BENGALURU: Union Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday inaugurated a supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle test loop facility, the first of its kind in India, at the Indian Insitute of Science. The facility is designed to generate data for future development of large-scale supercritical carbon dioxide power plants and research at the facility will be towards overcoming technological challenges like the development of turbines, compressors and other materials which can work at high pressure and temperature ranges.
This early stage research could potentially be useful to meet the future energy needs of the country, and reduce the carbon footprint of power generation significantly.The loop was developed by a group at the interdisciplinary centre for energy research at IISc as part of the Indo-US consortium called Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States. Funding for the facility has been provided by the Union government under the Indo-US Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre Programme. Supercritical carbon dioxide-based power generation offers an efficient alternative to conventional steam-based power plants, a statement from IISc said.