Possibility of employing a small power tangential flow turbine prototype in a micro solar concentration plant

Abstract

This article describes a hypothetical use in a micro solar plant of a small power tangential flow turbine prototype, built and tested at the Department of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering (DIMEG) of the University of Calabria. The turbine prototype has the ability to recover efficiently energy from small sources, better than other turbines of the same size, in a wide set of operating conditions and power operations, having the possibility to regulate the flow rate without excessive losses. The micro solar powered central unit is conceived with Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTCs): the vapor pressure analysis extends from 5 to 25 bar, while the inlet turbine temperatures considered are included in the range from 180 to 283 °C. Steam pressure at the turbine discharge has been set to 1 bar, simplifying so the plant complexity and making possible CHP generation. The solar field has been dimensioned, for each of the cases examined, in relation to the rated operating temperature and steam flow rate supplying the turbine. Finally, the last 25 bar configuration has been analyzed in more detail by extrapolating the annual energy output and the average efficiency of the overall cycle, also considering the cogeneration contribution.

Small-Scale Compressed Air Energy Storage Application for Renewable Energy Integration in a Listed Building

“…Potential and performance evaluations of CAES have been mainly made by simulation tools or modelling processes in order to have energy and exergy results [9]. Indeed, the need of providing energy storage in system layouts for implementing the forthcoming smart energy systems concept [10][11][12] pushed researchers into trying different technological solutions at the prototype scale with a low technological readiness level [11], mainly from the pre-design of scenarios by means of comparative studies [13].…”