Lars Amsbeck

Face-Down Solid Particle Receiver Using Recirculation

Solar thermal energy generation needs receiver technologies which can drive highly efficient turbines and decouple the collection of energy from its use by an economic storage technology. High-temperature solid particle receivers for solar tower systems with particle storage are one option. Important issues regarding high-temperature particle receivers are minimization of convective losses, no particle loss due to susceptibility to wind and high efficiency also in part load operation. A design approach facing these challenges is the face-down receiver using recirculation of particles. A screening performance analysis studying different re-circulation patterns is presented. Using smart recirculation schemes, high receiver efficiencies can be main-tained also at part load operation (100%-load ~90%; 50%-load ~86%; 20%-load ~67%). In terms of total annual solar-to-electric efficiencies the face-down geometry yields excellent 24%, although implicating a surround heliostat field. From the analyses, it can be concluded that solid particle receivers using smart recirculation patterns are a viable receiver option for storage and high-temperature high-efficient turbine processes.

Prototype Testing of a Centrifugal Particle Receiver for High-Temperature Concentrating Solar Applications

A novel concept of a particle receiver for high-temperature solar applications was developed and evaluated in the present work. The so-called Centrifugal Particle Receiver (CentRec) uses small bauxite particles as absorber, heat transfer, and storage medium at the same time. Due to advantageous optical and thermal properties, the particles can be heated up to 1000 °C without sintering in the storage. High thermal efficiencies at high outlet temperatures are expected indicating a promising way for cost reduction in solar power tower applications. A 15kWth prototype was designed, built, and tested in order to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed concept. Extensive high flux experiments were conducted, investigating the thermal receiver performance and efficiency. For an input flux of 670 kW m², the target outlet temperature of 900 °C at a receiver efficiency of about 75% was successfully demonstrated.

CFD Simulation and Performance Analysis of Alternative Designs for High-Temperature Solid Particle Receivers

Direct-absorption solid particle receivers are theoretically capable of yielding temperatures in excess of 1000°C, which enables higher efficiency power cycles and lower thermal storage costs. This paper presents rigorous CFD simulations of alternative solid particle receiver designs with recirculation to help identify optimal configurations that maximize the receiver thermal efficiency. The alternative receiver designs considered are a north-facing cavity receiver and a face-down surround-field cavity receiver. The CFD simulations model incident solar radiation from a heliostat field as a boundary condition on the model domain. The CFD simulations also couple convective flow with the thermal and discrete-phase (particle) solutions, which in turn affects absorption of incident solar radiation and thermal re-radiation within the receiver. The receivers are optimized to yield comparable particle temperatures at the outlets of 750–850°C, heated from an injection temperature of 300°C, and are compared on the basis of thermal efficiency. The CFD simulations yielded thermal efficiencies of the north-facing receiver at 72.3% (losses were 6.5% radiative and 20.9% convective) and the face-down receiver at 78.9% (losses were 11.4% radiative and 9.6% convective) at solar noon on March 22. Ongoing efforts are focused on reducing convective and radiative losses from both receiver configurations.Copyright

Optical Performance and Weight Estimation of a Heliostat With Ganged Facets

In standard heliostat design the usual strategy of cost reduction is to increase the mirror area of the heliostats. This leads to a reduction of specific drive cost, but also to an increase of the torques caused by the wind loads, resulting in higher specific weight and higher specific drive power. The opposite strategy focuses on the reduction of the specific weight and driving power. Therefore the mirror area is decreased. In total the drive power is much lower then, but it has to be divided into more units which means a drawback for cost reduction. A combination of both strategies is to couple small heliostats so that they can be tracked by the same drive. At the Torque Tube Heliostat (TTH) the mirrors are mounted on torque tubes to simplify the coupling mechanism for the elevation angle. The optimal tracking speed of heliostats depends on the position in the field. In a heliostat with ganged facets all facets are tracked with the same speed. This leads to higher astigmatism losses compared to independently tracked mirrors. To reduce shading a certain space is foreseen between the facets of the TTH. To achieve a high mirror density and to avoid too long and therefore too flexible torque tubes this distance is limited. Thus the shading is higher than usually. Ray tracing calculations were done to obtain optimized heliostat configurations and to estimate the energy yield of a heliostat field built of 288 m² TTHs. The results are compared to a conventional heliostat field. To get an idea of the weight reduction potential of the TTH the dimensions of the torque tube, the secondary axis tube and the mirror support structure were weight optimized via FEM. The layout criterion was a mean mirror error of 5 mrad under a wind load and gravity, which was calculated from the deviations of the FE model.

