Abstract
A domestic research program called TECNO_FUS was launched in Spain in 2009 to support technological developments related to a dual coolant breeding blanket concept for fusion reactors. This concept of blanket uses Helium (300 °C400 °C) to cool part of it and a liquid metal (480 °C700 °C) to cool the rest; it also includes high temperature (700 °C800 °C) and medium temperature (566 °C700 °C) Helium cooling circuits for divertor. This paper proposes a new layout of the classical recompression supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle which replaces one of the recuperators (the one with the highest temperature) by another which by-passes the low temperature blanket source. This arrangement allows reaching high turbine inlet temperatures (around 600 °C) with medium pressures (around 225 bar) and achieving high cycle efficiencies (close to 46.5). So, the proposed cycle reveals as a promising design because it integrates all the available thermal sources in a compact layout achieving high efficiencies with the usual parameters prescribed in classical recompression supercritical CO2 Brayton cycles.
Enhanced arrangement for recuperators in supercritical CO2 Brayton power cycle for energy conversion in fusion reactors
