IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v129y2018ipap150-167.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thermohydraulic analysis of single phase heat transfer fluids in CSP solar receivers

Author

Listed:
  • Conroy, Tim
  • Collins, Maurice N.
  • Fisher, James
  • Grimes, Ronan

Abstract

Theoretical modelling techniques are used to compare the thermohydraulic performance and thermal storage characteristics of molten salt, liquid sodium, and lead-bismuth in a CSP solar receiver concept. For molten salt, the performance of a number of heat transfer augmentation techniques are also studied. Sodium and lead-bismuth both yield excellent receiver thermal efficiency (max ∼92%), when compared to molten salt (max ∼90%), due to high thermal conductivity values that lead to large heat transfer coefficients. A high pressure drop penalty for lead-bismuth largely offsets its thermal performance gain over molten salt, however sodium retains its advantage as a receiver working fluid with a low pumping parasitic. The implementation of heat transfer enhancement techniques can significantly improve the performance of a molten salt receiver when compared to smooth tube designs. The low specific heat capacity and high unit cost of lead-bismuth is prohibitive towards its use as a storage medium in storage-integrated plant designs, resulting in very high LCOE values. Sodium is the most economically feasible fluid for systems with low storage (<3 h), however the low per-unit cost and high specific heat capacity of molten salt means that this is the most effective working fluid in systems with larger storage requirements.

