A 2-5 MW Supercritical CO2 micro tube recuperator: manufacturing, testing, and laser weld qualification

Mezzo and its partners will design, manufacture, and test a supercritical CO2 recuperator designed for high pressure of 275 bar and high temperature of 800 0C. The recuperator will incorporate a new manufacturing approach (laser welded micro tubes) that offers potential to reduce cost. It is well known that recuperator costs are currently very high for applications that involve high temperature and high pressure. By reducing those costs, the SCO2 industry becomes more viable. The project will focus on designing and manufacturing a modular unit that can scale to handle a range of loads in the 2-20 MW range. The design will incorporate features that naturally lead to lower cost. Parallel with the design process, testing of the critical laser welds at high temperature will be completed to reduce risk associated with the current, unknown behavior of micro laser-welded joints at high temperature. At the conclusion of this program, a high temperature-high pressure recuperator will have been manufactured, the technical risks associated with laser welding will have been quantified, and accurate costs for future commercial activities will be known. The expectation is that those costs will be lower than competing approaches.