The World's 1st Commercial Supercritical Carbon-dioxide Power Generation Unit Put into Operation
From：
Zhonglin International Group Date：12-23 21 Belong to：Industry Related
In Liupanshui, Guizhou Province, the "Chaotan-1" demonstration project has entered a stable operational phase. It replaces the traditional "water-boiling" method of steam turbine power generation with supercritical carbon dioxide, a highly efficient medium for energy conversion, achieving improved power generation performance metrics. This also marks the world’s first engineering application of supercritical carbon dioxide power generation technology.
Huang Yanping, Chief Scientist of CNNC and Chief Designer of "Chaotan-1":The waste heat flue gas from the steel plant sintering machine reaches a temperature of approximately 400 degrees Celsius, which is used to heat carbon dioxide. Our main approach is to use this machine to pressurize the carbon dioxide to around 200 atmospheres, then send it into a heat exchanger to absorb the waste heat from the flue gas, and finally drive a turbine to generate electricity through expansion work.
After over a decade of arduous research and development, China has successively achieved breakthroughs in key technologies such as diffusion welding industrial mother machines and high-efficiency compact heat exchangers. Leveraging the material properties of supercritical carbon dioxide, compared with the existing sintering waste heat steam power generation technology, "Chaotan-1" has increased waste heat utilization efficiency by over 85% and net power generation by more than 50%.
Huang Yanping, Chief Scientist of CNNC and Chief Designer of "Chaotan-1":We convert industrial waste heat into electricity to the maximum extent possible. Based on local electricity prices, under optimal operational conditions, the annual cash flow can be increased by nearly 50 million yuan, allowing the investment cost to be recovered within three years.
Zhang Xiaodong, Deputy Director of the Industrial Development Department, Dongfang Electric Corporation:The promotion and application of any technology certainly undergo a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. This project is a milestone with significant strategic demonstration value. Only the success of the demonstration project can drive the advancement of other related projects.
As an emerging power generation technology, supercritical carbon dioxide power generation has been listed by the U.S. Department of Energy as a strategic cutting-edge technology in the national energy sector. China has been conducting research and development on it since 2009. So, what is its power generation principle?
This device is designed to bring carbon dioxide to a supercritical state, which means increasing the pressure to 74 atmospheres at around room temperature (31 degrees Celsius). Compared with traditional water vapor, supercritical carbon dioxide can boost power generation efficiency by 5–8 percentage points. In its supercritical state, carbon dioxide has a high density close to that of a liquid, enabling it to store more energy—just like a "strongman" with more "muscle" than traditional water vapor. Furthermore, it has a very low viscosity similar to that of a gas, which means lower flow resistance. It can be directly heated to expand and do work without undergoing phase change, resulting in a simpler process and faster response speed.
Supercritical carbon dioxide power generation consists of four steps: compression, heating, expansion, and cooling. It is analogous to blowing air into a steel container— as more air is blown in, the density and pressure of the gas inside the container increase. Then, the interior of the container is heated to create a high-temperature and high-pressure environment, which greatly increases the internal energy. At this point, a small hole is opened in the container, and the high-temperature and high-pressure gas is ejected rapidly, driving a turbine to rotate a generator and thus producing electricity.
The demonstration project of new energy storage and power generation integrating molten salt energy storage and supercritical carbon dioxide power generation is scheduled to start construction in Xinjiang in the first half of 2026. The project uses surplus electricity generated by wind and photovoltaic power to heat molten salt. When the power grid is in demand, the high-temperature molten salt rapidly converts thermal energy into electrical energy through supercritical carbon dioxide.
This technology is targeted at the wind-solar-storage scenario, primarily designed to store the electricity wasted due to curtailed wind and photovoltaic power generation, and then convert the stored energy into electricity via supercritical carbon dioxide power generation.
In addition, the supercritical carbon dioxide power generation technology boasts broad application prospects in fields with strict requirements for equipment size, such as offshore oil and gas drilling platforms and large vessels.
