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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Reducing the Cost of Thermal Energy Storage for Parabolic Trough Solar Power Plants

Thermal energy storage systems using phase change materials were evaluated for trough systems that use oil, steam, and high temperature salts as heat transfer fluids. A variety of eutectic salts and metal alloys were considered as phase change materials in a cascaded arrangement. Literature values of specific heat, latent heat, density, and other thermophysical properties were used in initial analyses. Testing laboratories were contracted to measure properties for candidate materials for comparison to the literature and for updating the models. A TRNSYS model from Phase 1 was further developed for optimizing the system, including a novel control algorithm. A concept for increasing the bulk thermal conductivity of the phase change system was developed using expanded metal sheets. Outside companies were contracted to design and cost systems using platecoil heat exchangers immersed in the phase change material. Laboratory evaluations of the one-dimensional and three-dimensional behavior of expanded metal sheets in a low conductivity medium were used to optimize the amount of thermal conductivity enhancement. The thermal energy storage systems were compared to baseline conventional systems. The best phase change system found in this project, which was for the high temperature plant, had a projected cost of $25.2 per kWhth, The best system also had a cost that was similar to the base case, a direct two-tank molten salt system.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

OPTOM: Optimization of Parabolic Trough - Operations & Maintenance

The US Department of Energy’s SunShot goals look to reduce the cost of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology to 5¢/kWh for baseload plants. This is about a 50% reduction from current costs. To achieve this cost target, a significant reduction in operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of 40 to 50% is likely needed. Advances are needed in the O&M practices of CSP plants if the technology is to achieve the SunShot cost goals. Digitization of plant performance and O&M data has become a new best practice in the world of renewable energy asset management. Owners and operators of large photovoltaic and wind power plants are working to digitize performance and O&M data at their existing assets, to improve their management of the facilities, to increase performance, reduce O&M costs, and lower the overall life cycle cost of ownership. CSP power plants are behind the curve of other technologies on the digitization of plant information to aid in the plant asset management. This project directly addresses the objective of digitizing the O&M data of the solar field, focusing on three areas: 1) creating a framework for sharing data and information, 2) creating a system for monitoring and managing the maintenance of the solar field collectors, and 3) developing analytic tools to identify issues in the solar field. According to the NREL CSP Best Practices Study, the current practice at many CSP plants is to rely on paper lists, spreadsheets, and email for monitoring and managing problems and maintenance in the solar field. The key element to digitize solar field O&M is the creation of a centralized data archive that all users and systems can interface with. This project developed a centralized relational database framework that allows users and applications to access and share data. Conventional power plants utilize Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMSs) to track the corrective, preventive (scheduled), and predictive maintenance of equipment and subsystems in the power plant. CSP plants use these systems in the power block, but while these systems specialize at tracking maintenance on up to thousands of pieces of equipment, they are not well suited for tracking the tens or hundreds of thousands of components in large commercial CSP or photovoltaic solar fields. In this project we developed a new software application referred to as FieldStatus (TM). This is a specialized database program that is used to track the status of each collector and its components. This application is designed to complement the existing CMMS to enable improved tracking and management of maintenance activities in the solar field. One of the major maintenance tasks for solar fields is maintaining the cleanliness of the mirrors. Although seemingly a relatively straight forward task, it has often proven challenging to maintain high levels of cleanliness in an efficient and cost-effective manner. This project developed new tools and metrics for monitoring and optimizing solar field cleaning resources and overall solar field cleanliness.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Acciona Power Plant Hydrogen Mitigation Project

In 2014, Acciona Solar Power and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory initiated discussions to identify a method to solve a long-standing efficiency loss problem at parabolic trough power plants. Parabolic trough power plants begin to show lost thermal efficiency after six years of operation, due to the presence of trace concentrations of hydrogen in the heat transfer fluid that circulates in the power plant. Trace levels of hydrogen infiltrate the collector field receivers, increasing their heat loss, and decreasing the power plants’ thermal efficiency. At the time, Acciona’s Nevada Solar One power plant in Boulder City, Nevada was starting to show this efficiency loss. After several discussions, APS and NREL agreed to a collaborative effort (CRADA) to develop and implement a method to reduce hydrogen levels in the circulating HTF at the NSO power plant. The project was planned as a three-year effort, and work started in June 2015. The CRADA’s goal was to solve the long-standing lost efficiency problem caused by the buildup of hydrogen in the HTF, which significantly impacts the efficiency, electricity generation, and revenue from parabolic trough power plants.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2012

