skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Metallic phase change material thermal storage for Dish Stirling

Abstract

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.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1214606
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC04-94AL85000
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Energy Procedia (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 69; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 1876-6102
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; 25 ENERGY STORAGE; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; CSP; dish Stirling; phase change storage; heat pipe; concentrating solar power

Citation Formats

Andraka, C. E., Kruizenga, A. M., Hernandez-Sanchez, B. A., and Coker, E. N. Metallic phase change material thermal storage for Dish Stirling. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2015.03.083.
Andraka, C. E., Kruizenga, A. M., Hernandez-Sanchez, B. A., & Coker, E. N. Metallic phase change material thermal storage for Dish Stirling. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2015.03.083
Andraka, C. E., Kruizenga, A. M., Hernandez-Sanchez, B. A., and Coker, E. N. 2015. "Metallic phase change material thermal storage for Dish Stirling". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2015.03.083. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1214606.
@article{osti_1214606,
title = {Metallic phase change material thermal storage for Dish Stirling},
author = {Andraka, C. E. and Kruizenga, A. M. and Hernandez-Sanchez, B. A. and Coker, E. N.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1016/j.egypro.2015.03.083},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1214606}, journal = {Energy Procedia (Online)},
issn = {1876-6102},
number = C,
volume = 69,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 40 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Numerical Simulation of Heat Pipe-Assisted Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage Unit for Dish-Stirling Systems
conference, April 2014


New eutectic alloys and their heats of transformation
journal, March 1985


Heat storage in alloy transformations. Final report
report, March 1981


Heat storage in eutectic alloys
journal, August 1980


Phase diagram activities
journal, March 1980


Works referencing / citing this record:

A review on potentials of coupling PCM storage modules to heat pipes and heat pumps
journal, November 2019


Development of a microencapsulated Al–Si phase change material with high-temperature thermal stability and durability over 3000 cycles
journal, January 2018