Study of Phase Change Steam Accumulator and Application to Solar Rankine Cycle System.

Abstract

Since fossil fuel like petroleum, coal, and natural gases will sooner or later run out in this or next century, natural energy like solar, wind, and biomass will rise as one of alterative energy sources. Most of the conventional solar thermal electric systems utilize high-temperature difference. In the present paper, an advanced solar Rankine cycle system with CPC (Compound Parabolic Concentrator) collector and steam accumulator of phase-change type is newly proposed. The phase-change steam accumulator with high temperature phase change material (PCM) is designed and evaluated both experimentally and theoretically. And this paper reports experimental results of the proposed system under actual solar radiation and under heat stored accumulator condition.