Abstract
Solar energy is an energy intermittent source that faces a substantial challenge for its power dispatchability. Hence, concentrating solar power (CSP) plants and solar process heat (SPH) applications employ thermal energy storage (TES) technologies as a link between power generation and optimal load distribution. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-based materials are widely used in sensible TES, but their use is limited to operation temperatures below 400 to 500 °C because of thermal degradation processes. This work proposes a geopolymer (GEO)-based concrete as a suitable alternative to OPC concrete for TES that withstands high running temperatures, higher than 500 °C. To this end, thermophysical properties of a geopolymer-based concrete sample were initially measured experimentally; later, energy storage capacity and thermal behavior of the GEO sample were modeled numerically. In fact, different thermal scenarios were modeled, revealing that GEO-based concrete can be a sound choice due to its thermal energy storage capacity, high thermal diffusivity and capability to work at high temperature regimes.
Highlights
Solar energy has received more attention in recent years due to its dispatchability, abundance and scalability
The MDSC-measured values of specific heat capacity for GEO represent a consistent behavior versus temperature rise
Taverage was calculated for GEO, Ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-1 and OPC-2 for Tinlet = 700 ◦ C and Tinitial = 250–650 ◦ C with 50 ◦ C intervals
Summary
Solar energy has received more attention in recent years due to its dispatchability, abundance and scalability. The main challenge of using solar energy as the main source of energy is the intermittency of solar flux resulting in less thermal energy gain and so less heat or power generation. This impediment can be overcome by a mechanism called thermal energy storage (TES). High-temperature applications mainly employ solid materials as they are more stable in the long term and, most importantly, cost-effective. Problems such as freezing, evaporation or leakage will no longer be relevant
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