Concentrating Solar Power - Molten Salt Pump Development, Final Technical Report (Phase 1)
The purpose of this project is to develop a long shafted pump to operate at high temperatures for the purpose of producing energy with renewable resources. In Phase I of this three phase project we developed molten salt pump requirements, evaluated existing hardware designs for necessary modifications, developed a preliminary design of the pump concept, and developed refined cost estimates for Phase II and Phase III of the project. The decision has been made not to continue the project into Phases II and III. There is an ever increasing world-wide demand for sources of energy. With only a limited supply of fossil fuels, and with the costs to obtain and produce those fuels increasing, sources of renewable energy must be found. Currently, capturing the sun's energy is expensive compared to heritage fossil fuel energy production. However, there are government requirements on Industry to increase the amount of energy generated from renewable resources. The objective of this project is to design, build and test a long-shafted, molten salt pump. This is the type of pump necessary for a molten salt thermal storage system in a commercial-scale solar trough plant. This project is under the Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Program, managed by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. To reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCOE), and to meet the requirements of 'tomorrows' demand, technical innovations are needed. The DOE is committed to reducing the LCOE to 7-10 cents/kWh by 2015, and to 5-7 cents/kWh by 2020. To accomplish these goals, the performance envelope for commercial use of long-shafted molten salt pumps must be expanded. The intent of this project is to verify acceptable operation of pump components in the type of molten salt (thermal storage medium) used in commercial power plants today. Field testing will be necessary to verify the integrity of the pump design, and thus reduce the risk to industry. While the primary goal is to design a pump for a trough solar power plant system, the intent is for the design to be extensible to a solar power tower application. This can be accomplished by adding pumping stages to increase the discharge pressure to the levels necessary for a solar power tower application. This report incorporates all available conceptual design information completed for this project in Phase I.
- Research Organization:
- Hamilton Sundstrand Energy, Space & Defense Rocketdyne
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE EE Office of Solar Energy Technology (EE-2A)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC36-08GO18031
- OSTI ID:
- 1023024
- Report Number(s):
- RD07-245P Final Technical Report; TRN: US201206%%7
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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