Assessment and Perspectives of Heat Transfer Fluids for CSP Applications

Alberto Giaconia, Anna Chiara Tizzoni, Salvatore Sau, Natale Corsaro, Emiliana Mansi, Annarita Spadoni and Tiziano Delise
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Alberto Giaconia: Casaccia Research Centre, Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department (TERIN), ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy
Anna Chiara Tizzoni: Casaccia Research Centre, Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department (TERIN), ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy
Salvatore Sau: Casaccia Research Centre, Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department (TERIN), ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy
Natale Corsaro: Casaccia Research Centre, Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department (TERIN), ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy
Emiliana Mansi: Casaccia Research Centre, Fusion and Technology for Nuclear Safety and Security Department (FSN), ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy
Annarita Spadoni: Casaccia Research Centre, Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department (TERIN), ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 00123 Rome, Italy
Tiziano Delise: Faenza Research Centre, Territorial and Production Systems Sustainability Department (SSPT), ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, 48018 Faenza, Italy

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-25

Abstract: Different fluid compositions have been considered as heat transfer fluids (HTF) for concentrating solar power (CSP) applications. In linear focusing CSP systems synthetic oils are prevalently employed; more recently, the use of molten salt mixtures in linear focusing CSP systems has been proposed too. This paper presents a comparative assessment of thermal oils and five four nitrate/nitrite mixtures, among the ones mostly employed or proposed so far for CSP applications. The typical medium-size CSP plant (50 MWe) operating with synthetic oil as HTF and the “solar salt” as TES was considered as a benchmark. In the first part of the paper, physical properties and operation ranges of different HTFs are reviewed; corrosion and environmental issues are highlighted too. Besides an extensive review of HTFs based on data available from the open literature, the authors report their own obtained experimental data needed to thoroughly compare different solutions. In the second part of the paper, the impact of the different HTF options on the design and operation of CSP plants are analyzed from techno-economic perspectives.

Keywords: CSP; linear focusing concentrators; parabolic trough; linear Fresnel collectors; heat transfer fluids; molten salts; thermal oil; synthetic oil; mineral oil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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