Supercritical CO2 Compressor Flow Extraction for Oxy-Combustion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current fossil fuel power generation systems emit significant greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, and existing technologies struggle to efficiently capture and recycle these emissions, limiting their environmental impact and economic viability.
Innovation Solution
A semi-closed Brayton cycle power generation system utilizing oxy-combustion with supercritical carbon dioxide as a working fluid, where fossil fuels are combusted in an oxygen environment, producing heat and carbon dioxide, which is then mixed with the working fluid to drive a turbine, allowing for the capture and recycling of CO2 through a compressor and heat exchanger system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a fossil fuel power generation system operates in an open cycle, then energy production efficiency is improved, but greenhouse gas emissions increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts CO2 from the combustion products and separates it from the working fluid cycle. The CO2 extraction system removes CO2 at specific points in the cycle (from compressor discharge or turbine inlet), isolating the harmful emission component for separate handling, storage, or utilization while maintaining the power generation process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system recovers CO2 that would otherwise be discarded into the atmosphere. By capturing CO2 from combustion products and recycling it through the system or storing it, the patent transforms a wasted harmful byproduct into a recoverable resource, reducing net emissions while maintaining energy production.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If CO2 is captured and recycled through a compressor and heat exchanger system, then greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The compressor serves multiple functions: it compresses the working fluid for the power cycle while also enabling CO2 extraction and recycling. The heat exchangers perform both thermal management for the working fluid and facilitate CO2 separation and conditioning. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses the working fluid itself as an intermediary carrier for CO2 transport and separation. Rather than requiring separate complex extraction equipment, the system leverages the existing working fluid circulation to facilitate CO2 removal, using heat exchangers as intermediary devices to enable phase changes or density differences for separation.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If CO2 is extracted from the power generation system, then CO2 emissions are controlled, but fluid mass balance becomes challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback control where CO2 extracted from the cycle is monitored and adjusted. The working fluid mass and composition are continuously managed by adjusting extraction rates, recycling amounts, and supplementation levels to maintain optimal mass balance and system performance despite ongoing CO2 removal.
Solution Approach 2:
The system recovers working fluid that may be lost during CO2 extraction processes. By capturing and recycling working fluid alongside CO2 separation, the system maintains fluid mass balance, ensuring sufficient working fluid remains in the cycle for continuous operation while achieving CO2 emission control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This system effectively captures and recycles CO2, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and maintaining a constant fluid mass, while generating electricity, with the potential for economic CO2 sequestration or reuse, enhancing the environmental and economic performance of power generation.
Implementation Method 1
a compressor receiving the turbine output mixture via one or more heat exchangers and increasing the pressure thereof so as to yield a pressurized mixture
Implementation Method 2
The combustion apparatus receives a working fluid that is chemically the same as one or more of the combustion products, and it mixes the working fluid with the combustion products so as to produce a combustion output mixture that has been heated by the combustion of the fuel
Implementation Method 3
A turbine receives the combustion output mixture and uses the combustion output mixture to rotate a shaft of the turbine
Implementation Method 4
The generator converts rotary motion of the shaft into electrical energy and outputs the electrical energy
Implementation Method 5
Combustion of the fuel with the gas takes place in the combustion apparatus and produces one or more combustion products
Data Source
AI summary
A power generation system burns a fuel in a gas in a combustion chamber, producing one or more combustion products and heating a working fluid, preferably supercritical CO2, that is chemically the same as a combustion product. The working fluid is mixed with the combustion products to form a combustion output mixture which is used in a turbine to drive a shaft of the turbine connected with a generator, producing electricity. The turbine outputs an exhaust that goes to a working fluid recycling system that connects the turbine outlet with the combustion chamber. The fluid recycling system has a radial compressor that receives and pressurizes the exhaust mixture and sends it to a chamber that has a bleed outlet and a recycling outlet. The recycling outlet transmits a recycled portion of the exhaust mixture to the combustion chamber, and the bleed outlet carries an excess portion of the exhaust mixture that is not to be recycled to an extraction system that removes it from the power generation system for use in other applications.