Metallic phase change material thermal storage for Dish Stirling

Journal Article · Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Energy Procedia (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2015.03.083· OSTI ID:1214606

Andraka, C. E. ^[1]; Kruizenga, A. M. ^[2]; Hernandez-Sanchez, B. A. ^[1]; Coker, E. N. ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

Dish-Stirling systems provide high-efficiency solar-only electrical generation and currently hold the world record at 31.25%. This high efficiency results in a system with a high possibility of meeting the DOE SunShot goal of $0.06/kWh. However, current dish-Stirling systems do not incorporate thermal storage. For the next generation of non-intermittent and cost-competitive solar power plants, we propose adding a thermal energy storage system that combines latent (phase-change) energy transport and latent energy storage in order to match the isothermal input requirements of Stirling engines while also maximizing the exergetic efficiency of the entire system. This paper reports current findings in the area of selection, synthesis and evaluation of a suitable high performance metallic phase change material (PCM) as well as potential interactions with containment alloy materials. The metallic PCM's, while more expensive than salts, have been identified as having substantial performance advantages primarily due to high thermal conductivity, leading to high exergetic efficiency. Systems modeling has indicated, based on high dish Stirling system performance, an allowable cost of the PCM storage system that is substantially higher than SunShot goals for storage cost on tower systems. Several PCM's are identified with suitable melting temperature, cost, and performance.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1214606
• Journal Information: Energy Procedia (Online), Vol. 69, Issue C; ISSN 1876-6102
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
25 ENERGY STORAGE
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CSP
dish Stirling
phase change storage
heat pipe
concentrating solar power