Development and Test of Active Magnetic Bearings for Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Turbomachinery

Active magnetic bearings (AMB) provide a potential enabling technology for high-speed super critical carbon dioxide (sCO2) electric turbomachinery. AMB technology is commercially mature and many sub-components have been shown to be feasible in high (>500 C) temperature environments. However, material compatibility remains a major area of development for the technology to be commercially viable. Permanent magnets and several peripheral materials (bonding agents, electrical insulation material, etc) still require further testing to establish their feasibility in an sCO2 environment. Evaluating methods for cooling AMBs at high pressures also requires some further development and testing. A scale turbine-alternator-compressor supported on supported by AMB is tested in an sCO2 environment test flow loop to characterize thermal performance of the AMBs, cool methods, and rotordynamics from the sCO2 environment.