To Save the Climate, Give Up the Demand for Constant Electricity

Re:To Save the Climate, Give Up the Demand for Constant Elec... by LargoLasskhyfv on Wednesday October 07, 2020 @12:43AM (#24705382)

That will be interesting to watch. I've read of supercritical CO2 as a working fluid before. But as far as I could understand from a laymans point of view, in that state it is supercorrosive to the materials, similar to the atmosphere of Venus on the ground. So I'm exited for the results of something as delicate as turbines operating under conditions which made space probes last only a few hours long :)

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Re:To Save the Climate, Give Up the Demand for Constant Elec... by PaulHoule on Thursday October 08, 2020 @10:02AM (#24719163)

Materials compatibility is a concern but it is not that bad

https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/published-pap...

people use stainless steel, fiberglass, teflon and other common materials. The most notorious problem is that sCO2 dissolves in hydrocarbon oils, even very heavy hydrocarbons so keeping the CO2 from exiting through the turboshaft seals is challenging, but a solved problem.

The one obnoxious thing for nuclear use is that CO2 reacts with liquid sodium! It's not that hard to contain the effects of a CO2/sodium leak because the volume of the 1500 psi section is small, so that if the coolant loop bursts the overpressure in the (still not very big) confinement structure is more like 15 psi.

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