Assessment and Perspectives of Heat Transfer Fluids for CSP Applications

Alberto Giaconia; Anna Chiara Tizzoni; Salvatore Sau; Natale Corsaro; Emiliana Mansi; Annarita Spadoni; Tiziano Delise

LAPSE:2023.17523

Published Article

LAPSE:2023.17523

Assessment and Perspectives of Heat Transfer Fluids for CSP Applications

Alberto Giaconia, Anna Chiara Tizzoni, Salvatore Sau, Natale Corsaro, Emiliana Mansi, Annarita Spadoni, Tiziano Delise

March 6, 2023

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.

Record ID

LAPSE:2023.17523

Keywords

CSP, heat transfer fluids, linear focusing concentrators, linear Fresnel collectors, mineral oil, molten salts, parabolic trough, synthetic oil, thermal oil

Subject

Energy Systems

Suggested Citation

Giaconia A, Tizzoni AC, Sau S, Corsaro N, Mansi E, Spadoni A, Delise T. Assessment and Perspectives of Heat Transfer Fluids for CSP Applications. (2023). LAPSE:2023.17523

Author Affiliations

Giaconia A: 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 [ORCID]
Tizzoni AC: 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 [ORCID]
Sau S: 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 [ORCID]
Corsaro N: 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
Mansi E: 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
Spadoni A: 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
Delise T: 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

Journal Name

Energies

Volume

14

Issue

22

First Page

7486

Year

2021

Publication Date

2021-11-09