Abstract
Direct steam generation is a promising alternative to conventional heat transfer fluids for solar thermal power plants using linear concentrators because water and steam do not have thermal and chemical stability problems. The novelty of this study, an energy and exergy (2E) analysis, was that it was performed on several configurations of a conceptual direct steam generation solar power plant with optimized Fresnel reflectors in Agua Prieta, Mexico coupled with a regenerative steam Rankine power cycle to quantify their efficiency and establish a reference for future implementation of this technology in concentrated solar power plants in Mexico. The thermal model was assumed to be a 1D steady-state flow and validated against results in the literature. It was then applied directly to a case study to determine the size of the solar field. The design point was the lowest solar irradiance day, and evaluating the solar multiple with the highest solar irradiance, taking care not to oversize the solar field, as suggested for solar plants without energy storage. Comparing the performance of the optimized Fresnel field against the FRESDEMO field of Plataforma Solar de Almería, a considerable decrease in the length of the loop has been demonstrated with a low reduction in thermal efficiency.
Highlights
In recent years, the towering environmental problems faced around the world have increased the urgency to incorporate technologies for harvesting renewable resources to satisfy energy demand
concentrated solar power (CSP) uses different mirror configurations to concentrate the incident solar radiation onto a smaller area called a receiver, where high heat is supplied to a heat transfer fluid (HTF)
Even though the objective of this work was a 2E analysis of the LFR system, characterizing the thermodynamic cycle will allow the theoretical efficiency of the Rankine cycle configurations to be determined
Summary
The towering environmental problems faced around the world have increased the urgency to incorporate technologies for harvesting renewable resources to satisfy energy demand. In 2018, the global energy demand was estimated to be 556 E, of which 88.3 EJ was for generating electricity [1]. As an alternative to fossil fuels, solar technologies such as concentrated solar power (CSP) have been added to the energy mix. CSP uses different mirror configurations to concentrate the incident solar radiation onto a smaller area called a receiver, where high heat is supplied to a heat transfer fluid (HTF). That is used to drive a heat engine and generate electric power. Any attempts to optimize a process to increase its efficiency will directly influence the system’s energy inputs and outputs. The authors’ present work is focused on optimizing the configuration of the FRESDEMO field
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