Aerogel-based solar thermal receivers

Journal Article · 09 August 2017 · Nano Energy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.08.006 · OSTI ID:1538626

McEnaney, Kenneth ^[1]; Weinstein, Lee ^[1]; Kraemer, Daniel ^[1]; Ghasemi, Hadi ^[2]; Chen, Gang ^[1]

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1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
2. University of Houston, TX (United States)

In any solar thermal application, such as solar space heating, solar hot water for domestic or industrial use, concentrating solar power, or solar air conditioning, a solar receiver converts incident sunlight into heat. In order to be efficient, the receiver must ideally absorb the entire solar spectrum while losing relatively little heat. Currently, state-of-the-art receivers utilize a vacuum gap above an absorbing surface to minimize the convection losses, and selective surfaces to reduce radiative losses. Here we investigate a receiver design that utilizes aerogels to suppress radiation losses, boosting the efficiency of solar thermal conversion. Here we predict that receivers using aerogels could be more efficient than vacuum-gap receivers over a wide range of operating temperatures and optical concentrations. Aerogel-based receivers also make possible new geometries that cannot be achieved with vacuum-gap receivers.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AR0000471; EE0005806
• OSTI ID: 1538626
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1549830
• Journal Information: Nano Energy, Vol. 40, Issue C; ISSN 2211-2855
• Publisher: ElsevierCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English