sCO2 test facility at TU Wien: design, operation and results

Abstract

At TU Wien, a test facility working with supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) was commissioned in 2018. Since then, it hasbeen used for various research tasks. This paper gives anoverview about the three configurations of the facility with afocus on design, operation, and results. The authors present the design of components in the three configurations of the test facility: proof of concept of the simple cycle in supercritical and transcritical operation mode, heat transfer measurements, and future work. Special emphasis is given to challenges during engineering and operation. Our most relevant lessons learned are: that a commercial CO2 pump is not sufficient for cycle experiments, how to design a measurement section for heat transfer measurements, and that during experimental research, measurement-concepts and data reduction must be prioritized at all times.