Design requirements, challenges, and solutions for high-temperature falling particle receivers

Falling particle receivers (FPR) utilize small particles as a heat collecting medium within a cavity receiver structure. Previous analysis for FPR systems include computational fluid dynamics (CFD), analytical evaluations, and experiments to determine the feasibility and achievability of this CSP technology. Sandia National Laboratories has fabricated and tested a 1 MWth FPR that consists of a cavity receiver, top hopper, bottom hopper, support structure, particle elevator, flux target, and instrumentation. Design requirements and inherent challenges were addressed to enable continuous operation of flowing particles under high-flux conditions and particle temperatures over 700 °C. Challenges include being able to withstand extremely high temperatures (up to 1200°C on the walls of the cavity), maintaining particle flow and conveyance, measuring temperatures and mass flow rates, filtering out debris, protecting components from direct flux spillage, and measuring irradiance in the cavity. Each of the major c...