Analysis of Brayton Cycles Utilizing Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

This white paper documents a detailed and extensive Brayton cycle analysis that was performed to better understand at a fundamental level the dependence of the Brayton cycle performance on operating conditions, working fluid, supercritical fluid properties, and some cycle non-idealities. This work was performed to better understand the factors controlling Brayton cycle performance and optimal operating conditions, particularly for cycles utilizing supercritical CO2 (sCO2) as the working fluid. The focus of this study is on cycle performance, particularly efficiency. No cost estimates were performed. However, as a single indirect measure of cycle cost, some sensitivity analyses on specific power (net output divided by working fluid mass flow rate) were included.