CSP cogeneration of electricity and desalinated water at the Pentakomo field facility

CSP+D: The case study at the PROTEAS facility

“…The PROTEAS facility utilizes a novel volumetric cavity receiver [17], the Integrated STOrage and Receiver (ISTORE) unit, introduced in [10]. As with any heated cavity, convective losses through the aperture are present [18,19,20], however, the receiver design allows for harnessing this energy [8,10], termed Q r,conv .…”

“…As with any heated cavity, convective losses through the aperture are present [18,19,20], however, the receiver design allows for harnessing this energy [8,10], termed Q r,conv . It is estimated that Q r,conv = 12-20 kW th (depending on the power delivered by the field) at a temperature of 200 °C, with air as the heat transfer fluid.…”

“…The PROTEAS Facility (Platform for Research Observation and Technological Applications of Solar Energy) was developed in Cyprus as a facility to test solar thermal applications [10]. One of its first experiments hosts a pilot /experimental setup for the co-generation of electricity and desalinated seawater from concentrated solar thermal power.…”

“…Specifically, the experimental plant consists of a heliostat central-receiver system for solar harvesting, thermal energy storage in molten salts ("solar salt", 60-40% b.w. of NaNO3-KNO3), followed by a Rankine cycle for electricity production and a Multiple-Effect Distillation (MED) unit for seawater desalination [10], as in Figure 1. These technologies were selected after an extensive technical and economic study lead by The Cyprus Institute, which concluded that they are the most suitable for the particular conditions of grid-isolated island communities in general and Cyprus in particular [8].…”

“…This facility, located adjacent to the coastline, provides a unique opportunity to test on a pilot-scale the CSP+D co-generation scheme. We report on the performance of the desalination unit within the CSP plant that is to take advantage of potential sources of low-grade waste heat that can be harvested and used in the desalination cycle [8,10], increasing the overall efficiency of the plant. …”