3 For more than 140 years, steam has been the working fluid of choice for thermal power generation cycles. In the drive for ever greater efficiencies, alternatives to steam are being developed, with one promising choice now being supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2). The physical properties of supercritical CO2 being a gas with very high power density make it an attractive solution, particularly in the increasing desire to deploy smaller, distributed power plants. In an exciting breakthrough on the journey to more efficient power generation, a pilot project recently began operations in San Antonio, Texas. The Supercritical Transformational Electric Power (STEP) Demo project aims to prove an indirect-fired supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle concept, with a $169 million demonstration plant led by GTI Energy and underway at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). The process has completed the first phase of testing, having generated electricity at around 4 MWe while also being synchronised to the grid. However, the journey to reach this milestone meant achieving technical breakthroughs with many key components – including the high temperature heat exchangers. INTRODUCTION In the push to deliver greater energy efficiency, supercritical CO₂ is now emerging as an alternative to steam in power generation. Key to turning the concept into a successful industrial technology are unique printed circuit heat exchangers which are helping to enable its success. Image 1 – The main Heatric PCHE manufacturing facility in Poole, UK. The Heatric Poole site is a 20,000m2 facility dedicated to bonding, fabricating and testing Heatric PCHEs.
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