Session: 05-03: Concentrating Solar Power I: Receiver Applications

Paper Number: 132953

132953 - Heliostat Field and a Solid Particle Receiver Curtain Under Dynamic Conditions for CSP Plants 

Abstract: 

Concentrated solar power plants are a prominent solar technology that rises up as an alternative to satisfy the global energy demand and minimize fossil fuel dependence. CSP plants employ a solar collector field to capture and concentrate the sunlight onto a receiver which enables a heat transfer fluid to be heated up to a desired working temperature, serving as a heat source that is transferred through a heat exchanger to a power block to generate electricity. Current plants employ tubular external receivers to operate with heat transfer fluids such as molten salts, that are pumped up to the tower top to be heated by the concentrated sunlight emitted from the heliostat field, where temperatures around 600°C can be reached. However, the next CSP generations aim to achieve higher operating temperatures (>700°C) such that the implementation of novel power cycle layouts (sCO₂ Brayton cycle) can lead to enhanced thermal–to–electric energy conversion processes.

The new solar receivers make use of sand–like ceramic solid particles to catch the incoming solar radiation from the heliostat field. Particles fall down through the receiver cavity forming a curtain, that is heated and then stored in hot and cold storage tanks which work as a thermal battery helping to mitigate system variations such as cloudiness, or heat flux limitations on the receiver. 

CSP optical components (heliostat field and solar receiver) play an important role in the energy conversion process since adequate control of the heliostat field layout, positioning, and aiming strategies on the receivers affect the plant performance. Depending on different weather conditions, location, optical (cosine effect, shading and blocking, attenuation, and so on.), and geometrical (heliostats and receiver dimensions) parameters of the plant, the required input power of the heat transfer fluid (solid particles) could be positively or negatively influenced, directly affecting the power block ability to produce electricity. 

Thus, based on a desired location to install and operate a concentrating solar power plant, cloudy and clear sky days will be selected under different seasonal conditions to investigate the transient behavior of the particle receiver when subjected to irradiation and surrounding temperature variation profiles. Additionally, the integration between the heliostat field and the solid particle receiver will be evaluated considering solar tools such as HALOS and SolarPILOT to obtain heat flux map distributions, heliostat field layouts, and optical efficiency serving as feedback information to tweak performance parameters on the transient study. An energy model is proposed for the receiver such that optical and geometrical parameters can be evaluated on the transient performance of the receiver during a desired period of time.

Presenting Author: Camilo Nanclares Florida State University - Florida A&M University; FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

Presenting Author Biography: Camilo Nanclares is a doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. His research focuses on concentrated solar power systems.

Authors:

Juan Camilo Nanclares Florida State University - Florida A&M University; FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Matthew Marton Georgia Institute of Technology
Jesus Arias Georgia Institute of Technology
Comas Haynes Georgia Institute of Technology
Juan Ordonez Florida State University