
28.8
34.8
38.0
39.7

T1 290 K, P1 80 bar, he 85%, DTR 5 K.

4.4. Inuence of heat storage/regenerator

Fig. 9 shows the inuence of the average temperature difference
of heat storage/regenerator (DTR) on the practical heat to power
efciency. Other parameters used in calculation of Fig. 9 are: (1)
T1 290 K; (2) P1 80 bar; (3) he 85%; and (4) hp 85%. One can
see that the heat to power efciency decreases by w4e9% when
average temperature difference increases from 0 K to 10 K. Small
temperature difference of the heat regenerator is critically important for good performance of the whole system. The smaller temperature difference of the heat regenerator could substantially
increase the heat recovered from the process 50 e60 (Q50 60 ) hence
increasing the temperature of state 30 (T30 ) and reducing the heat
input (Q30 4). This is particularly true at low pressures, e.g. 100 bar
(Fig. 9b), because the CO2 thermal properties vary more dramatically at pressures close to the critical pressure. Small reduction of
the heat regenerator may result in big improvement of the overall
performance of the system Table 6.
4.5. Inuence of pump
Fig. 10 illustrates the practical heat to power efciency as a
function of pump efciency. Other parameters include: (1)
T1 290 K; (2) P1 80 bar; (3) he 85%; and (4) DTR 5 K. It can be
seen that the heat to power efciency increases with increasing
pump efciency; but the increment is marginal. This is because the
work consumed by the pump is only a very small proportion of the
total work of the system. In comparison with the expander and heat
regenerator, the pump is a relatively trivial component in determining the overall performance of the system Table 7.

Table 8
Calculation results of practical heat to power efciency under
different thermal storage efciencies.
Thermal storage efciency, %

htr %

80
85
90
95
100

30.6
31.7
32.7
33.7
34.7

T1 290 K, P1 80 bar, P2 200 bar, he 85%, hp 85%,

DTR 5 K.

4.6. Inuence of thermal storage efciency

Fig. 11 illustrates the practical heat to power efciency as a
function of thermal storage efciency. Other parameters include:
(1) T1 290 K; (2) P1 80 bar; (3) P2 200 bar; (4) he 85%; (5)
hp 85%; and (6) DTR 5 K. It can be seen that the heat to power
efciency increases with increasing thermal storage efciency. This
is because the less the heat loss during storage, the higher the
equivalent heat absorption temperature of the power cycle, when
the equivalent heat releasing temperature remains the same, the
heat to power efciency tends to increase Table 8.
5. Concluding remarks
A new type of solar power system that uses the supercritical
carbon dioxide and heat storage is proposed and thermodynamically analyzed. The study demonstrates that the use of CO2 as
working uid offers signicantly higher heat to electricity conversion efciency over the conventional steam Rankine cycle. An
integration of a high-temperature heat storage tank to the system
can further improve its overall efciency and reduce the intermittence of the solar heat. The proposed system has a good application
prospect.
Parametric analysis shows that by increasing the operating
temperature and pressure it is possible to improve the performance
of the power cycle noticeably. Also it shows that the efciency of
expander and the performance of heat storage/regenerator have
signicant effects on the systems overall performance, the pump is
relatively unimportant.
Acknowledgments
The research is nancially supported by the Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 50906079 and No. 51006097), and the
National 973 key program of China (No. 2012CB720400).
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Fig. 11. Practical heat to power efciency as a function of thermal storage efciency.

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