Feasibility Study of Freeze Recovery Options in Parabolic Trough Collector Plants Working with Molten Salt as Heat Transfer Fluid

Parabolic trough collector (PTC) technology is currently the most mature solar technology, which has led to the accumulation of relevant operational experience. The overall performance and efficiency of these plants depends on several components, and the heat transfer fluid (HTF) is one of the most...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnergies (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 12; p. 2340
Main Authors Prieto, Cristina, Rodríguez-Sánchez, Alfonso, Ruiz-Cabañas, F., Cabeza, Luisa
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 18.06.2019
Subjects
Cables
Convective heat transfer
Economic conditions
Efficiency
Electricity
Feasibility studies
Fluids
freeze recovery
Freezing
heat tracing
Heat transfer
Heating
High temperature
impedance melting
molten salt
Molten salts
Nitrates
parabolic trough collector
Radiation
Salt
Solar energy
Sun
United States > US
Spain
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Summary:Parabolic trough collector (PTC) technology is currently the most mature solar technology, which has led to the accumulation of relevant operational experience. The overall performance and efficiency of these plants depends on several components, and the heat transfer fluid (HTF) is one of the most important ones. Using molten salts as HTFs has the advantage of being able to work at higher temperatures, but it also has the disadvantage of the potential freezing of the HTF in pipes and components. This paper models and evaluates two methods of freeze recovery, which is needed for this HTF system design: Heat tracing in pipes and components, and impedance melting in the solar field. The model is used to compare the parasitic consumption in three molten salts mixtures, namely Solar Salt, HiTec, and HiTec XL, and the feasibility of this system in a freezing event. After the investigation of each of these subsystems, it was concluded that freeze recovery for a molten salt plant is possible.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en12122340