Effects of Fluid Stream Impurities on Performance of a Supercritical Co2 Power Conversion System

Abstract

A team of professors and students at Carleton University have been working on a designing an S-CO₂ PCS in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada. An important consideration when designing such a cycle is the level of purity of the S-CO₂ working fluid, including the effects of impurities on the critical temperature and pressure. This paper will present an investigation of the influence of impurities on several aspects of cycle performance. For example, it has been found that using low grade commercial CO₂ can produce a cycle thermal efficiency loss in excess of 5%. The examination was performed using simple analytical techniques and by using HYSYS plant simulation software.