As part of the Horizon 2020 DESOLINATION project, a new study titled “Experimental and numerical study of supercritical CO₂ cooler” was presented at the 6th European Conference on Supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) for Energy Systems, held from 9–11 April 2025 in Delft, Netherlands.
The research, led by LUT University in collaboration with TEMISTH, received the Best Paper Award at the conference in recognition of its scientific quality and relevance.
Investigating PCHE Performance in Supercritical CO₂ Power Cycles
The study focuses on the thermo-hydraulic performance of a printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) operating with supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) — a working fluid at the core of DESOLINATION’s innovative power block. PCHEs are a compact and high-efficiency solution suitable for the extreme conditions of sCO₂-based energy systems, such as those integrated into concentrated solar power (CSP) and desalination technologies.
Using a combination of experimental testing and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), the team evaluated the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of sCO₂ flowing through PCHE microchannels. The study targeted the pseudo-critical region, where CO₂ exhibits rapid property variations that enhance heat transfer but complicate predictive modelling.
Supporting DESOLINATION’s Objectives
This work directly contributes to DESOLINATION’s goal of developing an efficient, solar-powered desalination system by improving the performance prediction and design of key components in the sCO₂ power cycle. In particular, it provides validated tools and insights essential for integrating high-efficiency heat exchangers into the project’s future demonstration plant.
Authors: Giuseppe Petruccelli, Teemu Turunen-Saaresti, Damien Serret, Aki Grönman, Aurélien Conrozier, and Amir Momeni Dolatabadi.
Key Results
- Experimental data were gathered under a wide range of operating conditions at LUT University’s transcritical CO₂ test facility, providing a valuable benchmark for validation of numerical models.
- The CFD simulations, incorporating real-gas behaviour and the SST k-ω turbulence model, showed good agreement with the measured pressure drops and outlet temperatures.
- A new friction factor correlation was derived from the experimental results. It accounts for surface roughness and achieved a prediction accuracy within ±10% of the measured values — an important advancement over existing correlations.
- The study also revealed that commonly used heat transfer correlations tend to underestimate performance in high-Reynolds number, sCO₂ microchannel flows, underlining the need for more tailored predictive models.
Conference Recognition
The 6th European sCO₂ Conference brought together over 100 experts from academia and industry to discuss the latest innovations in sCO₂ technology. In addition to the technical sessions, DESOLINATION was also highlighted during the Friday morning keynote by Dr. Gioele Di Marcoberardino (UNIBS), which presented the project’s overall goals and progress to date.
🏆 The paper received the Best Paper Award at the conference, recognising the quality and relevance of the research to the international sCO₂ research and engineering community. This recognition highlights DESOLINATION’s contribution to advancing component-level understanding crucial for the development of integrated solar-powered desalination systems.
🔬 The DESOLINATION consortium congratulates the authors — Giuseppe Petruccelli, Teemu Turunen-Saaresti, Damien Serret, Aki Grönman, Aurélien Conrozier, and Amir Momeni Dolatabadi — on this well-deserved recognition, and for their valuable contribution to the future of sustainable energy and water systems.
