CFD analysis of supercritical CO2 used as HTF in a solar tower receiver

Abstract

The relative cost of a solar receiver can be minimized by the selection of an appropriate heat transfer fluid capable of achieving high receiver efficiencies. In a conventional central receiver system, the concentrated solar energy is transferred from the receiver tube walls to the heat transfer fluid (HTF), which passes through a heat exchanger to generate steam for a Rankine cycle. Thus, higher working fluid temperature is associated with greater efficiency in receiver and power cycle. Emerging receiver designs that can enable higher efficiencies using advanced power cycles, such as supercritical CO2 (s-CO2) closed-loop Brayton cycles, include direct heating of s-CO2 in tubular receiver designs capable of withstanding high internal fluid pressures (around 20 MPa) and temperatures (900 K). Due to the high pressures required and the presence of moving components installed in pipelines (ball-joints and/or flexible connections), the use of s-CO2 presents many technical challenges due to the compatibility of...

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4949083

• https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.4949083

• https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.4949083,

https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2546746335