China has commissioned the world’s first CO2 power generator, the Chaotan One, to generate electricity from heat. It uses carbon dioxide instead of steam to transfer heat.
With the Chaotan One project in the Chinese province of Guizhou, China is using waste heat more efficiently than before to generate electricity. A CO2 generator is using supercritical carbon dioxide commercially for the first time. The system completes a technical cycle using carbon dioxide as the working medium to transform heat into energy.
Compared to previous systems, the method is intended to increase the efficiency of electricity generation by around 85 percent. With an output of twice 15 megawatts, the project supplies energy from sources that have so far remained largely unused.
Chaotan One: The world’s first CO2 power generator
The engineers have built the system so compactly that it only takes up half the usual space. The system should only require half as much space for the same performance. This small space requirement allows companies to retrofit the technology even in narrow industrial areas.
Since the system requires fewer components and auxiliary systems, maintenance costs are also reduced. Until now, there have been technical hurdles to efficiently use heat in the medium and high temperature range at low power levels.
The Chaotan One is intended to solve this problem by making energy usable for industry. The technology could also be supplemented with solar systems.
In another test run, experts are already combining the system with liquid salt storage to stabilize the power grid if necessary. This combination of storage and highly efficient power generation is expected to be fully operational by 2028 in order to integrate renewable energy even more flexibly into the existing network.
Early recognition by international experts
What is now in commercial operation in China was already classified as a strategic future technology by the US Department of Energy in 2017 and MIT in 2018. The project marks a global transition from laboratory research to industrial application.
The development promotes new capacities in the energy industry and strengthens collaboration between research and practice. For global industry, this progress means that billions of kilowatt hours of waste heat no longer have to be blown unused into the atmosphere.
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