Research and Development of a Low Cost Solar Collector

This is a Final Technical Report on the Research and Development completed towards the development of a Low Cost Solar Collector conducted under the DOE cost-sharing award EE-0003591. The objective of this project was to develop a new class of solar concentrators with geometries and manufacturability that could significantly reduce the fully installed cost of the solar collector field for concentrated solar thermal power plants. The goal of the project was to achieve an aggressive cost target of $\$$170/m 2 , a reduction of up to 50% in the total installed cost of a solar collector field as measured against the current industry benchmark of a conventional parabolic trough. The project plan, and the detailed activities conducted under the scope of the DOE Award project addressed all major drivers that affect solar collector costs. In addition to costs, the study also focused on evaluating technical performance of new collector architectures and compared them to the performance of the industry benchmark parabolic trough. The most notable accomplishment of this DOE award was the delivery of a full-scale integrated design, manufacturing and field installation solution for a new class of solar collector architecture which has been classified as the Bi-Planar Fresnel Collector (BPFC) and may be considered as a viable alternative to the conventional parabolic trough, as well as the conventional Fresnel collectors. This was in part accomplished through the design and development, all the way through fabrication and test validation of a new class of Linear Planar Fresnel Collector architecture. This architecture offers a number of key differentiating features which include a planar light-weight frame geometry with small mass-manufacturable elements utilizing flat mirror sections. The designs shows significant promise in reducing the material costs, fabrication costs, shipping costs, and on-site field installation costs compared to the benchmark parabolic trough, as well as the conventional Fresnel collector. The noteworthy design features of the BPFC architecture include the use of relatively cheaper flat mirrors and a design which allows the mirror support beam sections to act as load-bearing structural elements resulting in more than a 36% reduction in the overall structural weight compared to an optimized parabolic trough. Also, it was shown that the utilization of small mass-produced elements significantly lowers mass-production and logistics costs that can more quickly deliver economies of scale, even for smaller installations while also reducing shipping and installation costs. Moreover, unlike the traditional Fresnel trough the BPFC architecture does not require complex articulating drive mechanisms but instead utilizes a standard parabolic trough hydraulic drive mechanism. In addition to the development of the Bi-Planar Fresnel Collector, an optimized conventional space-frame type parabolic trough was also designed, built, analyzed and field-tested during the first phase of this award. The design of the conventional space-frame parabolic collector was refined with extensive FEA and CFD analysis to reduce material costs and re-designed for simpler fabrication and more accurate lower-cost field assembly. This optimized parabolic trough represented an improvement over the state-of-the art of the traditional parabolic trough architecture and also served as a more rigorous and less subjective benchmark that was used for comparison of new candidate design architectures. The results of the expanded 1 st phase of the DOE award project showed that both the Optimized Parabolic Trough and the new Bi-Planar Fresnel Collector design concepts failed to meet the primary objectives for the project of achieving a 50% cost reduction from the industry reference total installed cost of $\$$350/m 2 . Results showed that the BPFC came in at projected total installed cost of $\$$237/m 2 representing a 32% savings compared to the industry benchmark conventional parabolic trough. And the cost reduction obtained by the Optimized Parabolic Trough compared to the industry benchmark reference was approximately 16.5% against the industry benchmark. The new BPFC design showed a weight savings of almost 36% compared to the optimized parabolic trough and a 50% reduction in field assembly labor and a 13% reduction in shipping volume. The BPFC design showed only a marginal improvement of 16% over the fully projected installed cost of the optimized parabolic trough benchmark developed as Concept One. During the course of the investigation numerous sensitivity analyses and other analytical studies were conducted to assess potential improvement opportunities, and further optimizations that could lead to cost reductions and performance improvements. Factors that could have a significant impact on high-volume costs were related to production and further improvements in design for manufacturability, automation, assembly jigs, and fixtures, and robotic welding etc. The wind modeling analysis showed that the Fresnel design concept did not reduce the wind load in a significant manner. The stress analysis showed that the design concept with almost a 36% lower weight than the parabolic trough and it was strong enough to withstand the expected wind loads and maintain targeting accuracy. The Initial on-sun optical testing showed that the Fresnel Trough was capable of concentrating sunlight effectively to the desired target and yielding an optical efficiency slightly lower than a parabolic trough.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Abengoa/Acciona Power Plant Hydrogen Mitigation Project (Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-15-583)

