WP1 – Techno-economic and sustainability analysis (lead UNIGE)
WP1 will provide base-line models for the techno-economic analysis and optimisation of the sCO2 plants for mid-range power layouts (1-10MWe size) as well as small size plants (less then 1MW) potentially including Tesla-type turbomachinery. Plant optimisation will be carried out considering both performance features as well as eco-design key indicators. This WP1 will also provides guidelines for identifying the most profitable opportunities in the energy market basing on Italian grid code (as an example of European grid code).
T1.1 will develop models for reversible sCO2 cycles to be employed as energy storage systems, with possible external energy inputs (e.g. CSP or WHR where available). Basing on WTEMP software, proprietary to UNIGE, various cycle configurations will be analysed and optimised. From the thermodynamic perspective, aim is at maximizing RTE while keeping acceptable plant complexity; from the economic perspective, aim is at minimizing thermal load requirements on heat exchangers and the total thermal energy storage requirement. Different assumptions and turbomachinery surrogate models from WP2 by POLIMI will be used to carry out trade-off analysis between RTE and CAPEX (estimated through tailored cost functions), identifying the most promising layouts and related design point parameters.
T1.2 led by UNIFI will focus on the environmental and economic assessment of the selected systems and layouts in life cycle analysis terms. The best eco-designs will be identified through quantitative multi-objective cost functions, incorporating various key performance indicators (global warming, carbon footprint, emissions, etc.).
In T1.3 all partners, UNIGE, POLIMI and UNIFI, will investigate the most promising market niches within the Italian electrical grid scenario, taken as representative of one EU large electrical grid, identifying the most common climate/geographical/economic features indicating potential high profitability for such sCO2 storage systems, such as antenna-type electrical network.