COMPASsCO₂  (Components’ and Materials’ Performance for Advanced Solar Supercritical CO2 Powerplants) aims at integrating CSP particle systems into highly efficient s-CO₂ Brayton power cycles for electricity production. The key component for such an integration, i.e. the particle/s-CO₂ heat exchanger, will be validated in a relevant environment. The consortium will produce tailored particle and alloy combinations that meet the extreme operating conditions in terms of temperature, pressure, abrasion and hot oxidation/carburization of the heat exchanger tubes and the particles moving around/across them. The proposed innovative CSP s-CO₂ Brayton cycle plants will be flexible, highly efficient, economic and 100% carbon neutral large-scale electricity producers.

The research focus of COMPASsCO₂ is on three main technological improvements:

• Development of new particles: In order for particles to meet high temperatures (over 700°C) new ceramic particles with improved performance will be developed and tested in several volume quantities.
• Development of new metal alloys: The project will provide answers about how the processing and combination with substrate steels will affect the microstructure, phase composition and also chemical stability of the newly developed materials. The developed materials (monolithic and/or coatings) will be investigated in regard to their behavior and performance at high temperatures. Modelling the degradation progress with time to estimate the lifetime of the new materials and coatings under different conditions will be analyzed.
• Development of the heat exchanger section: To validate the interaction between the developed particles and the new structural materials in a relevant environment, the project includes the design, construction and testing of a heat exchanger section. Parameters relevant for the lifetime, like attrition rates, and performance parameters, like heat transfer, on the tube and first operating experiences are generated in a relevant heat exchanger environment

https://www.compassco2.eu/