Supercritical CO2 is heavy like a liquid, with weird and useful properties

Re:Supercritical CO2 is heavy like a liquid, with weird and ... by Gravityloss on Friday October 25, 2019 @03:51PM (#21358601)

Some molten salt reactor designs were planned first with helium turbomachinery and later with supercritical CO2.

Also GE tried to sell gas turbines for ship propulsion. You get back some efficiency with a CO2 turbine running with the waste heat. Ship owners still like their diesels. Really long time between overhauls.

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Re:Supercritical CO2 is heavy like a liquid, with weird and ... by DuskStar on Saturday October 26, 2019 @01:47AM (#21361951)

> Also GE tried to sell gas turbines for ship propulsion.

Pretty common for warships though, or at least that's my understanding. The Arleigh Burke class [0] is powered by GE gas turbines, for instance.

Though the requirements list for "large surface combatant engine" and "huge cargo vessel engine" are probably more than a bit different.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleigh_Burke-class_destroyer

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Re:Supercritical CO2 is heavy like a liquid, with weird and ... by Gravityloss on Saturday October 26, 2019 @09:19AM (#21363476)

Yes. They pay little for fuel. Also afaik they do not use the waste heat. Though probably with the logistics train to some places the fuel can probably be expensive at times.

There used to be passenger ships with turbines too. They changed the engines to regular diesels at some point. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTS_Finnjet

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Re:Supercritical CO2 is heavy like a liquid, with weird and ... by jabl on Saturday October 26, 2019 @10:31AM (#21363875)

I think they actually do reuse the waste heat in a way, not via steam, but by being recuperated.

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