Experimental characterisation of CO2 + C6F6 mixture: Thermal stability and vapour liquid equilibrium test for its application in transcritical power cycle

Nowadays supercritical CO(2 )cycles are considered as a promising alternative to the traditional steam cycle for the power block in CSP plants with the aim of enhancing the system efficiency and reducing costs. This work deals with the experimental characterisation of a CO2 blend as working fluid in transcritical cycle: the addition of C6F6 as a dopant increases the fluid critical temperature allowing for a condensing cycle in hot environment with ambient temperature higher than 40 ?. The potential benefits on adopting this mixture passes through thermal stability test for identifying its maximum operating temperature and Vapour Liquid Equilibrium measurements for tuning the Equations of State, thus having a good prediction of the thermodynamic properties. The static method with thermal stress test at different operating temperatures shows that the mixture can withstand to about 600 C in an Inconel 625 vessel. Furthermore, the standard Peng-Robinson with the optimised binary interaction parameter is selected for a preliminary thermodynamic assessment of the power cycle. An efficiency of 41.9% is found for an optimum mixture composition with a CO2 molar content of 84% considering a turbine inlet pressure of 250 bar and a maximum and minimum cycle temperature of 550 ? and 51 ? respectively.

Automated summary

Supercritical CO2 cycles are a promising alternative to steam cycles in concentrated solar power plants, offering increased efficiency and reduced costs. This study experimentally characterizes a CO2 blend with the addition of C6F6 as a dopant, allowing for a condensing cycle in hot environments. Thermal stability tests and Vapour Liquid Equilibrium measurements are conducted to accurately predict the thermodynamic properties of the mixture. Using Peng-Robinson equation with optimized binary interaction parameter, a thermodynamic assessment of the power cycle is performed, achieving an efficiency of 41.9% for an optimum mixture composition.