Several Gigawatts (GW) of solar concentrating parabolic trough generating capacity have been installed in the U.S. and internationally in the past five years. Many of these power plants include thermal energy storage, which allows the plants to generate electricity during off-sun hours. The U.S. now has about 1 GW of solar-to-electric generating capacity using concentrating parabolic trough technology. Parabolic trough power plants have a long-standing performance issue relating to the build-up of trace quantities of hydrogen gas in the receiver tubes. Hydrogen is a byproduct of the very slow breakdown of the heat transfer fluid. Accumulation of hydrogen in the receivers causes a loss in the thermal efficiency of the receivers and an overall decrease in the power plant annual electricity output. Since a typical plant contains 50,000 receivers, addressing this issue by individual receiver is not practical. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conceived and developed a method to remove or purge hydrogen from the power plant receivers by removing hydrogen from a single location within the plant. Hydrogen gas is purged from the heat transfer fluid that resides in the power plant expansion tanks. Modeling shows that quantitative removal of hydrogen from the expansion tanks will reverse build-up of hydrogen in the receiver tubes and restore the power plant to its full performance and annual energy output. This method is documented in U.S. Patent 8,568,582, which issued in October 2013. Two companies, Abengoa Solar and Acciona Solar Power, Inc. contacted NREL to discuss solutions to the eventual build-up of hydrogen in their commercial parabolic trough power plants. NREL proposed to implement its method at Acciona's Nevada Solar One (NSO) parabolic trough power plant in Boulder City, Nevada. The first year will consist of laboratory testing at the NREL Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) along with process specification, design, and costing. The second year will be the full-scale implementation of the hydrogen mitigation process at the NSO power plant in Nevada.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Development of a Planar Focusing Collector for CSP

In the field of the concentrating solar power (CSP) technology, the parabolic trough is a common choice for a solar collector. Parabolic troughs are highly reflective curved mirrors that take incident sunlight and focus it onto a line-shaped receiver that runs down the center of troughs. The receivers are generally heat-absorbing pipes containing a heat transfer fluid that delivers the collected thermal energy to steam turbines or engines for generating electricity. However, parabolic troughs are constrained by wind loads and cost of materials and support structure. The goal of this project was to develop a planar focusing collector (PFC) that would serve as an alternative to the parabolic trough. An ideal PFC is ultrathin (less than a few microns) and lightweight, and could be manufactured in a manner that is scalable and low cost. Furthermore, these features would be attractive to CSP technology because of the potential to reduce cost and complexity of installation and maintenance. The work pursued in this project attempted to actualize the PFC concept by utilizing advances in the emerging area of metasurfaces, which rely on the nanopatterning of surfaces to control the amplitude and phase of light at length scales smaller than an optical wavelength. Academic pursuits of metasurface technology predominately employ electron-beam lithography (EBL) for fabrication because the technique offers highly reliable nanopatterning of surfaces with a spatial resolution of ~10 nm. However, due to the techno-economic constraints of the DOE’s SunShot program, particularly cost-effective scalability, the use of EBL was avoided in this project. Rather, fabrication approaches that lend themselves to scalable manufacturing by way of stamping or imprinting were favored. Ultimately, the tradeoffs with using such methods was the larger feature size—on the order of ~150 um critical dimension—resulting in poorer control of light compared to structures fabricated by EBL. A summary of our 2-year investigation on this topic is presented herein. We begin by presenting highlights of our 1 st -year efforts using plasmonics, i.e., metallic nanostructures, as the building block for our PFC. The limitations in this approach are subsequently summarized. We then review the strategy we employed during the final year of our project, in particular utilizing insulating or dielectric materials as the light controlling medium. We round out the report discussing the results of our findings from using this approach. The report is relatively self-contained in that and no prior knowledge of optics or nanotechnology is assumed and technical jargon is kept at a minimum.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Assessing the Optical Performance Impact of Tracking Error in an Operational Concentrated Solar Power Plant Using Monte Carlo Ray-Tracing Simulation

