Journal
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Volume 130, Issue -, Pages 786-795Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2018.06.109
Keywords
Solar thermal; Steam Rankine cycle; Thermodynamics optimization; Particle receiver
Funding
- European Commission (FP7) [282 932]
- European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [727762]
- Comunidad de Madrid [S2013/MAE-2985]
- EC through the project EU FP7 IRP STAGE-STE [609837]
- H2020 Societal Challenges Programme [727762] Funding Source: H2020 Societal Challenges Programme
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Concentrated solar power plants using molten salts as heat transfer and storage fluid have emerged as the preferred commercial solution for solar thermal electricity in central receiver technology. Despite their ability to store large amounts of thermal energy and efficient receiver designs, further efficiency improvements are constrained by tight temperature restrictions when using molten salts (290 degrees C - 565 degrees C). In this work, a novel heat transfer fluid based on a dense particle suspension (DPS) is used due to its excellent thermophysical properties that extend the operating temperature of solar receiver and allow its coupling with higher-efficiency power cycles. In this paper, the design of a DPS solar receiver working at 650 degrees C has been optimized for two commercial sizes (50 MWth and 290 MWth,) coupled to an optimized subcritical Rankine cycle. The results showed that a five-extraction reheated Rankine cycle operating at 610 degrees C and 180 bar maximizes power plant efficiency when coupled with a DPS central receiver, giving 41% power block efficiency and 23% sun-to-electricity efficiency. For optimization purposes at design point conditions, in-house code programmed into MATLAB platform was used while TRNSYS software was employed for annual plant performance analysis. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available