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manuel.nascimento@gmail.com
I. INTRODUCTION
A. CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER (CSP)
Concentrated solar power pertains to the use of solar
collectors to concentrate direct solar irradiation and thus
supply solar thermal energy for different media. This thermal
energy can have various applications in industry, but perhaps
one of the most important is the electricity generation. CSP
has increasingly proven to provide a high contribution in the
electricity generation markets all over the world. The basic
principle for using CSP on electricity generation is to use the
media which received solar thermal energy to power an
electricity generating engine. Four main concepts/designs
exist presently: parabolic trough, solar tower (or central
receiver), parabolic dish and linear Fresnel reflector. These
can be seen in fig. 2. Parabolic troughs and linear Fresnel CSP
plants have 1-axis solar tracking, while central receivers and
Table 5
the
Andasol-1
(http://www.nrel.gov/csp/solarpaces/project_detail.cfm/projec
tID=3), a 50 MW plant, featuring 1,010 MWh (7.5h) of
storage via 28,500 tons (14,000 m3) of solar salt. Comparing
Andasol-1 and Gemasolar, notice that even though Andasol-1
has much higher TES content, Gemasolar, due to higher hot
temperature achievable and greater temperature difference is
able to achieve much longer storage periods: 15h vs 7.5h,
which is highly desirable.
b) Single tank design
One other liquid active indirect storage system is the single
tank system, in which the hot and cold fluids (nitrate mixtures
molten salts) are stored in a single tank. In the tank, the hot
and cold fluids are separated due to stratification, hot on top,
cold on the bottom, and the area between both fluids is called
the thermocline. To help the thermocline effect, a filler
material can be used. At Sandia National Laboratories, silica
sands and quartzite rock were demonstrated to withstand the
molten salt environment with no significant deterioration [11].
The advantage of this approach is the potential cost reduction
because only one tank is used. According the mentioned work,
this thermocline system would be about 35% cheaper than the
two-tank storage system. However, maintaining the thermal
stratification requires a more complex charging and
discharging procedures and adequate methods to avoid mixing
of the hot and cold portions of the storage media. Furthermore,
research on the applicability of this concept to tower CSP
facilities is still unavailable.
Fig. 8: PS10, a typical DSG solar tower plant with steam storage
c) Steam accumulator
As mentioned before, water is a reference media for energy
storage, due to its high specific heat capacity per mass of all
solids and liquids. It also has a low cost and high
compatibility. For temperatures above 100C (which is the
case for Rankine Cycle Steam Turbines commonly used in
central receiver CSP) water must be kept under pressure in
order to be used in the liquid form as storage media. Steam
accumulators are dynamic 2-phase systems that have been
used for many years in fossil fuel fired power plants and, as
such, benefit from much experience. Also, steam
accumulators are common in process industry for
temperatures between 100C and 200C. As can be seen in fig
9 [8], they consist basically of a pressurized vessel partially
cycles (more than 300) between 300C and 400C and about
50 cycles with a temperature difference of 40K, and have
found that during that time the performance of the storage was
absolutely constant. It is important to note that, for all
industrial sectors, roughly 30% of process heat requirement is
between 100C and 400C, which fits very well for this
concrete systems. To implement this on a 50 MW Andasoltype trough plant, with storage capacity of about 1100 MWh,
252 basic storage modules are needed, arranged in 4 groups of
63 in series and parallel packed together. The total area would
be about 300m x 100m. The investment cost would be in the
range of 34.5 /kWhth. Further studies have been carried out in
order to obtain higher working temperature and reduce costs.
To obtain higher working temperatures, different mixtures of
concrete were investigated. In [14] special type of concrete
mixture was tested, N4-concrete, mainly based on blast
furnace cement as a binder system, temperature resistant
gravel and sand (functioning as aggregates) and a small
amount of polyethylene fibers. Special attention was given to
the initial heating up of the concrete, with regards to mass
losses. These are essentially due to loss of free, evaporable
water, dehydration of the hardened cement paste, and mass
losses of the aggregates. Also, it is necessary to check if
strength values (mainly stress) are within acceptable ranges.
Overall, results show that, up to 500C, mass losses and
strength values for the concrete stabilize after a period of time
and a number of thermal cycles, with no degradation, which
indicates that the use of concrete as a storage medium up to
500C seems possible. Thermal conductivity between the HTF
and the solid media can be further enhanced by using
extended heat transfer areas with fins or similar devices.
However, since the amount of piping is so extensive, fins and
other structures are not cost effective [8].
b) Indirect designs packed bed
Instead of using piping to provide contact between the HTF
and the solid storage material, some HTFs and solid materials
allow for direct contact between them. In this case, the
particles of the storage material are packed together in a
container and the HTF flows through the particles inside the
container. This direct contact allows for much higher volume
specific heat transfer areas, however, the liquid HTF and solid
the heat transfer between the particles and some working fluid
is a complex procedure [18].
