sCO2-FLEX

Project

sCO2-FLEX

Making fossil fuels more flexible and environmentally friendly

 sCO2-FLEX will contribute to Europe’s climate change and energy transition goals by making fossil fuel energy production more capable of supporting a smarter and more flexible energy market.

10
Partners
5
Countries
100
% reduction in water consumption in the thermodynamic cycle
5
M€ of total budget

In one click

Project: 
SUPERCRITICAL CO2 CYCLE FOR FLEXIBLE AND SUSTAINABLE SUPPORT TO THE ELECTRICITY SYSTEM
Programme: 
Horizon 2020
Period: 
2018-2020
Sector: 
Energy
Web: 
sCO2-FLEX
PDF Download: 
zabala18_project_sco2flex_-_eu.pdf
01
The Challenge: 

The aim is to adapt fossil-fuel power plants to the future energy system requirements. Conventional plants could foster the integration of renewable energy sources (such as wind and solar) by off-setting their intermittent nature providing fluctuating back-up power and helping stabilize the grid. However, these plants are not currently fit to undergo huge power output fluctuations, as requested in future scenarios with increasingly higher shares of renewables.

02
Solutions: 
The sCO2-Flex consortium addresses such challenge by developing and validating a scalable/modular design of a 25MWe Brayton cycle using supercritical CO2 that will enable an increase in the operational flexibility (fast load changes, fast start-ups and shut-downs) and in the efficiency of existing and future coal and lignite power plants, thus reducing their environmental impacts, in line with EU targets.
03
Impacts: 

sCO2 based technology has the potential to meet EU objectives for highly flexible and efficient conventional power plants, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, residue disposal and, above all, water consumption. The project aims at building expertise on sCO2 for electricity generation and EDF is also interested in investigating its possible application to renewables such as CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) and biomass.

The sCO2 based technology has the potential to meet EU objectives for highly flexible and efficient conventional power plants, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, residue disposal and, above all, water consumption.
Gustavo Jacomelli
R&D CONSULTANT AND COORDINATOR OF THE sCO2-FLEX PROJECT sCO2-FLEX
GJACOMELLI@zabala.es
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustavo-jacomelli-29294222/