Some Investigations to Enhance the Peak Operating Time of a Concentrating Solar Power Plant with Focus on Heat Transfer Fluids
- Vol, 103(2) , April
- Kolkatta Springer 2022
- 197–205p
Two heat transfer fluids were prepared and tested for their thermophysical properties in order to assess their suitability as a heat transfer fluid in concentrating solar power plant (CSP) operations. The first fluid was a ternary salt mixture containing Ca(NO3)2–KNO3–NaNO3. It has a lower melting point as compared to Solar Salt®. This salt is found to have comparable viscosities and densities at CSP operating temperatures. However, a slight decrease in the thermal stability (~ 1% mass loss at 873 K) is observed. This salt is also more economical and displayed lower corrosion behavior for SS304 steels. The second fluid investigated is an oxide mixture of B2O3-SiO2. This mixture is tested for thermal stability as a replacement for Solar Salt®. It displayed better thermal stability even at temperatures around 1023 K. However, due to the high viscosity, a network modifier, Na2O is added; which in turn reduced the viscosity to approximately 87% of its initial value. The thermal stability of this ternary mixture is also improved, exhibiting ~ 0.3% mass loss at 1373 K.