Thermal and Transport Properties for the Simulation of Direct-Fired sCO2 Combustor

Abstract

The direct-fired supercritical CO2 (sCO2) cycle is currently considered as a zero-emission power generation concept. It is of interest to know how to optimize various components of this cycle using computational tools; however, a comprehensive effort in this area is currently lacking. In this work, the behavior of thermal properties of sCO2 combustion at various reaction stages has been investigated by coupling real gas CHEMKIN (CHEMKIN-RG) (Schmitt et al., 1994, Chemkin Real Gas: A Fortran Package for Analysis of Thermodynamic Properties and Chemical Kinetics in Nonideal Systems, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA) with an in-house premixed conditional moment closure code (Martin, 2003, “The Conditional Moment Closure Method for Modeling Lean Premixed Turbulent Combustion,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Washington, Seattle, WA) and the high-pressure Aramco 2.0 kinetic mechanism. Also, the necessary fundamental information for sCO2 combustion modeling is reviewed. The Soave–Redlich–Kwong equation of state (SRK EOS) is identified as the most accurate EOS to predict the thermal states at all turbulence levels. Also, a model for the compression factor Z is proposed for sCO2 combustors, which is a function of mixture inlet conditions and the reaction progress variable. This empirical model is validated between the operating conditions 250–300 bar, inlet temperatures of 800–1200 K, and within the currently designed inlet mole fractions, and the accuracy is estimated to be less than 0.5% different from the exact relation. For sCO2 operating conditions, the compression factor Z always decreases as the reaction progresses, and this leads to the static pressure loss between inlet and exit of the sCO2 combustor. Further, the Lucas et al. and Stiel and Thodos methods are identified as best suitable models for predicting the viscosity and thermal conductivity of the sCO2 combustion mixtures.