Supercritical carbon dioxide cycles for power generation: A review

Power cycles running on carbon dioxide at supercritical pressure and temperature were introduced in the late ninety-sixties but, after a warm welcome to the theoretical performance announced, they were later abandoned in favour of standard combustion gas turbines. Nevertheless, the technology was brought forward about a decade ago and has since captured significant attention from the scientific and industrial community. The number of publications has risen exponentially and there are several experimental projects under development today. The performances of these cycles have been deeply analysed in literature, proving to be theoretically competitive.