The European sCO2 Research & Development Alliance aims at providing a platform for exchanging knowledge on
supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) technologies in the energy sector for academia and industry, as well as promoting this topic in society.
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) technology is an innovative concept in power generation, which employs CO2 in supercritical state as working fluid in closed-loop Joule-Brayton cycles. Unlike conventional power generation, sCO2 power systems would ensure security and flexibility of electricity supply at lower capital and operational costs with a reduced carbon footprint.
All over the world, extensive research is being carried out on sCO2 power cycles, which resulted in the development
of several experimental facilities. In the United States, Sandia National Laboratory is operating a 1 MWe test loop,
while a 10 MWe sCO2 system is being developed at the South West Research Institute in San Antonio, New Mexico.
India is operating a small-scale test loop at IISc Bangalore, and several projects to develop sCO2-test loops are also
ongoing. The Korean Institute of Energy Research (KIER) is operating a test loop in the kWe range and constructing a
hundreds of kWe loop. In Japan, the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Institute of Applied Energy have
demonstrated a 10-kWe sCO2 turbine generator.
In this respect, Europe seriously lags behind, in particular in the high power, large-scale range. Component test loops
are currently available in Czech Republic and Germany. As concerns EU-funded initiatives, a small-scale prototype in
the kW-power range has been built within the sCO2-HeRo project. In the I-ThERM project, a 50kWe sCO2 loop is
being developed for high-grade heat to power conversion from industrial waste exhausts. The sCO2-flex project is
designing a 25MWe power cycle for coal applications (TRL-5). The sCO2-4-NPP project is designing a heat removal
system (TRL-5) based on a sCO2 cycle. Even though the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and TU Dresden
have agreed to set-up a test loop with electric heating in the 2MW range, as of today, Europe does not benefit of an
infrastructure to carry out research activities on sCO2 components and full power systems on a large scale, namely
in the order of megawatts. Furthermore, no operational data are available for validation of numerical models. There
is no information of start-up, shut-off and part-load conditions, which are crucial to assess the capabilities of this
innovative technology.
For this reason, the European sCO2 Research Alliance brings academic and industrial stakeholders together in order
to bridge the knowledge and technological gaps that Europe has experienced in the last decades and in order to
develop and retain expertise that will enable the promotion of the deployment of large scale sCO2-based power
plants by 2030 (“sCO2-demo”).
Objective
The objective of the European sCO2 Research Alliance is to break ground in the design, construction and operation
of a European sCO2 research cycle on MW scale. The alliance joins European key actors on sCO2 technology
interested to operate a power cycle in Europe by 2030.
Governance Structure
The key actors are biannual meetings for exchanging current knowledge and state of the art developments. The
alliance consists of members and a governing board which organises the biannual meeting
More info: www.sco2.eu