Abstract
This work presents a two-stage approach for the design and evaluation of the performance of solar central tubular receivers. First, the unit design is obtained using a mixed-integer nonlinear programing (MINLP) optimization problem, considering the radiation profile and the weather of the location. Later, with the design fixed, the NLP is solved to determine the performance of the receiver during a year. Three different locations are studied (Almería, Arizona, and Scotland), each of them with their characteristic radiation and weather. The designs obtained show the effect of the location on the size of the different elements of the receiver. The performance over a year presents the heat-transfer features as well as the effect of the wind speed profile affecting the convective heat transfer. The number of trade-offs results in the need for a comprehensive analysis for the design of these units toward reducing the pressure drop but considering the increase of the thermal stress on the tubes.
Highlights
This work focuses on concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies that have received a lot of attention lately but still require additional development to improve the process efficiency to be installed across countries.[6]
The equipment is designed for the scenario that presents the most demanding conditions; this first stage corresponds to a mixed-integer nonlinear programing (MINLP) problem
This work develops a two-stage strategy for the design of central tubular solar receivers to simultaneously consider the number of trade-offs involved in the selection of size and tube layout
Summary
Electricity, or electrical energy, is a key element for progress and development, increasing its demand with the growth of the population[1] or when new industries and technologies are developed, such as, data centers.[2] This form of energy can be obtained from the conversion of other sources, such as, combustion of fossil fuels (coal, gas, etc.), nuclear reactions, or employing renewable resources (wind, solar radiation, biomass, etc.). Renewable energies are the most interesting choice to produce electricity nowadays because they provide an alternative to increase the production of electricity[3] and represent the technologies that allow reducing greenhouse gas emissions.[4,5] Solar energy is the only energy source that the Earth receives, but it is more than enough to supply mankind needs. CSP technologies usually involve heat-transfer fluids (HTFs), used to capture solar energy for its use toward the production of energy via steam generation as well as a means to store thermal energy, enabling the overnight operation of the CSP plants.[7,8] HTFs are usually a mixture of two or more compounds; in previous works, molten salts[9] and synthetic fluids[10] were considered as HTFs
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