According to industry forecasts, there are over 300 sets of traditional sintering machine waste heat equipment that can be retrofitted in the iron and steel metallurgy industry, representing a potential market scale of approximately 100 billion yuan upon retrofitting.
Huang Yanping, Chief Scientist of CNNC and Chief Designer of "Chaotan-1":The waste heat flue gas from the steel plant sintering machine reaches a temperature of approximately 400 degrees Celsius, which is used to heat carbon dioxide. Our main approach is to use this machine to pressurize the carbon dioxide to around 200 atmospheres, then send it into a heat exchanger to absorb the waste heat from the flue gas, and finally drive a turbine to generate electricity through expansion work.
After over a decade of arduous research and development, China has successively achieved breakthroughs in key technologies such as diffusion welding industrial mother machines and high-efficiency compact heat exchangers. Leveraging the material properties of supercritical carbon dioxide, compared with the existing sintering waste heat steam power generation technology, "Chaotan-1" has increased waste heat utilization efficiency by over 85% and net power generation by more than 50%.
Huang Yanping, Chief Scientist of CNNC and Chief Designer of "Chaotan-1":We convert industrial waste heat into electricity to the maximum extent possible. Based on local electricity prices, under optimal operational conditions, the annual cash flow can be increased by nearly 50 million yuan, allowing the investment cost to be recovered within three years.
Zhang Xiaodong, Deputy Director of the Industrial Development Department, Dongfang Electric Corporation:The promotion and application of any technology certainly undergo a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. This project is a milestone with significant strategic demonstration value. Only the success of the demonstration project can drive the advancement of other related projects.
As an emerging power generation technology, supercritical carbon dioxide power generation has been listed by the U.S. Department of Energy as a strategic cutting-edge technology in the national energy sector. China has been conducting research and development on it since 2009. So, what is its power generation principle?
This device is designed to bring carbon dioxide to a supercritical state, which means increasing the pressure to 74 atmospheres at around room temperature (31 degrees Celsius). Compared with traditional water vapor, supercritical carbon dioxide can boost power generation efficiency by 5–8 percentage points. In its supercritical state, carbon dioxide has a high density close to that of a liquid, enabling it to store more energy—just like a "strongman" with more "muscle" than traditional water vapor. Furthermore, it has a very low viscosity similar to that of a gas, which means lower flow resistance. It can be directly heated to expand and do work without undergoing phase change, resulting in a simpler process and faster response speed.
Supercritical carbon dioxide power generation consists of four steps: compression, heating, expansion, and cooling. It is analogous to blowing air into a steel container— as more air is blown in, the density and pressure of the gas inside the container increase. Then, the interior of the container is heated to create a high-temperature and high-pressure environment, which greatly increases the internal energy. At this point, a small hole is opened in the container, and the high-temperature and high-pressure gas is ejected rapidly, driving a turbine to rotate a generator and thus producing electricity.
The demonstration project of new energy storage and power generation integrating molten salt energy storage and supercritical carbon dioxide power generation is scheduled to start construction in Xinjiang in the first half of 2026. The project uses surplus electricity generated by wind and photovoltaic power to heat molten salt. When the power grid is in demand, the high-temperature molten salt rapidly converts thermal energy into electrical energy through supercritical carbon dioxide.
This technology is targeted at the wind-solar-storage scenario, primarily designed to store the electricity wasted due to curtailed wind and photovoltaic power generation, and then convert the stored energy into electricity via supercritical carbon dioxide power generation.
In addition, the supercritical carbon dioxide power generation technology boasts broad application prospects in fields with strict requirements for equipment size, such as offshore oil and gas drilling platforms and large vessels.
According to industry forecasts, there are over 300 sets of traditional sintering machine waste heat equipment that can be retrofitted in the iron and steel metallurgy industry, representing a potential market scale of approximately 100 billion yuan upon retrofitting.
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