Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Novel Gravity-fed Solid Particle Solar Receiver☆

An energy and exergy analysis of a novel solid particle solar receiver is presented based on experimental data and well-known correlations found in the literature. A sand sample from the deserts of the United Arab Emirates has been chosen as the solar absorber and heat carrier material. The intent of the receiver is to be used as a part of a sensible thermal energy storage system for concentrated solar power plants based upon the concept of storing solar heat in sand particles for a later discharge through a specific sand-steam heat exchanger. The results of the analysis indicate low efficiency figures that can be caused by imperfections on the experimental setup and on the original design. Several paths of improvement are discussed in conclusion.

[1]  Fletcher Miller,et al.  Lab-scale Experimentation and CFD Modeling of a Small Particle Heat Exchange Receiver☆ , 2014 .

[2]  J. Lienhard.  A heat transfer textbook , 1981 .

[3]  Abraham Kribus,et al.  Experimental evaluation of a non-isothermal high temperature solar particle receiver , 2004 .

[4]  Bernhard Hoffschmidt,et al.  Air-Sand Heat Exchanger for High-Temperature Storage , 2011 .

[5]  Arif Hepbasli,et al.  A key review on exergetic analysis and assessment of renewable energy resources for a sustainable future , 2008 .

[6]  R. Petela.  Exergy of Heat Radiation , 1964 .

[7]  Solomon I. Woods,et al.  Cryogenic Emissivity Calibration of Highly Reflective Materials , 2013 .

[8]  A. Bejan,et al.  Second Law Analysis and Synthesis of Solar Collector Systems , 1981 .

[9]  Nathan P. Siegel,et al.  Design and On-Sun Testing of a Solid Particle Receiver Prototype , 2008 .

[10]  Hadrien Benoit,et al.  Dense suspension of solid particles as a new heat transfer fluid for concentrated solar thermal plants: on-sun proof of concept , 2013 .

[11]  Nicolas Calvet,et al.  Gravity-fed combined solar receiver/storage system using sand particles as heat collector, heat transfer and thermal energy storage media , 2015 .

[12]  Alain Ferriere,et al.  Solar Processing of Materials: Opportunities and New Frontiers , 1999 .

[13]  J. Vitko,et al.  ASCUAS: a solar central receiver utilizing a solid thermal carrier , 1982 .

[14]  Vincent Lemort,et al.  Pure and Pseudo-pure Fluid Thermophysical Property Evaluation and the Open-Source Thermophysical Property Library CoolProp , 2014, Industrial & engineering chemistry research.

[15]  Nathan P. Siegel,et al.  Wind effect on the performance of solid particle solar receivers with and without the protection of an aerowindow , 2009 .

[16]  Luisa F. Cabeza,et al.  State of the art on high-temperature thermal energy storage for power generation. Part 2--Case studies , 2010 .