Supercritical carbon dioxide blend

[5] One of the main limitations that has delayed the massive use of carbon dioxide in power cycles is the corrosion engineering.

[3] In the Concentrated Solar Power sector, using supercritical CO2 as the heating engine fluid can provide a significant cost reduction.

The higher efficiency of the power block reduces the solar field size, decreasing the soil occupation and therefore the cost of this part of the plant.

According to the available analyses, electricity production costs of conventional supercritical CO2 CSP are expected to be 9,5–10 $ cent/KWh in favorable conditions.

[9] Because of the weather conditions in arid sites where Concentrated Solar Power plants are usually located, with ambient temperatures above 35 °C, it is impossible to cool down CO2 enough to compress the fluid with low energy requirements.

[9] SCARABEUS project, which has received funding from the European Union, formulates a new conceptual approach to implement supercritical carbon dioxide blends in Concentrated Solar Power Plants to reduce operating and capital costs by increasing the power cycle efficiency.

The SCARABEUS project is developed by a consortium of European universities (Politecnico di Milano and Università degli Studi di Brescia from Italy, Technische Universität Wien from Austria, Universidad de Sevilla from Spain and University of London from United Kingdom) and private companies(Kelvion from Germany, Baker Hughes from United States and Abengoa from Spain) with experience in Concentrated Solar Power.