United States Department of Energy solar receiver technology development
The United States Department of Energy (DOE), through Sandia National Laboratories, has been conducting a Solar Thermal Receiver Technology Development Program, which maintains a balance between analytical modeling, bench and small scale testing, and experimentation conducted at scales representative of commercially-sized equipment. Central receiver activities emphasize molten salt-based systems on large scales and volumetric devices in the modeling and small scale testing. These receivers are expected to be utilized in solar power plants rated between 100 and 200 MW. Distributed receiver research focuses on liquid metal refluxing devices. These are intended to mate parabolic dish concentrators with Stirling cycle engines in the 5 to 25 kW{sub e} power range. The effort in the area of volumetric receivers is less intensive and highly cooperative in nature. A ceramic foam absorber of Sandia design was successfully tested on the 200 kW{sub t} test bed at Plataforma Solar during 1989. Material integrity during the approximately 90-test series was excellent. Significant progress has been made with parabolic dish concentrator-mounted receivers using liquid metals (sodium or a potassium/sodium mixture) as heat transport media. Sandia has successfully solar-tested a pool boiling reflux receiver sized to power a 25 kW Stirling engine. Boiling stability and transient operation were both excellent. This document describes these activities in detail and will outline plans for future development. 30 refs., 10 figs.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 5743352
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-90-0934C; CONF-9008139-4; ON: DE91012653
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 5. international symposium on solar high-temperature technologies, Davos (Switzerland), 27-31 Aug 1990
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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42 ENGINEERING
CENTRAL RECEIVERS
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
HEAT PIPES
MOLTEN SALTS
NUCLEATE BOILING
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POOL BOILING
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
STIRLING ENGINES
BOILING
ENGINES
EQUIPMENT
HEAT ENGINES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
SALTS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR RECEIVERS
TESTING
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