Hydrodynamics of Dense Fluidized Beds for Application in Concentrated Solar Energy Conversion

Overview & Synopsis

In the frame of the call for projects of the European Commission which aims to find alternative HTF in order to extend working temperature and to decrease environmental impact of standard Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) used in concentrating solar power(CSP) plants, we proposed to use Dense Particle Suspensions -DPS- fluidized with air (approximately 50% of solid) in tubes as new HTF. DPS will enable operating temperature over 1 000°C which corresponds to the sintering temperatures of the solid against 560°C for the most efficient molten salts, thus increasing the plant efficiency and decreasing the cost per kWh produced, have no lower limitation of temperature and are riskless. A cold mockup of receiver using DPS has been built for the preliminary study of the concept. The operation of the mockup has shown the possibility to ensure a regular and adaptable upward flow of solid in the range 10 to 65 kg/h per tube. This paper compares the experimental results of the cold mockup running with the predictions of a multi-fluid approach 3D numerical code.