A case study of the feasibility of using solar concentrating technologies for manufacturing ceramics

Open volumetric air receiver: An innovative application and a major challenge

“…They proved that the use of solar energy is clean and efficient for the heat treatment at the industry level. One of the problems associated with the directly irradiated solar furnace is the non-homogeneous heat flux distribution, on a wide area, which results in thermal non-uniformity over a test sample (Plaza et al, 2015). On the other hand, heat treatment of metal requires homogeneity of flux, as far as possible, over the surface to meet the desired properties.…”

“…On the other hand, heat treatment of metal requires homogeneity of flux, as far as possible, over the surface to meet the desired properties. Pereira et al (2020) reported experiments in a solar furnace, SF60 of PSA Spain, and tried to achieve the homogeneous flux distribution using optical homogenizers. They compared the experimental and simulated data, and finally concluded that achieving uniform flux distribution, over an irradiated surface, is non-trivial.…”

Applications and Contributions of Physics to the Surface Treatment Process of Materials. Part II: Other Treatments

“…The first prototype has achieved 500 °C and the new equipment is expected to reach 1000 °C for similar receptors. With an equipment similar to these, a whole series of surface treatments and even other types of processes such as welding or sintering of metallic and ceramic materials have been carried out [16], [17]. It is a very attractive field in which a series of works are being developed, and in many of the cases with potential for application in the short and medium term in the industrial sectors, an example of these, are the NiAl coatings on carbon steel substrates obtained by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis, but assisted with concentrated solar energy to ignite the reaction [20].…”

Carbon mitigation potential of solar industrial process heating: paper industry in India

“…The most common boiler used in plants without cogeneration has a pressure rating of 3e5 bar and temperatures of approximately 300 C. Assuming that waste heat (2015) 1e9 5 generated during various paper manufacturing processes could be used for feed water heating, in the present study, only direct steam generation option using solar concentrators has been considered as against the possibility of using solar energy for feed water heating. Based on a preliminary assessment of commercially available solar concentrators that can supply heat at the required temperature the parabolic trough concentrator was selected (Fern andez et al, 2015;Kalogirou, 2004;Martinez et al, 2015) in this study. Performance equations of four such collectors as obtained from the website of Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (SRCC, 1980) of the USA have been presented in Table 5.…”