Cooperative Agreement DEEE0010248

THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY OF SOLAR ABSORPTIVITY OF PARTICLE HEAT TRANSFER MEDIA FOR CSP SOLID PARTICLE PATHWAY. SOLAR ABSORPTIVITY, WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PROPERTY FOR THE PARTICLE HEAT TRANSFER MEDIA, IS KNOWN TO DEGRADE DURING THE CSP POWER TOWER OPERATIONS DUE TO HIGH TEMPERATURES (>700C) AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. THIS PROJECT AIMS RETRIEVE >90% SOLAR ABSORPTIVITY THROUGH A NOVEL PROCESS THAT WILL DIRECTLY IMPACT LEVELIZED COST OF ELECTRICITY (LCOE). THOUGH A PRELIMINARY TECHNO ECONOMIC ANALYSIS, WE WILL ALSO DEMONSTRATE A COST SAVING OF 15% OR MORE IN MATERIAL COST AND CSP PLANT OPERATION COST. IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVE, WE WILL IDENTIFY OPTIMUM HYDROGEN (H2) CONCENTRATION, PROCESSING TIME (SHORTER THAN 30 MINUTES), AND TEMPERATURE (BETWEEN 200C AND 400C) FOR INTEGRATION OF A CONTINUOUS OR SEMI BATCH SAND BASED PARTICLE (SBP) ABSORPTIVITY RECOVERY SYSTEM IN A GEN3 CSP PROCESS. THROUGH A SET OF SMALL-SCALE TESTS, THIS STUDY WILL INITIALLY FOCUS ON UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL REDUCTION RATES AS A FUNCTION OF PROCESS VARIABLES WITHIN A PREIDENTIFIED DESIGN SPACE. THE PROJECT WILL THEN IDENTIFY OPTIMUM CONDITIONS FOR THE SBP'S ABSORPTIVITY RECOVERY PROCESS. SUBSEQUENTLY, A BENCH SCALE RECOVERY SYSTEM IN THE FORM OF A REACTOR WILL BE SET UP WITH ALL ESSENTIAL METROLOGY WILL BE DESIGNED AND CONSTRUCTED. THIS BENCH SCALE SETUP WILL THEN BE USED TO REDUCE THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH REPEATABILITY OF THE RECOVERY PROCESS AT LARGER SCALE AND TO DEMONSTRATE TECHNOECONOMIC FEASIBILITY FOR ITS FULL-SCALE IMPLEMENTATION. MIDPOINT PROJECT OBJECTIVE: AT ITS MIDPOINT (MONTH 6), THIS PROJECT AIMS TO IDENTIFY SUITABLE H2 CONCENTRATION, TEMPERATURE, AND RESIDENCE TIME TO ACHIEVE ECONOMICALLY VIABLE RECOVERY OF OXIDIZED SBPS. FOR THIS PURPOSE, REDUCING GAS CONCENTRATION, ENERGY INPUT, AND OPERATION TIME WILL BE USED AS SURROGATES FOR THE US DOLLAR. THIS ANALYSIS WILL ALLOW THE INITIAL ESTIMATION OF MINIMUM POSSIBLE COST, AND EVALUATION OF REPEATABILITY AND REPRODUCIBILITY OF THE RECOVERY PROCESS AT COMMERCIAL SCALE. ENDPOINT PROJECT OBJECTIVE: AT ITS ENDPOINT (MONTH 12) AND BY USING THE RESULTS OF THE BENCH SCALE EXPERIMENTS, THIS PROJECT AIMS TO CONDUCT A TECHNOECONOMIC ANALYSIS TO DEMONSTRATE THE IMPLEMENTATION FEASIBILITY OF A FULL-SCALE SBP ABSORPTIVITY RECOVERY PROCESS WITHIN A GEN3 CSP SYSTEM.