Development of a Profiled Multilayer Tube for High Temperature Solar Receivers and Heat Exchangers

In solar tower plants absorber tubes are the main components of various solar receivers, e.g. steam receivers, salt receivers, pressurized air receivers. The solar radiation on the absorber tube causes an inhomogeneous temperature distribution because most of the solar radiation along the tube circumference is one-sided. The resulting internal stresses of the tube and the maximum fluid temperature decrease the lifetime significantly. Within the projects SOLHYCO and FUTUR a profiled multilayer tube (PML) is currently under development in order to reduce this problem. It consists of three metallic layers: a high temperature nickel-based alloy at the outer side, a copper layer as intermediate layer and another high temperature nickel-based alloy at the inner side of the tube. The outer layer provides the structural strength while the copper is used to conduct the heat from the irradiated side to the opposite side. The inner layer protects the copper from corrosion and oxidation at high temperatures. In addition, a wire coil is inserted (profiled) to increase the heat transfer on the inside. The PML is manufactured in a hydro-forming process by deforming the tube composite with water under high pressure. To demonstrate the performance and to determine the heat transfer, the pressure loss and the temperature distribution, a test loop was built to simulate the different loads under laboratory conditions. The thermo hydraulic measurements and finite element calculations show that the temperature gradient and the maximum temperature can be reduced significantly. Based on these studies the advantages of the PML in comparison to common tubes will be presented as well as several possibilities for future improvements.Copyright

Upscaling, Manufacturing and Test of a Centrifugal Particle Receiver

Previous successful tests and promising results of a Centrifugal Particle Receiver (CentRec) for high temperature solar applications has been achieved in a lab scale prototype with 7.5 kWth [1, 2, 3]. In a next step this receiver technology is scaled up to higher thermal power for a future pilot plant. This paper presents the optimization methodology of the design and technical solutions. It describes the manufacturing and assembly of the prototype and first tests and results of the commissioning including cold particle tests and prototype costs. Finally the paper gives an outlook on the planned further steps regarding hot lab tests and solar tests.

Particle tower technology applied to metallurgic plants and peak-time boosting of steam power plants

Using solar tower technology with ceramic particles as heat transfer and storage medium to preheat scrap for induction furnaces in foundries provides solar generated heat to save electricity. With such a system an unsubsidized payback time of only 4 years is achieved for a 70000t/a foundry in Brazil. The same system can be also used for heat treatment of metals. If electricity is used to heat inert atmospheres a favorable economic performance is also achievable for the particle system. The storage in a particle system enables solar boosting to be restricted to only peak times, enabling an interesting business case opportunity.

Cost Analysis of different Operation strategies for falling particle receivers

The potential for highly efficient and cost competitive solar energy collection at high temperatures drives the actual research and development activities for particle tower systems. One promising concept for particle receivers is the falling particle receiver. This paper is related to a particle receiver, in which falling ceramic particles form a particle curtain, which absorbs the concentrated solar radiation. Complex operation strategies will result in higher receiver costs, for both investment and operation. The objective of this paper is to assess the influence of the simultaneous variation of receiver costs and efficiency characteristics on levelized cost of heat (LCOH) and on levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).Applying cost assumptions for the particle receiver and the particle transport system, the LCOE are estimated and compared for each considered concept. The power level of the compared concepts is 125 MWel output at design point. The sensitivity of the results on the specific cost assumptions is analyzed. No detailed evaluation is done for the thermal storage, but comparable storage utilization and costs are assumed for all cases.Copyright