Design and testing of a recirculating dust removal loop for high-temperature particle receivers

• Main Authors: Schroeder, Nathan, Sanchez, Andres, Ho, Clifford K.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abrasion; Absorptivity; Ambient temperature; Apertures; Dust; Dust control; Energy storage; High temperature; Mass flow rate; Operating temperature; Solar energy; Solar flux; Thermal energy
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0149435

Generation 3 particle-base concentrating solar power systems utilize solid media in the form of absorptive, sand-like particles as the heat-transfer fluid and thermal-energy-storage medium to increase the maximum operating temperature of concentrating solar power technology to over 800°C. The particles fall as a curtain through an open aperture receiver cavity to directly absorb thermal energy from the concentrated solar flux. Abrasion due to particle-to-particle and particle-to-surface interaction within particle based concentrating solar power systems creates dust that escapes through the receiver aperture. The dust present in the receiver cavity may result in beam attenuation and mass loss decreasing the efficiency of the receiver. A design for a dust removal loop is presented with preliminary testing demonstrating its ability to reduce the dust present in a 1 MWth falling particle receiver with an 8 kg/s mass flow rate. The particle dust removal loop reduced the mass of particle dust present in the receiver by 46% compared to steady operation with ambient temperature particles.