China’s New Invention Just Ended The Steam Age – Supercritical CO2 Turbine
For over 140 years, almost every power plant on Earth has run on the same basic idea: boil water, make steam, spin a turbine.
It is the engine behind the industrial revolution, behind the modern power grid, and behind almost every light switch you have ever flipped. And for all that time, engineers have known that this system wastes more than half the energy it takes in.
The best steam turbines ever built still throw away roughly 65% of their fuel as heat into the air. We accepted it because there was nothing better. Until now. In December 2024, China switched on a machine that does what steam never could.
watch the video below:
It runs on CO2, the same gas you breathe out, pushed into a strange state where it behaves like both a liquid and a gas at the same time. The result is a power generator that produces 50% more electricity from the same heat source, fits into half the space, and could eventually change how every power plant on Earth is built. This is not a lab experiment.
It is running right now, connected to a real steel factory, feeding power into a real grid. This video breaks down exactly how it works, why it took 60 years to build, and what it means for the future of energy.
What’s Covered in the video:
The Engine That Runs the World – Why steam power has dominated for 140 years and why it wastes most of the energy it takes in.
The Strange State of Matter Nobody Talks About – What a supercritical fluid actually is and why CO2 is the perfect choice for this technology
Why Nobody Has Done This Before – The 3 brutal engineering problems that kept this technology stuck in labs for over 60 years
What China Actually Built – A full breakdown of Chaotan One, the numbers behind it, and what makes it genuinely historic
The Bigger Picture – Why the deployment location tells us exactly where this technology actually stands right now
What Comes Next – How this first proof point could accelerate the biggest shift in energy technology since the industrial revolution If you found this useful, hit the like button and subscribe so you do not miss the next one.
Question for the comments: If supercritical CO2 turbines become the new global standard, which industry do you think benefits the most? Nuclear, steel, shipping, or something else entirely? Drop your answer below.
source www.youtube.com
Joseph Olson
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To produce constant Hertz Alternating Current, you need constant RPM source, steam and hydroelectric turbines can be controlled for reliable AC generation. Water steam has a Super Heated steam, above 2200°F has a 15% increase in thermal efficiency. This is available with nuclear generators or with pulverized ‘clean coal’ boilers. The West has surrendered our technologies to green ideology.
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D. Boss
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Bah, this is AI generated gibberish. Modern CCGT power plants using natural gas already achieve 60% efficiency without extraordinary materials and systems. And they do it via the same mechanism as this boondoggle super critical CO2 garbage, by recycling the waste heat to generate more power.
I posit the reason no one has done the supercritical CO2 thing in almost a century, is the cost/benefit relationship simply does not work. And in the last several decades with the advent of CCGT systems, the supercritical avenue is even less attractive. There is no need to re invent the wheel with one that only gets as good an efficiency as proven wheels now.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Editor.
I read 2 comments but I only find 1.
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