Thermodynamic Analysis and Optimization of Binary CO-Organic Rankine Power Cycles for Small Modular Reactors

Small nuclear power plants are a promising direction of research for the development of carbon-free energy in isolated power systems and in remote regions with undeveloped infrastructure. Improving the efficiency of power units integrated with small modular reactors will improve the prospects for the commercialization of such projects. Power cycles based on supercritical carbon dioxide are an effective solution for nuclear power plants that use reactor facilities with an initial coolant temperature above 550 °C. However, the presence of low temperature rejected heat sources in closed Bryton cycles indicates a potential for energy saving. This paper presents a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of the integration of an additional low-temperature organic Rankine cycle for heat recovery to supercritical carbon dioxide cycles. A scheme for sequential heat recovery from several sources in S-CO cycles is proposed. It was found that the use of R134a improved the power of the low-temperature circuit. It was revealed that in the S-CO Brayton cycle with a recuperator, the ORC add-on increased the net efficiency by an average of 2.98%, and in the recompression cycle by 1.7–2.2%. With sequential heat recovery in the recuperative cycle from the intercooling of the compressor and the main cooler, the increase in efficiency from the ORC superstructure will be 1.8%.