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) provides firm and dispatchable electricity due to its thermal storage and hybridization capabilities, which supports the decarbonization of our energy supply. Of the various CSP technologies, parabolic trough collectors are the most mature, with over 500 MW operating worldwide. The optical performance of parabolic trough systems is sensitive to tracking error, which is defined as the angular offset of a collector away from the sun position in the transversal plane. Tracking error commonly occurs due to non-continuous adjustment of the trough angle to point toward the sun, but other factors such as gravity, heating, and wind loading can also contribute to tracking error. Researchers have explored the impact of tracking error on optical performance both numerically and experimentally, but existing studies do not include measurements from operational utility-scale power plants. Tilt angle measurements of parabolic troughs at operational utility-scale power plants illustrate spatial variations in optical performance and include various sources of tracking error such as gravity, heating, and wind loading. To fully characterize wind driven loads on parabolic troughs, we are conducting a long-term field measurement campaign at the Nevada Solar One CSP plant located in Boulder City, NV, which has a nominal capacity of 72 MW and 0.5 hours of full-load storage. We record load measurements on four outer trough rows, collecting support structure bending moments, drive torque moments, dynamic accelerations of the spaceframe, mirror displacement, and tilt angles. Using the tilt measurements acquired at 20 Hz frequency, we calculate the deviation between the nominal sun position and the tracker angle. Using a Monte-Carlo ray-tracing simulation software, we assess the impact of the tracker angle deviation on optical performance throughout the diurnal cycle at various spatial locations within the CSP plant. In our view, this first-of-a-kind study will provide important guidance for future trough designs that reduce the impact of various sources of tracking error on performance.

concentrating solar power↗
DOE OSTI2022

SMART: Simplified Melting And Rotation-joint Technology

Oil based parabolic trough solar power plants are the most commercially mature CSP technology. However, the upper limit of about 400°C of the current organic heat transfer fluid(HTF)significantly limits the future potential of the technology. Advances in parabolic trough receiver and collector technology have enabled higher operating temperatures of potentially 500°C or above. The search for an improved higher temperature HTF has identified inorganic molten salts, specifically the mix referred to as Solar Salt, a 60:40 mix of sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate salt. However, Solar Salt starts to freeze at about 240°C. This poses a significant challenge for large parabolic trough plants that could have many kilometers of header piping and hundreds of kilometers of receiver piping all filled with molten salt. Plants using molten salt need to be designed to minimize the risk of freezing and to be able to recover from freeze events. Studies and field experiments have shown that this appears to be feasible and the approach appears to have strong economic advantages over conventional trough plants. However, some technical challenges remain related to the use of molten salt in trough solar fields, the cost of the freeze recovery system is significant, and many still question whether the risk of using molten salt is worth the economic upside. In our view, the potential economic upside justifies the continued look at molten salt HTF in parabolic trough plants. The objective of this project was to address the key technical issue remaining, look for opportunities to reduce the cost of the freeze recovery system, and improve the general information and tools available for assessing the design, performance and economics of trough plants using molten salt HTF.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dynamic Wind Loading on CSP Collectors Caused by Turbulent Wind Fluctuations: Insights from a 2-Year Field Campaign

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is a promising solar technology for electricity generation with thermal energy storage and with the additional benefit of industrial heat production. Wind loading on CSP collector structures, such as parabolic troughs or heliostats, is one of the primary drivers of their structural design costs. In particular, dynamic wind loading is a major source of uncertainty in the collector design process, which heavily relies on wind tunnel testing. In the field, the turbulent nature of the incoming wind creates fluctuating loads (support structure loads and resulting mirror deflections) on the collectors, with impacts on fatigue lifetime and optical performance. As is well known, wind tunnel tests cannot entirely reproduce the complex turbulent wind conditions typically observed at full-scale plants. To shed light on this topic, NREL initiated a field campaign at the operational Nevada Solar One (NSO) powerplant that uses parabolic troughs as solar collectors. The aim of the project is a detailed characterization of prevailing wind and turbulence conditions and resulting operational loads on parabolic troughs. We use the published 2-year dataset of high-resolution combined wind and structural loads measurements [1] to characterize the dynamic structural wind response. For quantifying dynamic wind loading, we apply the concept of admittance functions, which are spectral transfer functions that couple the turbulent wind to resulting structural loads (aerodynamic admittance), and to the structural response (mechanical admittance). In practice, aerodynamic admittance describes which turbulent eddy sizes are effective in creating structural loads. The mechanical admittance describes in which frequency ranges these loads are reinforced or dampened by the structure. While these functions are an established concept in civil engineering, their recent application to a single full-scale heliostat [2] proved their broader applicability to CSP collectors. Here, we present a characterization of admittance functions for full-scale parabolic trough collectors and show how wind characteristics (mean wind speed and direction, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent length scales), the sun-tracking trough angle, and row position alter the admittance functions. Further, we study to which extent the admittance functions are universal for a specific trough geometry and how our findings compare to reported heliostat results. References [1] https://data.openei.org/submissions/5938. [2] Blume, K., Roger, M., and Pitz-Paal, R. 2023b. "Simplified analytical model to describe wind loads and wind-induced tracking deviations of heliostats." Solar Energy, 256, 96-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2023.03.055.

