| Description |
CSP tower plants struggle with energy output and economic viability. One component of the system explored for improvement is the heat exchanger, where superheated steam is currently used as a working fluid with molten salt. This project replaces superheated steam with supercritical carbon dioxide and measures whether it improves performance over superheated steam. Two similar Simulink simulations were created to evaluate each working fluid and its performance in countercurrent double pipe heat exchangers. Other than the working fluid properties, working fluid inlet temperatures, and working fluid mass flow rates, the two systems were the same. Upon completion, it was found that superheated steam had a larger average heat transfer coefficient of 42%, but supercritical carbon dioxide only required 60% as much space to conduct the same amount of heat transfer. The reduced space required also led to a 39% reduction in investment costs for the supercritical carbon dioxide system. This project proves on a simulation basis that supercritical carbon dioxide offers higher economic viability than superheated steam. Future work is recommended to investigate further optimization on the heat exchanger, a full-plant simulation be compared against fossil fuels, and a more detailed cost analysis be completed. ii |
