Good news! Will this be a game changer?
"Steam turbines still produce most of the world's power, but supercritical carbon dioxide promises to be much cheaper, and 10% more efficient as a medium than water, using 10X smaller turbines. A US$155-million pilot plant is now complete in San Antonio. ...
Carbon dioxide goes supercritical when the temperature and pressure are above about 31 °C (88 °F) and 74 bar (1,070 psi), respectively. At this point, it stops acting like a gas or a liquid, and instead starts acting something like a gas with the density of a liquid. ..."
The device in the image above is the world's first supercritical carbon dioxide turbine. Roughly the size of a desk, is a 10-megawatt turbine capable of powering around 10,000 homes. Ten megawatts is pretty small potatoes in the energy business, but to do it with a turbine this tiny? That could prove to be a revolutionary feat.
"October 27, 2023 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI®), GTI Energy, GE Vernova (GE) and the U.S. Department of Energy celebrated the ribbon-cutting of the Supercritical Transformational Electric Power (STEP) Demo pilot plant today. The $155 million, 10-megawatt supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) test facility at SwRI’s headquarters in San Antonio will demonstrate an innovative new method of higher-efficiency, lower-cost electric power generation. ...
The STEP Demo pilot plant is one of the largest demonstration facilities in the world for sCO2 technology. ..."
Swri, Gti Energy, Ge Celebrate Mechanical Completion Of $155 Million Supercritical Co2 Pilot Plant
The STEP facility in San Antonio has been declared "mechanically complete" and is due for commissioning in 2024
sCO2 turbine developed by SwRI for the 10 MWe demonstration plant
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