The world’s first commercial supercritical carbon dioxide power generator has begun operation in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province. It is viewed as a milestone in changing the power generation mode relying on steam for more than a century. China calls the project “Chaotan-1.” CGTN’s Zheng Yibing speaks to experts from Nuclear Power Institute of China about it.
Why is this such a big deal? Because traditional power generation relies on steam driven turbines, even in nuclear reactors. The thermodynamic losses in the process are substantial and a major barrier to more efficient power generation. With superheated CO2 as the medium, the efficiency of the energy conversion can be greatly increased and losses reduced.
I agree, the terminology can be confusing.
If you get the chance, you can look up what a supercritical transition looks like, because it’s really cool. I still remember to this day my first semester in uni one of the coolest demonstrations was seeing a fluid go supercritical, and you can really see the border between the liquid and the gas start to blur and eventually just disappear completely.
Just watched the Steve Mould video; very enlightening.