System Design of a 1 MW North-facing, Solid Particle Receiver

Abstract

Falling solid particle receivers (SPR) utilize small particles as a heat collecting medium within a cavity receiver structure. The components required to operate an SPR include the receiver (to heat the particles), bottom hopper (to catch the falling particles), particle lift elevator (to lift particles back to the top of the receiver), top hopper (to store particles before being dropped through the receiver), and ducting. In addition to the required components, there are additional features needed for an experimental system. These features include: a support structure to house all components, calibration panel to measure incident radiation, cooling loops, and sensors (flux gages, thermocouples, pressure gages). Each of these components had to be designed to withstand temperatures ranging from ambient to 700°C. Thermal stresses from thermal expansion become a key factor in these types of high temperature systems. The SPR will be housing ~3000 kg of solid particles. The final system will be tested at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility in Albuquerque, NM.

Recent Advancements in High-Temperature Solar Particle Receivers for Industrial Decarbonization

“…Therefore, the transient performances of the high-temperature particle-laden receivers ceiver technologies available in the literature. Figure 12 summarizes the advantages and challenges associated with some of the most widely investigated particle-laden receive configurations, including the free-falling particle receiver [18,20,22,[76][77][78][79]87,88,[117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131] centrifugal receiver [23][24][25][26]132,133], solar vortex receiver [67,102,105,106], solar expand ing-vortex receiver [29,115,116,134,135], Λ-plate meshed receiver [50,95,96,136,137], po rous structured receiver [97,…”

“…This is why hourly or minutely performance evalua tion is recommended to ensure a reasonably good estimation of system performance Therefore, the transient performances of the high-temperature particle-laden receiver A summary of recent studies of high-temperature particle-laden receivers is presented in Table 6, whereas Figure 11 summarizes the configurations of particle-laden receiver technologies available in the literature. Figure 12 summarizes the advantages and challenges associated with some of the most widely investigated particle-laden receiver configurations, including the free-falling particle receiver [18,20,22,[76][77][78][79]87,88,[117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131], centrifugal receiver [23][24][25][26]132,133], solar vortex receiver [67,102,105,106], solar expandingvortex receiver [29,115,116,134,135], Λ-plate meshed receiver [50,…”

“…In particular, hightemperature particle receivers are being developed to achieve temperatures in the order of 1000 • C for advanced power cycles and solar thermochemical processes [17]. The use of particles as primary HTFs or in suspension within an air stream to enhance the heat transfer to the gas phase has the potential to achieve temperatures of around 1000 • C and improve the performance of the solar receiver systems, lowering the cost of energy [18]. Also, the wide range of operating temperatures makes these receivers an enabling technology for scalability [18,19].…”

“…The use of particles as primary HTFs or in suspension within an air stream to enhance the heat transfer to the gas phase has the potential to achieve temperatures of around 1000 • C and improve the performance of the solar receiver systems, lowering the cost of energy [18]. Also, the wide range of operating temperatures makes these receivers an enabling technology for scalability [18,19]. There are different promising concepts of particle-laden receivers, including falling particle receivers devised by the Sandia Laboratory [20][21][22], a centrifugal receiver devised by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) [23][24][25][26], and tubular fluidized beds devised by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) [27].…”

Concept of a utility scale dispatch able solar thermal electricity plant with an indirect particle receiver in a single tower layout

“…Promising DAR concepts have been developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) [2,3] and Sandia National Laboratories [4,5]. DARs are cavity receivers which can be realized in a compact design due to the excellent heat transfer mechanism of direct irradiation.…”