CSP plants with thermocline thermal energy storage and integrated steam generator – Techno-economic modeling and design optimization

Pizzolato, Alberto; Donato, Filippo; Verda, Vittorio; Santarelli, Massimo; Sciacovelli, Adriano

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2017.07.160

Cited by 22 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Compared to conventional two-tank TES systems, the single-tank thermocline storage is a more cost competitive option (about 35% cheaper) [Grirate et al, 2016;Motte et al, 2015], i.e., the reduced amount of high-priced HTF by about 70% because of using cheap solid or industrial waste as energy storage material [Esence et al, 2017;Galione et al, 2015]. As a result, the interest for this technology is rapidly growing worldwide with a variety of new numerical and experimental developments being reported in the recent literature [Ahmed et al, 2019;Keilany et al, 2020;Pizzolato et al, 2017;Vigneshwaran et al, 2019].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

Lou

Fan

Luo

2020

Journal of Energy Storage

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Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology captures solar radiation and converts it into heat for electricity production. It has received an increasing attention because integrated thermal energy storage (TES) systems can largely enhancing the reliability and the dispatchability. Over the last decade, low-cost single storage tank based on the thermocline technology becomes an alternative to commonly-used two-tank TES system. However, the improper inlet/outlet manifolds may cause the strong mixing of hot and cold fluids and disturb the temperature stratification, resulting in reduced thermal performances of the storage tank. This study aims at solving the flow maldistribution problem in the single-tank thermocline storage system by appropriately structuring the inlet/outlet manifolds. The technical solution is based on the insertion of optimized perforated baffles in the manifolds. 2D Computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed to calculate the transient flow and temperature profiles in the storage tank during the charging and discharging operations. The optimal size distribution of orifices on the upper baffle has been determined for homogenizing passage times of the thermal front, so as to enhance the temperature stratification. A novel intermediate evaluation indicator was introduced to characterize the real-time thermal behavior, which could reduce the computational cost of the optimization problem by a factor of 6 at least. Numerical results shown that the proposed optimization algorithm could significantly improve the thermal performances, indicated by the increased values of charging/discharging efficiency, the capacity ratio and the overall efficiency, ex., the fully charging efficiency be increased by 29% by comparing the unstructured manifold geometry and the one with optimized baffles. The parametric study on certain geometry and operating factors also demonstrated that the proposed method for flow distribution optimization was robust, effective and efficient.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

Lou

Fan

Luo

2020

Journal of Energy Storage

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“…The heat demand corresponded to washing, bleaching, and mercerization, with a specific variable profile ranging from 90 to 200 C. The results indicated that the overall efficiency increased by enabling the use of waste heat from the CSP plant, attaining an improvement of over 50%. Pizzolato et al (2017) analyzed a novel CSP plant in which the waste heat from the condenser was used for delivering process heat and cooling effect (trigeneration). Here, the temperature required for the process was set to 90 C.…”

Section: Csp + Heatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration schemes for hybrid and polygeneration concentrated solar power plants

Cardemil

Starke

Zurita

et al. 2021

WIREs Energy & Environment

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Concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies have been developed over the past four decades for commercial operation, establishing them as reliable power generation sources in regions with high direct solar irradiance. The sizing of the solar field, thermal energy storage systems, and power block enables CSP plants to operate under various operating conditions, while also exhibiting capabilities to generate multiple products such as electricity, heat, desalination, and cooling.The limitations of CSP systems can be reduced by utilizing the positive traits of other technologies, thus resulting in hybrid plant configurations that can fully exploit different technology strengths while minimizing their individual weaknesses. This review presents the state of the art on CSP stand-alone plants for both power generation and combined generation of different products. Subsequently, the characteristics of CSP plants hybridized with photovoltaics, wind, fossil fuels, and biomass systems are discussed for both power multiple-product generation. The review of assessment methodologies provides suggestions for both assessment and performance analysis and comparison with other generation technologies. This review shows that hybrid CSP plants have clear advantages in terms of cost, flexibility of operation, adaptability, and capability for the multigeneration of different products compared with stand-alone plants used to generate each product individually. Hybrid CSP plants have advantages and can be designed to satisfy multiple demands on a case-by-case basis and are valid alternatives to combinations of stand-alone plants.

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“…In the case of solar thermal energy, continuous water processing is limited by the intermittent availability of the solar irradiance. This issue can be overcome using thermal energy storage [24][25][26] and ancillary power units, opportunely integrated in the plant layout. In this view, here we develop a complete lumped-component model of large-scale solar thermal water disinfection based on a pasteurization protocol validated by experiments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techno-Economic Analysis of a Solar Thermal Plant for Large-Scale Water Pasteurization

et al. 2020

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Water pasteurization has the potential to overcome some of the drawbacks of more conventional disinfection techniques such as chlorination, ozonation and ultraviolet radiation treatment. However, the high throughput of community water systems requires energy-intensive processes, and renewable energy sources have the potential to improve the sustainability of water pasteurization plants. In case of water pasteurization by solar thermal treatment, the continuity of operation is limited by the intermittent availability of the solar irradiance. Here we show that this problem can be addressed by a proper design of the plant layout, which includes a thermal energy storage system and an auxiliary gas boiler. Based on a target pasteurization protocol validated by experiments, a complete lumped-component model of the plant is developed and used to determine the operating parameters and size of the components for a given delivery flow rate. Finally, we report an economic analysis of the proposed plant layout, which allows its optimization for different scenarios based on two design variables, namely the solar multiple and the duration of the thermal energy storage. Based on the analyzed cases, it is found that the proposed plant layouts may yield a unit cost of water treatment ranging from ≈32 EUR-cents m−3 to ≈25 EUR-cents m−3.

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CSP plants with thermocline thermal energy storage and integrated steam generator – Techno-economic modeling and design optimization

Cited by 22 publications

References 34 publications

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

Single-tank thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power: Flow distribution optimization for thermocline evolution management

Integration schemes for hybrid and polygeneration concentrated solar power plants

Techno-Economic Analysis of a Solar Thermal Plant for Large-Scale Water Pasteurization

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