Project description
Fossil-fuel power plants adapting to renewable energy integration
Current fossil-fuel power plants have been designed to provide a constant and stable power output. Owing to the growing share of renewables, these plants must adapt to provide fluctuating back-up power and grid stability. The EU-funded sCO2-Flex project will address this challenge by developing and validating a scalable 25 MWe Brayton cycle using supercritical CO2, increasing the operational flexibility and efficiency of coal and lignite power plants. Researchers will seek to optimise the design and components to better adapt to changing power demands, enable faster adjustments in power output and minimise environmental harm while increasing cost-effectiveness. By bringing the sCO2 cycle to TRL6, sCO2-Flex paves the way for future demonstration projects and technology commercialisation.
Objective
Current fossil-fuel power plants have been designed to operate in base-load conditions, i.e to provide a constant power output. However, their role is changing, due to the growing share of renewables, both in and outside the EU. Fossil-fuel plants will increasingly be expected to provide fluctuating back-up power, to foster the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources and to provide stability to the grid. However, these plants are not fit to undergo power output fluctuations.
In this context, sCO2-Flex consortium addressees this challenge by developing and validating (at simulation level the global cycle and at relevant environment boiler, heat exchanger(HX) and turbomachinery) the scalable/modular design of a 25MWe Brayton cycle using supercritical CO2, able to increase the operational flexibility and the efficiency of existing and future coal and lignite power plants.
sCO2-Flex will develop and optimize the design of a 25MWe sCO2 Brayton cycle and of its main components (boiler, HX, turbomachinery, instrumentation and control strategies) able to meet long-term flexibility requirements, enabling entire load range optimization with fast load changes, fast start-ups and shut-downs, while reducing environmental impacts and focusing on cost-effectiveness. The project, bringing the sCO2 cycle to TRL6, will pave the way to future demonstration projects (from 2020) and to commercialization of the technology (from 2025). Ambitious exploitation and dissemination activities will be set up to ensure proper market uptake.
Consortium brings together ten partners, i.e academics (experts in thermodynamic cycle/control/simulation, heat exchanging, thermoelectric power, materials), technology providers (HX, Turbomachinery) and power plant operator (EDF-coordinator) covering the whole value chain, constituting an interdisciplinary group of experienced partners, each of them providing its specific expertise and contributing to the achievement of the project’s objectives.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsfossil energycoal
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaeronautical engineering
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
75008 Paris
France