Cost of Using Laser Powder Bed Fusion to Fabricate a Molten Salt-to-Supercritial Carbon Dioxide Heat Exchanger for Concentrating Solar Power

Abstract

Advances in manufacturing technologies and materials are crucial to the commercial deployment of energy technologies. We present the case of concentrating solar power (CSP) with molten salt (MS) thermal storage, where low-cost, high-efficiency heat exchangers (HXs) are needed to achieve cost competitiveness. The materials required to tolerate the extreme operating conditions in CSP systems make it difficult or infeasible to produce them using conventional manufacturing processes. Although it is technically possible to produce HXs with adequate performance using additive manufacturing, specifically laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), here we assess whether doing so is cost-effective. We describe a process-based cost model (PBCM) to estimate the cost of fabricating a MS-to-supercritical carbon dioxide HX using LPBF. The PBCM is designed to identify modifications to designs, process choices, and manufacturing innovations that have the greatest effect on manufacturing cost. Our PBCM identified HX design and LPBF process modifications that reduced projected HX cost from $750 per kilo-Watt thermal (kW-th) ($8/cm3) to $350/kW-th ($6/cm3) using currently available LPBF technology, and down to $220/kW-th ($4/cm3) with improvements in LPBF technology that are likely to be achieved in the near term. The PBCM also informed a redesign of the HX design that reduced projected costs to $140–160/kW-th ($3/cm3).