China has brought online the world’s first commercial supercritical carbon dioxide power generator – a revolutionary clean energy technology pioneered by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).
Advertisement
This power generator, which uses carbon dioxide instead of steam to transfer heat, has been connected to the grid from a steel production plant in China’s southwestern province of Guizhou to produce electricity from waste heat, according to a social media post by CNNC’s Nuclear Power Institute of China on November 10.
Once operational, the two 15-megawatt power units are expected to be 50 per cent more efficient at capturing and using waste heat from steel production to generate electricity than existing steam power technology.
It also signals a transformative leap for next-generation nuclear reactors and advanced energy systems because these efficient, compact power systems could be fitted to produce power from mobile nuclear power sources, spacecraft and concentrated solar plants.
The project by the Nuclear Power Institute of China and Jigang International Engineering and Technology is expected to lay the foundation for future units.
Advertisement
According to the institute, the supercritical carbon dioxide waste heat power generator, located at the state-owned Shougang Shuicheng Steel plant in the city of Liupanshui, is the world’s first commercial grid-connected unit of its kind.