Advanced Studies on Supercritical Fluids in Innovative Technologies Applications

众所周知，发电是任何其他工业、农业和生活水平进步的关键因素。电力生产的主要来源是：1）热能-一次煤炭和二次-天然气; 2）核能和3）水力。现代联合循环发电厂的总热效率已达到62%左右，这是电力行业的最高水平。然而，现代燃煤电厂的总热效率约为43-53%，而现代水冷核电站（NPP）的总热效率仅为30- 36%。因此，提高燃煤电厂和核电站的热效率是非常重要的。这一增长是可能的，因为：1）燃煤电厂中的超超临界压力和温度，以及2）超临界蒸汽朗肯循环和超临界二氧化碳布雷顿燃气轮机循环作为下一代或第四代核电厂的动力循环。在这种情况下，参与开发超超临界燃煤电厂和其他第四代核电厂是加拿大研究人员的一项非常重要的任务。对第四代核电站的分析表明，一般来说，它们都可以通过换热器连接到超临界蒸汽朗肯循环或超临界二氧化碳布雷顿燃气轮机循环。此外，第四代核电厂可以通过热化学循环共同产生氢气。 然而，这些氢联产厂应通过中间热交换器安全地连接到核电厂。 此外，超临界二氧化碳和制冷剂可用作其他应用中的工作流体（空调，地热发电厂等）。或者在各种热传递实验中作为模拟流体代替水。所有这些活动都需要超临界流体特性和传热的扎实知识，这是拟议研究的目标。

It is well known that the electrical-power generation is the key factor for advances in any other industries, agriculture and level of living. Main sources for electricity production are: 1) thermal - primary coal and secondary - natural gas; 2) nuclear and 3) hydro. Modern combined-cycle power plants have reached gross thermal efficiencies about 62%, which is the highest level in the power industry. However, modern coal-fired power plants have gross thermal efficiencies about 43-53% and modern water-cooled Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) - only about 30-36%. Therefore, it is very important to increase thermal efficiencies of coal-fired and NPPs. This increase is possible due to application of: 1) Ultra-supercritical pressures and temperatures in coal-fired power plants, and 2) Supercritical steam Rankine cycle and supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton gas-turbine cycle as power cycles in the next generation or Generation IV NPPs. In this case, participating in development of ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plants and other Generation IV NPPs is a very important task for Canadian researchers. Analysis of Generation IV NPPs showed that in general, all of them can be connected to supercritical steam Rankine cycle or supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton gas-turbine cycle through heat exchangers. In addition, Generation IV NPPs can co-generate hydrogen through thermochemical cycles. However, these hydrogen co-generating plants should be safely connected to NPPs through intermediate heat exchangers. Also, supercritical carbon dioxide and refrigerants can be used as working fluids in other applications (airconditioning, geothermal plants, etc.) or as modeling fluids instead of water in various heat-transfer experiments. All these activities require solid knowledge of supercritical fluids specifics and heat transfer, which is the objective of the proposed research.