Latent heat augmentation of thermocline energy storage for concentrating solar power – A system-level assessment

Scott M. Flueckiger and Suresh V. Garimella

Applied Energy, 2014, vol. 116, issue C, 278-287

Abstract: Molten-salt thermocline tanks are a low-cost energy storage option for concentrating solar power plants. Despite the potential economic advantage, the capacity of thermocline tanks to store sufficient amounts of high-temperature heat is limited by the low energy density of the constituent sensible-heat storage media. A promising design modification replaces conventional rock filler inside the tank with an encapsulated phase-change material (PCM), contributing a latent heat storage mechanism to increase the overall energy density. The current study presents a new finite-volume approach to simulate mass and energy transport inside a latent heat thermocline tank at low computational cost. This storage model is then integrated into a system-level model of a molten-salt power tower plant to inform tank operation with respect to realistic solar collection and power production. With this system model, PCMs with different melting temperatures and heats of fusion are evaluated for their viability in latent heat storage for solar plants.

Keywords: Molten-salt thermocline tank; Latent heat storage; Concentrating solar power; Power tower (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261913009665
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:116:y:2014:i:c:p:278-287

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.11.059

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().