Supercritical Carbon Dioxide-Based Power Generator Unit with World's Best Parameters, Largest Capacity Starts Operation

A supercritical carbon dioxide-based power generator unit developed by China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd. (China Huaneng) was put into service after a 72-hour trial operation at the company's Xi'an Thermal Power Research Institute Co., Ltd on Dec 8.

The generator unit has the best parameters and largest capacity of its kind in the world. During the 72-hour full-load operation, the maximum temperature of the unit reached 600 degrees Celsius and the maximum pressure was 20 Megapascal, meeting the design requirements and realizing a high-standard of safe and stable operation.

With generated power of 5 megawatts, the generator unit verified the feasibility of industrial operation of supercritical carbon dioxide cycle power generation technology and is expected to completely change the water steam-based power generation method prevalent for the past more than 140 years.

Operation of the unit will improve energy utilization efficiency and contribute to China's goal of peak carbon dioxide emission by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.

Research and development institutes and power enterprises in countries like the United States, France, Japan and South Korea have also been making efforts in basic research and industrialization layout of the technology in recent years.

Next, China Huaneng will focus on research and development and application of supercritical carbon dioxide cycle power generation technology in the fields of highly-efficient solar thermal, electric and thermal energy storage, advanced nuclear power and flexible thermal power.

It plans to build a 50-megawatt supercritical carbon dioxide cycle power generation demonstration plant for commercial use during the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, and continue to work on construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system.

In the same period, China Huaneng's Xi'an Thermal Power Research Institute Co., Ltd took the lead in establishing the Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Cycle Power Generation Technology Innovation Consortium, intending to provide a highland for scientific and technological innovation, a platform for technological achievement transformation and a guarantee for institutionalization of development of China's thermal power generation technology.

The consortium includes 40 universities, research institutes and leading enterprises including Tsinghua University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China Institute of Atomic Energy, the Institute of Electrical Engineering of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Harbin Boiler Company Limited.

It will step up efforts to promote research and development, application and standardization of supercritical carbon dioxide cycle power generation technology, strive to make a number of original and leading major scientific and technological achievements, and contribute to China's high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)