Supercritical CO2 Brayton Cycle Research and Development at Sandia National Laboratories

Darryn Fleming

The supercritical carbon dioxide closed Brayton thermal-to-electric power conversion cycle (i.e., “Closed Brayton Cycle” or “CBC”) has developed to the point that interest at the Department of Energy (DOE) is elevated and spread across several Offices. Sandia National Laboratories aims to aid the Department of Energy and private industry with the commercialization of this technology. The reason for the growing interest lies in the promising performance characteristics, which can be reduced to higher conversion efficiency, fuel usage (and associated reduced greenhouse gas emissions), water usage, and smaller machinery compared to the standard steam power cycles. In this presentation, I will describe the approach Nuclear Energy Systems Laboratory (NESL) is taking to expedite commercialization of this power conversion cycle using multiple high-temperature (>700C) and high-pressure (>27 Mpa) test facilities.

Darryn Fleming, Principal Member of Technical Staff.  Darryn is the Principal Investigator for multiple Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (s-CO2) Brayton power conversion technologies.  He is also the work package manager for the DOE-NE STEP s-CO2 component demonstration program.  At SNL Darryn is the Principal Mechanical Engineer/Principal Investigator for multiple experimental test programs that are demonstrated at the Nuclear Energy Surety Laboratory (NESL).

Over the last 13 years in the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle program, he has partnered with multiple private industry companies through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA) and Sandia Partnership Programs (SPP).  These companies range from the smallest of sCO2 bearings vendors to Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric.  His passion is to work with private industry to strategize how to commercialize their advanced technology and apply it to s-CO2 power cycle development.  This is done by coordinating important research to develop a pathway so the company can deploy their technology. Most of the time, the outcome is to build a large-scale demonstration to highlight the technology at scale so it can be transitioned to a marketable product and no longer require sustained funding from the DOE.

Darryn’s experience includes experimental testing, 3-D modeling, thermodynamic modeling, LabView, CAM and ANSYS FEA.  He also has experience designing and commissioning large-scale experiments across Sandia National Laboratories. His recent accomplishments include demonstrating a s-CO2 Brayton cycle, rejecting power into the local grid, and demonstrating first of a kind s-CO2 porous media and magnetic bearings. Lastly, he has extensive knowledge in stress and strain components in experimental cladding substrates that have been pulsed in ACCR (Annular Core Research Reactor)

https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/92353962223?pwd=bGNIa0tUMEdyR0YxNlI5WDNONXlldz09

Meeting ID: 923 5396 2223

Security: 264072