C. LATENT HEAT STORAGE (LHS) SYSTEMS
Latent heat storage systems use the enthalpy change of a
substance that undergoes a phase change to store energy.
Usually, the solid to liquid transition is used, and thus the heat
of fusion of the used substance is the relevant quantity. The
main advantage of this concept is that the change of phase is a
nearly isothermal process, which allows for energy transfer
within a narrow range of temperatures, close to the phase
change temperature. This can be important for maintaining the
HTF or the inlet temperature to the power block at a
controlled temperature. Furthermore, because the heat of
Table 6: Jlich CSP central storage system specifications
fusion is very high, large amounts of energy can be store with
media must be compatible with each other, with no reaction or relatively low volumes when compared to other types of
corrosion, and work at the same pressure.
energy storage. This results in some of the smaller volumes
This packed bed concept can also be used with flue gases and lowest storage media costs of any storage concepts. The
(exhaust gases, rich in Nitrogen, sometimes up to two thirds, major design concern when employing this storage system is
and CO2; often from power plants) or air as heat transfer the choice of operating temperature, and thus of material used,
fluids. There is already usage of these gases in existing which is commonly called phase change material (PCM).
industrial processes, such as in the steel industry (hot blast All LHS systems are indirect, requiring HTF, and so the
stoves or Cowper stoves), glass industry and industrial air chosen PCM must be compatible with the chosen HTF. Also,
purification systems. Zunft et al. [15] have tested this potential materials must involve a phase change that is both
possibility for CSP in the Jlich Solar Power Tower (figure 10) physically and chemically reversible, that is, the melting
[15]. This tower plant uses air at atmospheric pressure, temperature and melting enthalpy should not change over
heating up the air up to about 700C. The storage system is many phase change cycles. There have been studies over a
composed of ceramic material, cycled between 120C and wide range of materials, over a temperature range up to about
680C (table 6). In particular, it was shown that the facility 1000C, in a number of categories, such as inorganic (salts)
operated satisfactorily through thermal cycling of the storage, substances, inorganic euctetic salt mixtures, organic
with almost constant temperature of the storage outlet during substances and metals and metal alloys. The variety of
discharge, followed by a sharp decrease near depletion. This is substance is very extensive, and [19] presents an exhaustive
compatible with an effective turbine operation. Further review and extensive tables with materials that have been
investigation needs to be developed in order to increase the tested. It is important to notice that most of the pure inorganic
storage duration, which was of about 1.5h.
salts and euctetic salt mixtures are commonly seen in nitrates
Furnas [16] studied the heat transfer from air to a bed of (NaNO3 is the most investigate medium), carbonates and
iron ore pellets at up to 750 C, concluding that the coefficient chlorides, which have low costs. Table 7 [2] presents a brief
of heat transfer varies linearly with the air flow rate. Nsofor listing of some potential latent heat storage materials.
and Adebiyi [17] performed experimental studies and
Usually, the thermal conductivity of these materials (except
modelling on a packed bed of zirconium oxide pellets, with
flue gas as the charging fluid and ambient air as the
discharging fluid. Temperatures up to 1000C were achieved.
Tower CSP plants alone could provide these kind of
temperatures.
c) Direct designs solid particles
One final design which is in its early stages of conception is
through the direct absorption by solid particles of concentrated
solar radiation in the receiver. It is considered to be a potential
system for chemical applications requiring high temperatures,
and could potentially be used for electricity generation in CSP.
Several issues have to be addressed before test-scale and
commercial-scale
CSP
is
possible.
Firstly,
the
handling/pumping of the material from the ground level to the
top of the tower where the receiver is placed will require
piping that will be subjected to significant mechanical loads
and at high pressures, presenting technical challenges. Also,
Table 7: Potential latent heat storage materials
10
1. Metal Oxide/Metal
Foster et al. [22] studied these materials for CHS
systems and deemed them technically feasible. The
governing reactions are:
Fig. 13: Proposed configuration for a CHS system with CSP for
the SnO2 dissociation reaction
11
III.
IV.
12
16h). On the other hand, DSG plants minimize their LEC for
higher gross turbine power (67-122 MWe) and low values of
TES (2-5h). This provides insight in design choices and
operation strategies when considering these CSP plants. Also,
and in particular, it shows the potential and desirability for
using CSP plants with TES as base-load or at least
intermediate-load, rather than peak-load, further contributing
to power grid interconnection.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank Professor Lus Filipe Mendes at IST
and Eng Joo Farinha Mendes and Eng Joo Cardoso at
LNEG for giving me this opportunity to do my masters thesis
on CSP with LNEG. I would also like in particular to thank
them for their patience and understanding.
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