Performance and cost potential for direct-fired supercritical CO2 natural gas power plants

Direct-fired supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycles are being explored as an attractive alternative to natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS). Therefore, understanding their performance and cost potential is important for the commercialization of the technology. This study presents detailed techno-economic optimization results of natural gas-fired, utility-scale power plants based on the direct sCO2 power cycle, which is lacking in public literature. The study considered multiple plant configurations with varying levels of thermal integration with the plant air separation unit (ASU) to shows the systematic impact of thermal integration on plant performance and economics. Several design variables for each power cycle configuration were identified and optimized to minimize the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The optimized direct sCO2 power plants achieved ∼48 % plant efficiency (HHV basis) which is similar or slightly higher plant efficiencies than state-of-the-art NGCC plants based on the F-class gas turbine with carbon capture and storage (CCS). The LCOE of the optimized direct sCO2 plants is 13–17 % higher than the reference NGCC plants with CCS due to high capital costs associated with the ASU and sCO2 power block, though there is significant room for improvement due to high uncertainty in component capital costs for these new plants. Based on the results, direct sCO2 power cycles have the potential to achieve >50 % efficiency (HHV basis) with >98 % CO2 capture rate which can lead to significant efficiency improvement and CO2 emissions reductions compared to NGCC plants with CCS.