admittance functions↗
DOE OSTI2015

Domestic Material Content in Molten-Salt Concentrating Solar Power Plants

This study lists material composition data for two concentrating solar power (CSP) plant designs: a molten-salt power tower and a hypothetical parabolic trough plant, both of which employ a molten salt for the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and thermal storage media. The two designs have equivalent generating and thermal energy storage capacities. The material content of the saltHTF trough plant was approximately 25% lower than a comparably sized conventional oil-HTF parabolic trough plant. The significant reduction in oil, salt, metal, and insulation mass by switching to a salt-HTF design is expected to reduce the capital cost and LCOE for the parabolic trough system.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hybrid Solar System (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

GTI Energy (GTI) teamed with the University of California at Merced (UCM) to scaleup the hybrid solar system (HSS) technology for demonstrating its performance at the US Gypsum (USG) plant in Plaster City, California. The technology integrates two-stage concentrating solar collector with matching particle thermal transport and storage (TSS) system to deliver cost-effective, and on-demand distributed high temperature industrial process heat up to 600°C with solar thermal, in this case to a gypsum kettle, to reduce its fuel use and carbon footprint. Current solar technologies, which reach these temperatures, are not distributable (towers) or cost-effective (dish). The research team developed a conceptual system design for host site retrofit, including preliminary heat balance, process flow diagram, particle to process heat exchanger and equipment placements at the site. Subsequently, parallel efforts were carried out at UCM to design, build and test a 12 m long commercial scale prototype concentrating thermal-only collector system and at GTI to design, build and test a matching 650°C capable particle TTS system. The nominal 50 kWth collector consists of a parabolic trough and three 4 m long two-stage receivers in series. Prior to on-sun testing, a 4 m long receiver was fabricated and successfully tested at 650 °C in a laboratory setting for 100 hrs of continuous operation showing less than 15% radiation loss. A 7 m wide x 17 m long parabolic trough was then installed at UCM for on-sun testing of the 12 m long receiver, and concurrently several 4 m long receivers were built. The optics of the parabolic trough were calibrated, and on-sun test were carried out on 12 m long receivers. During tests, the intense solar radiation (53x) caused the absorber tubes in the receivers to bend, reducing the overall optical efficiency. To address the bending issue, a self-consistent algorithm that includes ray tracing, thermal and deformation models was developed to perform thermal stress analysis on absorbers for parabolic solar collectors. Results obtained with this algorithm showed a dramatic rise in deformation as absorber tube length increases. A combined efficiency parameter that includes the occluded area for the mounts was developed to obtain an optimized tube length obtained. Based on the results, a length of 2.7 m for the absorber + 0.2 m for the coupler was chosen to minimize any bending and optimize optical efficiency while maintaining ease of mounting. The associated particle TTS system was designed, built and successfully tested at GTI. It includes storage, receiving and lock hoppers and piping that simulates the transfer of captured solar energy to an actual industrial furnace. Tests over 77 charge-discharge cycles demonstrated <2% particle degradation, with no problematic particle accumulations and no flow interruptions. The piping pressure drop was about 5 psi. The team also worked with Stanley Consultants (Stanley) to prepare conceptual and preliminary engineering packages to facilitate follow-on development and commercialization efforts. These include process and instrumentation diagram’s (P&ID’s), general arrangements, electrical one-line, project definitions document, equipment data sheets, schedule, and construction cost estimate for 2 MWth system. Updated HSS technology commercialization and customer engagement plans and detailed costs and evaluated market trade-offs and manufacturing.

03 NATURAL GAS↗