Suggested Citation

  • Conroy, Tim & Collins, Maurice N. & Fisher, James & Grimes, Ronan, 2018. "Thermohydraulic analysis of single phase heat transfer fluids in CSP solar receivers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(PA), pages 150-167.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:129:y:2018:i:pa:p:150-167
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2018.05.101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148118306268
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2018.05.101?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ho, Clifford K. & Iverson, Brian D., 2014. "Review of high-temperature central receiver designs for concentrating solar power," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 835-846.
    2. Kumar, A & Prasad, B.N, 2000. "Investigation of twisted tape inserted solar water heaters—heat transfer, friction factor and thermal performance results," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 379-398.
    3. Behar, Omar & Khellaf, Abdallah & Mohammedi, Kamal, 2013. "A review of studies on central receiver solar thermal power plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 12-39.
    4. Yang, Minlin & Yang, Xiaoxi & Yang, Xiaoping & Ding, Jing, 2010. "Heat transfer enhancement and performance of the molten salt receiver of a solar power tower," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(9), pages 2808-2811, September.
    5. Moore, J. & Grimes, R. & Walsh, E. & O'Donovan, A., 2014. "Modelling the thermodynamic performance of a concentrated solar power plant with a novel modular air-cooled condenser," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 378-391.
    6. Benoit, H. & Spreafico, L. & Gauthier, D. & Flamant, G., 2016. "Review of heat transfer fluids in tube-receivers used in concentrating solar thermal systems: Properties and heat transfer coefficients," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 298-315.
    7. Vignarooban, K. & Xu, Xinhai & Arvay, A. & Hsu, K. & Kannan, A.M., 2015. "Heat transfer fluids for concentrating solar power systems – A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 383-396.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Conroy, Tim & Collins, Maurice N. & Grimes, Ronan, 2019. "Sodium receiver designs for integration with high temperature power cycles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    2. Mostafavi Tehrani, S. Saeed & Shoraka, Yashar & Nithyanandam, Karthik & Taylor, Robert A., 2019. "Shell-and-tube or packed bed thermal energy storage systems integrated with a concentrated solar power: A techno-economic comparison of sensible and latent heat systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 887-910.
    3. Arias, I. & Cardemil, J. & Zarza, E. & Valenzuela, L. & Escobar, R., 2022. "Latest developments, assessments and research trends for next generation of concentrated solar power plants using liquid heat transfer fluids," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Conroy, Tim & Collins, Maurice N. & Grimes, Ronan, 2020. "A review of steady-state thermal and mechanical modelling on tubular solar receivers," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Conroy, Tim & Collins, Maurice N. & Grimes, Ronan, 2020. "A review of steady-state thermal and mechanical modelling on tubular solar receivers," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. Zheng, Zhang-Jing & Li, Ming-Jia & He, Ya-Ling, 2017. "Thermal analysis of solar central receiver tube with porous inserts and non-uniform heat flux," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 1152-1161.
    3. Hachicha, Ahmed Amine & Yousef, Bashria A.A. & Said, Zafar & Rodríguez, Ivette, 2019. "A review study on the modeling of high-temperature solar thermal collector systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 280-298.
    4. Mostafavi Tehrani, S. Saeed & Taylor, Robert A., 2016. "Off-design simulation and performance of molten salt cavity receivers in solar tower plants under realistic operational modes and control strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 698-715.
    5. Wang, Wujun & Fan, Liwu & Laumert, Björn, 2021. "A theoretical heat transfer analysis of different indirectly-irradiated receiver designs for high-temperature concentrating solar power applications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1983-1993.
    6. Islam, Md Tasbirul & Huda, Nazmul & Abdullah, A.B. & Saidur, R., 2018. "A comprehensive review of state-of-the-art concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies: Current status and research trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 987-1018.
    7. Xu, Xinhai & Vignarooban, K. & Xu, Ben & Hsu, K. & Kannan, A.M., 2016. "Prospects and problems of concentrating solar power technologies for power generation in the desert regions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1106-1131.
    8. Li Wang & Long Yang & Junjie Liu & Pei Wang, 2021. "Study on Spectral Radiative Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Windowed Receiver with Particle Curtain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, May.
    9. Widyolar, Bennett & Jiang, Lun & Ferry, Jonathan & Winston, Roland, 2018. "Experimental performance of a two-stage (50X) parabolic trough collector tested to 650 °C using a suspended particulate (alumina) HTF," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 228-243.
    10. Benoit, H. & Spreafico, L. & Gauthier, D. & Flamant, G., 2016. "Review of heat transfer fluids in tube-receivers used in concentrating solar thermal systems: Properties and heat transfer coefficients," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 298-315.
    11. Xu, Li & Stein, Wesley & Kim, Jin-Soo & Wang, Zhifeng, 2018. "Three-dimensional transient numerical model for the thermal performance of the solar receiver," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 550-566.
    12. Miguel Ángel Reyes-Belmonte, 2020. "A Bibliometric Study on Integrated Solar Combined Cycles (ISCC), Trends and Future Based on Data Analytics Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-29, October.
    13. Widyolar, Bennett & Jiang, Lun & Ferry, Jonathan & Winston, Roland & Cygan, David & Abbasi, Hamid, 2019. "Experimental performance of a two-stage (50×) parabolic trough collector tested to 650 °C using a suspended particulate heat transfer fluid," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C), pages 436-445.
    14. Barreto, Germilly & Canhoto, Paulo & Collares-Pereira, Manuel, 2018. "Three-dimensional modelling and analysis of solar radiation absorption in porous volumetric receivers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 602-614.
    15. Okoroigwe, Edmund & Madhlopa, Amos, 2016. "An integrated combined cycle system driven by a solar tower: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 337-350.
    16. Pitot de la Beaujardiere, Jean-Francois P. & Reuter, Hanno C.R., 2018. "A review of performance modelling studies associated with open volumetric receiver CSP plant technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3848-3862.
    17. Mostafavi Tehrani, S. Saeed & Shoraka, Yashar & Nithyanandam, Karthik & Taylor, Robert A., 2019. "Shell-and-tube or packed bed thermal energy storage systems integrated with a concentrated solar power: A techno-economic comparison of sensible and latent heat systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 887-910.
    18. Wang, Kun & He, Ya-Ling & Qiu, Yu & Zhang, Yuwen, 2016. "A novel integrated simulation approach couples MCRT and Gebhart methods to simulate solar radiation transfer in a solar power tower system with a cavity receiver," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 93-107.
    19. Benkaciali, Saïd & Haddadi, Mourad & Khellaf, Abdellah, 2018. "Evaluation of direct solar irradiance from 18 broadband parametric models: Case of Algeria," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 694-711.
    20. Peiró, Gerard & Prieto, Cristina & Gasia, Jaume & Jové, Aleix & Miró, Laia & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2018. "Two-tank molten salts thermal energy storage system for solar power plants at pilot plant scale: Lessons learnt and recommendations for its design, start-up and operation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 236-248.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:129:y:2018:i:pa:p:150-167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.