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Concentrating Solar Power Gen3 Demonstration Roadmap

This paper reviews development in the field of solar thermochemical processing by considering experimental demonstrations, reactor technology development, thermodynamic, economic and life cycle analyses. The review then builds on these aspects and compares various solar thermochemical processes. Solar upgrading of carbon feed has been demonstrated on pilot scale. It is observed that for the thermochemical cycles, only iron and ceria based redox pair have been demonstrated on pilot scale. For industrial applications, solar thermochemical production of zinc, upgrading of landfill gas and organic waste have been demonstrated on pilot scale. However, long term performance data of these pilot plants is not reported in literature. Thermodynamic comparison reveals that the processes involving upgrading of carbon feed have energy and exergy efficiency at 50–90% and 46–48% respectively. Multistep thermochemical cycles operating at 900–1200 K have energy efficiency of 34–38%. Metal oxide redox pair based thermochemical cycles operating at 1900–2300 K have energy and exergy efficiencies of 12–32% and 20–36% respectively. Methane reforming and lime production processes have chemical efficiencies of 55% and 35% respectively and have demonstrated better performance than other solar thermochemical processes. A few processes like solar gasification of solid carbon feed have demonstrated lower chemical efficiency of around 10% even at pilot scale. The hydrogen production cost for solar upgrading of fossil fuels is estimated at 3.21–6.10$/kg and is lower than thermochemical cycles at 7.17–19.26$/kg and CSP driven electrolysis at 3.15–10.23$/kg. It is observed that there is limited actual data and significant uncertainty in cost. Under these circumstances, it is recommended that initial screening of processes be done by net energy, material and life cycle analysis.

A review of solar thermochemical processes

A review of high-temperature particle receivers for concentrating solar power

Advances in central receivers for concentrating solar applications

The aim of this paper is to carry out a review of radiative heat transfer in dispersed media. Firstly, the solution of the governing equations for radiative transfer in such media as well as the theoretical basis for the modelling of their radiative properties are briefly recalled and discussed. Thereafter, emphasis is placed on practical applications dealing with several types of particulate media which play an important role in a number of industrial processes. Radiative property predictive models as well as studies dealing with property experimental determination are examined and discussed.

Thermal radiation properties of dispersed media: theoretical prediction and experimental characterization

This paper reports that a solar receiver-reactor has been designed to conduct solid-gas chemical reactions, using concentrated solar radiation as the energy source of high-temperature process heat. It consists of a conical cyclone gas-particle separator that has been modified to let concentrated solar energy enter the cavity through a windowless (atmospheric-open) aperture. It combines the advantages of cavity receivers and volumetric reactors, and permits continuous mode of operation. A small-scale prototype reactor to conduct the thermal decomposition of calcium carbonate at 1300 K was experimentally investigated in a solar furnace. Its thermal performance was evaluated. The mean energy absorption efficiency, based on the optically measured power incident on the receiver aperture, was 43 percent. Reaction products showed high degree of calcination.

Experimental investigation of an atmospheric-open cyclone solar reactor for solid-gas thermochemical reactions

Radiation transfer within a cloud of magnetite (Fe3 O4 ) particles contained in an infinite slab is considered. The particulate cloud is modeled as a pseudo-continuous, nongray, nonisothermal, absorbing, emitting, and anisotropically scattering medium. The energy source is concentrated solar irradiation, which is assumed to be diffusely and uniformly distributed over a circular opening and has a 5780 K blackbody spectrum. Mie-scattering theory is applied to calculate the spectrally and directionally dependent optical properties of the particles. The Monte Carlo ray-tracing method is used to calculate the attenuation characteristics of the cloud and the temperature distribution under radiative equilibrium. The Monte Carlo simulation is optimized by incorporating the appropriate cumulative probability density functions via Bezier surfaces. The effect of spectral and directional dependency is investigated by comparing the results with those obtained for a gray and isotropic-scattering medium under diffuse or perpendicular incident radiation. It is found that a cloud of Mie-scattering Fe3 O4 particles under perpendicular incident radiation requires approximately twice as much optical thickness to obtain the same attenuation (of radiation at all wavelengths and directions) as a cloud of isotropic-scattering particles under diffuse incident radiation. It is demonstrated that the gray approximation using Planck mean values can lead to considerable error in the temperature solution because the spectral absorption coefficient is higher in the region of longer wavelengths where the peak emission by Fe3 O4 particles occurs.

D. Mischler

Papers

Experimental investigation of an atmospheric-open cyclone solar reactor for solid-gas thermochemical reactions

Nonisothermal Nongray Absorbing-Emitting-Scattering Suspension of Fe3O4 Particles Under Concentrated Solar Irradiation