Technology Outline (Process Description)

IISc has been a pioneer in India in research on supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power generation and transcritical (tCO2) carbon dioxide cooling. It has indigenously developed a state-of-the-art Brayton cycle power loop to demonstrate the sCO2 power generation technology. sCO2 technology being agnostic to heat source can be tailored to a variety of heat sources such as solar, small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), geothermal, industrial waste heat, and biomass-gasification. The technology being completely waterless has the potential to be carbon neutral when paired with a renewable heat source. sCO2 power blocks can be completely indigenized without need for any dependence on import material or parts. The sCO2 laboratory at IISc closely collaborates with Indian industries to ensure that the technology once proven can be quickly commercialized. The laboratory has successfully developed and commissioned India’s first tCO2 cooling system for the Indian Navy.

The sCO2 test loop was developed with funding from IISc and DST under the Indo-US Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre (JCERDC) programme.