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Thermal Energy Storage for Concentrated Solar Thermal Applications

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "D: Energy Storage and Application".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 3221

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Element 16 Technologies, Arcadia, CA, USA
Interests: heat transfer; energy storage; desalination
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Interests: energy storage; solar fuels; solar desalination; two-phase heat transfer

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A cost-effective thermal energy storage technology is critical to increase the utilization of intermittent renewable energy sources such as concentrated solar thermal and make it dispatchable for power generation and industrial process heat applications. Thermal storage systems adopt different energy storage modes, including well-studied sensible and latent energy storage, as well as thermochemical storage, which is in a relatively nascent stage. A successful development of a thermal storage system involves scientific and technological developments in several research areas, including materials characterization, thermodynamics, heat transfer study, system demonstration, and technoeconomic analysis.

In this Special Issue, we cordially invite you to submit reviews, perspectives, and original articles related to aforementioned topics that will broaden our understanding of the scientific principles governing the dynamic performance of thermal storage systems for concentrated solar–thermal applications. With the inclusion of a wide range of topics related to thermal storage technology development, this Special Issue will serve as a guide for the scientific and industrial community.

Dr. Karthik Nithyanandam
Dr. Amey Barde
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Thermal energy storage
  • Solar thermal
  • Heat transfer
  • Thermodynamic modeling
  • Technoeconomics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 39336 KiB  
Article
A Comparative Study of High-Temperature Latent Heat Storage Systems
by Alok Kumar Ray, Dibakar Rakshit, K. Ravi Kumar and Hal Gurgenci
Energies 2021, 14(21), 6886; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14216886 - 20 Oct 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2364
Abstract
High-temperature latent heat storage (LHS) systems using a high-temperature phase change medium (PCM) could be a potential solution for providing dispatchable energy from concentrated solar power (CSP) systems and for storing surplus energy from photovoltaic and wind power. In addition, ultra-high-temperature (>900 °C) [...] Read more.
High-temperature latent heat storage (LHS) systems using a high-temperature phase change medium (PCM) could be a potential solution for providing dispatchable energy from concentrated solar power (CSP) systems and for storing surplus energy from photovoltaic and wind power. In addition, ultra-high-temperature (>900 °C) latent heat storage (LHS) can provide significant energy storage density and can convert thermal energy to both heat and electric power efficiently. In this context, a 2D heat transfer analysis is performed to capture the thermo-fluidic behavior during melting and solidification of ultra-high-temperature silicon in rectangular domains for different aspect ratios (AR) and heat flux. Fixed domain effective heat capacity formulation has been deployed to numerically model the phase change process using the finite element method (FEM)-based COMSOL Multiphysics. The influence of orientation of geometry and heat flux magnitude on charging and discharge performance has been evaluated. The charging efficiency of the silicon domain is found to decrease with the increase in heat flux. The charging performance of the silicon domain is compared with high-temperature LHS domain containing state of the art salt-based PCM (NaNO3) for aspect ratio (AR) = 1. The charging rate of the NaNO3 domain is observed to be significantly higher compared to the silicon domain of AR = 1, despite having lower thermal diffusivity. However, energy storage density (J/kg) and energy storage rate (J/kgs) for the silicon domain are 1.83 and 2 times more than they are for the NaNO3 domain, respectively, after 3.5 h. An unconventional counterclockwise circular flow is observed in molten silicon, whereas a clockwise circular flow is observed in molten NaNO3 during charging. The present study establishes silicon as a potential PCM for designing an ultra-high-temperature LHS system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Energy Storage for Concentrated Solar Thermal Applications)
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