The Hybrid Pressurized Air Receiver (HPAR) for combined cycle solar thermal power plants

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Concentrating solar power technology is a modern power generation technologyin which central receiver systems play a significant role. For this technology afield of heliostats is used to reflect solar irradiation to the receiver located ontop of the tower. An extensive review has shown that contemporary receiverdesigns face geometric complexities, lack of thermal efficiency as well as issueswith durability and cost. The purpose of this study is to develop a new receiverconcept that can potentially reduce these issues. A parametric analysiswas used to identify potential means of improvement based on an energy balanceapproach including sensitivities involved with convection and radiationheat transfer. Design criteria such as the use of headers to minimize pressuredrop was also investigated. Based on these findings the hybrid pressurizedair receiver was developed which is a combination of tubular and volumetricreceiver technologies. The fundamental idea of the receiver was investigatedby simulating the ray-tracing and coupled natural convection and radiationheat transfer. The ray-tracing results have shown that the use of quartz glassis a prospective solution to higher allowable flux densities, but with reflectionlosses in the order of 7 %. The coupled natural convection heat transfersimulation further revealed that the receiver concept effectively eliminates theescape of buoyant plumes and radiative heat losses are minimized. Empiricaldata was gathered from a medium flux concentrator and good agreement withthe numerical results was obtained. The thesis therefore concludes that theresearch outcomes were met. Ongoing research aims to optimise the receiverconcept for a 5MW pilot plant.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University