Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s largest shipbuilder and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), a leading utility firm in South Korea, announced today that they received an Approval in Principle (AIP) for a 2MW Supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) Power Generation System recovering waste heat of a diesel/gas engine from Lloyd’s Register. The two companies plan to commercialize the next generation S-CO2 system by 2019.

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S-CO2 is a fluid state of carbon dioxide where it is held above its critical pressure and critical temperature which causes the supercritical state to go beyond liquid or gas into a phase where it acts as both. The S-CO2 system runs generators by utilizing the CO2 as a working fluid for power generation. Since S-CO2 is denser than the working fluids in gas turbines and steam turbines, the S-CO2 turbine can be designed with roughly 1/3rd size of steam turbines for the same output with 30% increased energy efficiency.

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The S-CO2 system can use various energy sources including coal-fired power plants, renewable energy, nuclear energy as well as waste heat coming from onshore engine power plants and marine engines of large-sized ships.

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Joo Won-ho, the director of HHI’s Corporate Research Center, said, “With the development of the S-CO2 technology that boosts the energy efficiency of ships and on-land power plants, we are better positioned to secure a differentiated technology competitiveness in the field of eco-ships and engine power plants.”

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Kim Dong-sub, president of KEPCO Research Institute added, “We see S-CO2 technology has huge potential considering that it can be linked with the thermal and nuclear power generation system, and can reduce green-hose gas emission by improving power efficiency.”

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