Session: 06-04: CSP Receivers and Reactors III

Paper Number: 166830

166830 - Prototype Development for a Light-Trapping Planar-Cavity Enclosed Particle Solar Receiver 

Abstract: 

A novel light trapping planar-cavity solar receiver (LTPCR) has been developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to heat solid particles or carry out thermochemical reactions in an array of enclosed chambers. The LTPCR configuration employs a light trapping mechanism to allow the solar beam to spread across the cavity walls based on the cosine projection. This flux spreading reduces the ratio of absorbed solar flux concentration on the panel wall relative to the aperture incident flux concentration and allows the receiver to accommodate heat transfer media with relatively low heat transfer rates (i.e., solid particles or gases). The receiver thermal capacity can be scaled up by arranging modular sets of planar cavities into an array, and thus the receiver design can be suitable for commercial scale concentrating solar power (CSP) or concentrating solar thermal (CST) applications. The current LTPCR development is focused on a scalable particle-based solar receiver to support Generation 3 (Gen3) CSP systems and industry process heat applications. However, successful development can also provide an enclosed receiver/reactor design for future solar thermochemical applications. 

This presentation will introduce the LTPCR design principles and report progress in fabrication, installation/instrumentation, shakedown/commissioning, and preliminary testing of a 100 kWt prototype receiver at King Saud University (KSU). The prototype receiver was designed based on the KSU solar field heliostat layout and a set of ray tracing, computational fluid dynamics, and thermal-mechanical models have been developed to predict solar flux distributions, wall temperature distributions, thermal performance, thermal stress, and receiver reliability. Currently, the prototype receiver has been fabricated and installed on the KSU particle CSP test facility. Preliminary shakedown tests on particle fluidization have been achieved and instrumentation of the receiver has been installed to prepare for on-sun prototype tests. The presentation will include initial on-sun testing data for prototype receiver performance. The prototype was instrumented with thermocouples, strain gauges, and pressure sensors to collect data during on-sun testing. A heat flux sensor was also installed to collect and verify optical conditions for the testing. The test results from on-sun testing will be used to validate design methods and models for receiver prototype modeling and analysis. Verified models will be used for receiver scale-up performance analysis. The presentation will update the prototype testing progress and preliminary results in verifying the LTPCR principle and modeling methods.  Lessons learned from building the prototype receiver will be used to develop a scaled-up receiver at a commercially relevant scale.

Presenting Author: Zhiwen Ma NREL

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Zhiwen Ma is a senior engineer in the Thermal Sciences R&D Group at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technol-ogy. His working experience includes renewable energy, concentrating solar power, hydrogen and fuel cells. He worked as a testing and modeling engineer at Fuel Cell Energy for six years, and worked at GE Aviation before joining NREL in 2009. At NREL, he works on concentrating solar power, thermal energy storage, hydrogen production, and fuel cells.