Analysis and Performance Optimization of Supercritical CO2 Recompression Brayton Cycle Coupled Organic Rankine Cycle Based on Solar Tower

Abstract Supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) Brayton cycle has been proved to be an efficient power cycle to replace the traditional steam Rankine cycle. The thermal efficiency of SCO2 cycle can be further improved by coupling another type of cycle (the bottom cycle) at the waste heat end. A supercritical carbon dioxide recompression Brayton cycle (SCRBC) coupled organic Rankine cycle (ORC) based on solar tower is designed and established. According to the requirements of the waste heat temperature range of the top cycle, R600 is selected as the working medium of ORC. Under the design conditions, the effects of split ratio on the net power, the thermal efficiency, and the exergy loss of the combined cycle are studied. The variation of thermal efficiency of each part of the system with split ratio under different turbine inlet pressures and temperatures is further analyzed, and the influence of turbine inlet pressure and working fluid mass flow ratio ε (mass flow ratio of CO2 to R600) on the system performance is analyzed. Genetic algorithm-based multiobjective optimization is used to obtain the Pareto solution set for the thermal performance and unit investment cost of the system. The results show that the thermal efficiency of the combined cycle can be increased by more than 2% compared with that of a single top cycle. There is an optimal split ratio to maximize the thermal efficiency of the combined cycle, and the positions of the optimal split ratio are different for different turbine inlet pressures. Finally, through the multiobjective optimization method, several groups of Pareto solutions can be found, which can provide some reference for engineering design.