Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Pilot Plant Test Facility

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The objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to seek applications for a project to complete the plan, design, build and assembly, and operation of a nominally 10MWe sCO2 Pilot Plant Test Facility. The facility will be used to demonstrate the operability of the sCO2 power cycle, verify the performance of components (turbomachinery, recuperators, and compressors, etc.), demonstrate the potential for producing a lower cost of electricity in relevant applications, and demonstrate a potential for a thermodynamic cycle efficiency greater than 50%. The technical approach to building and demonstrating the operability of this facility, and meeting the objectives of the FOA, will be based on the recommendations proposed by the selected applicant. Ultimately, this facility must demonstrate a 700°C turbine inlet temperature or higher design point, and produce a recompression closed Brayton cycle (RCBC) configuration that can be used to demonstrate and evaluate system and component design and performance capabilities (including turbomachinery and recuperators in steady state, transient and load following operation). The facility must also be capable of being reconfigured to accommodate potential future testing of system/cycle upgrades, new cycle configurations (i.e., cascade cycles, directly fired cycles, etc.), and new or upgraded components (turbomachinery, recuperators and heat exchangers). Therefore, the design basis for this facility should include the flexibility (footprint accessibility considerations, standardized component flanging, standardized fittings, standardized data acquisition systems and components, etc.) to accommodate future facility utilization to support continued demonstration of sCO2 power cycle technologies.

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