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Despite the big deployment of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, their environmental evaluation is still a pending issue. In this paper, a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) of a CSP tower plant with molten salts storage in a baseload configuration is carried out and compared with a reference CSP plant without storage. Results show that the plant with storage has a lower environmental impact due to the lower operational impact. The dependence on grid electricity in a CSP tower plant without storage increases its operation stage impact. The impact of the manufacturing and disposal stage is similar in both plants. When analyzed in detail, the solar field system and the thermal energy storage (TES) and heat transfer fluid (HTF) systems are the ones with higher impact. Within the storage system, the molten salts are those with higher impact. Therefore, in this study the impact of the origin of the salts is evaluated, showing that when the salts come from mines their impact is lower than when they are synthetized. Results show that storage is a key element for CSP plants not only to ensure dispatchability but also to reduce their environmental impact.
Gemma Gasa; Anton Lopez-Roman; Cristina Prieto; Luisa Cabeza. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Plant in Tower Configuration with and without Thermal Energy Storage (TES). Sustainability 2021, 13, 3672 .
AMA StyleGemma Gasa, Anton Lopez-Roman, Cristina Prieto, Luisa Cabeza. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Plant in Tower Configuration with and without Thermal Energy Storage (TES). Sustainability. 2021; 13 (7):3672.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGemma Gasa; Anton Lopez-Roman; Cristina Prieto; Luisa Cabeza. 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Plant in Tower Configuration with and without Thermal Energy Storage (TES)." Sustainability 13, no. 7: 3672.
The high intermittency of solar energy is still a challenge yet to be overcome. The use of thermal storage has proven to be a good option, with phase change materials (PCM) as very promising candidates. Nevertheless, PCM compounds have typically poor thermal conductivity, reducing their attractiveness for commercial uses. This paper demonstrates the viability of increasing the PCM effective thermal conductivity to industrial required values (around 4 W/m·K) by using metal wool infiltrated into the resin under vacuum conditions. To achieve this result, the authors used an inert resin, decoupling the specific PCM material selection from the enhancement effect of the metal wools. To ensure proper behavior of the metal wool under standard industrial environments at a broad range of temperatures, a set of analyses were performed at high temperatures and an inert atmosphere, presenting a thorough analysis of the obtained results.
Cristina Prieto; Anton Lopez-Roman; Noelia Martínez; Josep Morera; Luisa Cabeza. Improvement of Phase Change Materials (PCM) Used for Solar Process Heat Applications. Molecules 2021, 26, 1260 .
AMA StyleCristina Prieto, Anton Lopez-Roman, Noelia Martínez, Josep Morera, Luisa Cabeza. Improvement of Phase Change Materials (PCM) Used for Solar Process Heat Applications. Molecules. 2021; 26 (5):1260.
Chicago/Turabian StyleCristina Prieto; Anton Lopez-Roman; Noelia Martínez; Josep Morera; Luisa Cabeza. 2021. "Improvement of Phase Change Materials (PCM) Used for Solar Process Heat Applications." Molecules 26, no. 5: 1260.
Solar thermochemical water splitting was successfully demonstrated with monolithic receiver-reactors in field at 50 kW scale. Since monolithic receiver-reactors are limited in size, several of the reactors will have to be combined in receiver-reactor arrays for large-scale plants. In this study, the yearly performance of solar thermochemical plants for hydrogen production implementing receiver-reactor arrays is investigated. Thereto, a transient receiver-reactor model is used in combination with realistic hourly flux profiles from dedicated MW high temperature solar concentrator systems. The batched operation of receiver-reactors leads to particular requirements of the array. Therefore, an array efficiency is introduced and different control strategies for the solar field are analyzed for performance optimization. Advanced strategies have the potential to substantially (~46%) improve the overall performance compared to the base case. Further design and operational optimization approaches are discussed, which allow approaching the theoretical array performance limit.
Stefan Brendelberger; Andreas Rosenstiel; Anton Lopez-Roman; Cristina Prieto; Christian Sattler. Performance analysis of operational strategies for monolithic receiver-reactor arrays in solar thermochemical hydrogen production plants. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2020, 45, 26104 -26116.
AMA StyleStefan Brendelberger, Andreas Rosenstiel, Anton Lopez-Roman, Cristina Prieto, Christian Sattler. Performance analysis of operational strategies for monolithic receiver-reactor arrays in solar thermochemical hydrogen production plants. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 2020; 45 (49):26104-26116.
Chicago/Turabian StyleStefan Brendelberger; Andreas Rosenstiel; Anton Lopez-Roman; Cristina Prieto; Christian Sattler. 2020. "Performance analysis of operational strategies for monolithic receiver-reactor arrays in solar thermochemical hydrogen production plants." International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 45, no. 49: 26104-26116.