Molten Salt Heat Transfer Research Articles

Uncertainty analysis of FLiNaK thermophysical properties on convective heat transfer characteristics in circular tube

Molten salts have attracted a spate of quantity of interests in energy and chemistry fields due to their large volumetric capacity, and thermodynamic stability at elevated temperature. However, there are significant uncertainties in the physical properties of molten salts, such as density, specific heat capacity, dynamic viscosity, and thermal conductivity, due to inexperienced measurement techniques and technology. These uncertainties could have certain impact on the evaluation of molten salts heat transfer characteristics. Therefore, an uncertainty analysis is performed regarding FLiNaK thermophysical properties on convective heat transfer characteristics in circular tube. Then, a polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) method is performed to study the uncertainty affecting the heat transfer characteristic. In the process of uncertainty analysis, tensor product quadrature nodes are used to calculate representative sample points and reduce computational costs. Three primary physical properties of molten salt are taken into account as the input parameters. The Sobol composition method is also used to analyze the contributions of each parameter to heat transfer. The results of the uncertainty analysis suggest that the uncertainties in dynamic viscosity, thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity have a significant impact on the heat transfer of molten salt, contributing to 80 %, 14 %, and 6 % of the total variability, respectively. It also suggests that the polynomial chaos expansion methodology is both novel and reliable when applied to uncertainty analysis of molten salt.

Nanoparticle agglomeration in molten salt nanofluids: Free energy landscape and its impacts on thermal transport property degradation

The nanofluids consisting of molten salt and nanoparticles can gain enhanced thermal performance for heat transfer and energy storage processes. Agglomeration of nanoparticles is ubiquitous in this colloidal dispersion, deteriorating the dispersed states of the nanocomposite interiors, and its microscopic mechanisms are unsatisfactorily explored. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations combined with umbrella sampling technique to capture the relative dispersion state of nanoparticles in molten salts effectively were performed to reveal the free energy landscape of agglomeration and its influence on heat transport. The dominant deep minima in the free energy surface demonstrates that the agglomeration of MgO nanoparticles in the molten NaCl salt is principally induced by van der Waals attractions between MgO nanoparticles and aggravated by large surface area. The unstable dispersion of nanoparticles is the most fatal problem for enhanced thermal conductivity during agglomeration, and the relative distance of MgO nanoparticles has less impacts on the thermal conductivity of the melt. The stronger adsorption of ions around nanoparticles can improve their relative dispersion, and utilize interfacial effects to enhance the thermal conductivity. Combined with the benefit of ordered ionic layer on the surface, the MgO nanoparticles of 10 Å diameter (specific surface area of ∼ 938.80 m2/g) become the optimal choice for molten NaCl. With the mechanisms of interfacial microstructures preventing agglomerated nanoparticles and improving heat transfer of molten salts revealed, this work can enlighten the selection or feasible modification for nanoparticles in various high-temperature molten salts, since the mechanisms are universal to other nanofluids, especially for ionic liquid based nanofluids.

Study on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of hitec salt in solar vacuum collector tube

ABSTRACT With the continuous development of parabolic trough collectors technology, molten salt has gradually become a popular heat transfer fluid used in solar vacuum collector tubes. An experimental platform with Hitec salt (7% NaNO3, 53% KNO3, and 40% NaNO2) circulation loop was established to study the convective heat transfer characteristics of the molten salt side in the solar vacuum collector tube, and the convective heat transfer experiments were carried out under different irradiation intensities. The results show that increased irradiation intensity can effectively enhance the convection heat transfer. The experimental data under 0W/m2 have a significant deviation from the Nusselt number junction calculated by the classical heat transfer equations, and the deviation ranges from −7.9% to + 15.2%. The heat transfer equations under 0W/m2 and 850W/m2 were fitted, and the deviations between the experimental data and the calculated results of the fitted equations were −8% to + 8% and −9.9% to + 9.5%, respectively. A high-precision fitting strategy based on a neural network algorithm was introduced, the maximum deviation was −3.18% to + 3.35% and −3.9% to + 3.8%, which shows better fitting effect. This study can provide fundamental heat transfer data for the flow heat transfer of ternary molten salt in solar vacuum collector tubes, and provide theoretical guidance for the distribution of heat collection field in trough solar photovoltaic power station.

Numerical analysis of turbulent mixed convection heat transfer of molten salt in horizontal tubes with uniformly cooled heat flux

Molten salt is a widely used heat transfer medium in the field of energy systems. In the engineering design, mixed convection heat transfer often occurs in the high heat flux tube convection heat transfer process, which can significantly change the convective heat transfer capability. However, optimizing the heat exchange conditions can improve the heat transfer capacity of molten salt. In this study, turbulent mixed convection heat transfer characteristics of Hitec molten salt inside horizontal cooling tubes are investigated numerically using the Reynolds stress turbulence model. The results show that the secondary flow caused by buoyancy can lead to significant nonuniform in heat transfer and wall temperature on the wall surface of the horizontal tube cross section. In addition, the buoyancy parameter Bo is selected to characterize the buoyancy effect on Hitec mixed convection heat transfer inside a horizontally cooled circular tube, and within the Bo range from 2.82 × 10−8 to 1.61 × 10−5, as the Bo increases, the relative average Nusselt number for the upper half tube wall gradually increases, the relative average Nusselt number for the lower half tube wall decreases, and the relative average Nusselt number for the entire tube wall shows the combined results of the upper half wall and the lower half wall relative average Nusselt numbers, which slightly increases and then decreases. Furthermore, based on the numerical data, the critical buoyancy parameters Bocr,1 = 10−7 and Bocr,2 = 6.96 × 10−6 at which the buoyancy force starts to affect heat transfer and the average Nusselt number for the entire tube wall starts to decrease are proposed, and variations of the mixed convection heat transfer against the buoyancy parameter Bo are presented respectively for different regions of the horizontal cooling tubes. Based on this research, a reasonable and widely applicable buoyancy parameter selection criterion can be constructed to guide the future engineering designs.

Numerical study on the flow and heat transfer performance of SCO2/molten salt in Z-type printed circuit heat exchangers

The utilization of a PCHE in conjunction with a SCO2 Brayton cycle and molten salt thermal storage demonstrates a high efficiency. Investigating the flow and heat transfer characteristics of SCO2 and molten salt within a Z-type PCHE is essential. However, this particular aspect has not been explored by previous researches. This study employs a Z-type PCHE to analyze the heat transfer and flow characteristics of SCO2 and molten salt under different inlet temperatures, mass fluxes, and outlet pressures. Furthermore, the heat transfer efficiency of a Z-type PCHE is evaluated and compared to that of a conventional straight-type PCHE. The results indicate that the flow pattern of SCO2 exhibits periodic behavior due to the periodic bending structure of Z-type PCHE, while the flow of molten salt is minimally affected. Furthermore, different SCO2 conditions lead to divergent patterns in flow and heat transfer efficiency compared to molten salt. Z-type channels help alleviate the decline in heat transfer that typically happens in the inlet section of straight channels. Nu for a dual working fluid in a straight-type PCHE is only 1.1 times greater than that of a single working fluid. In Z-type PCHE configuration, the ratio of the dual working fluid to the single working fluid Nu is 1.4. The sensitivity of SCO2/molten salt dual working fluid to the heat exchanger structure is significant, with Z-type PCHE demonstrating superior heat transfer capabilities. The results outlined in this study offer the prospect of improving the design and deployment of Z-type PCHE in molten salt energy storage systems that operate within SCO2 Brayton cycle.

Heat Transfer of an Integrated Counterflow Ceramic Heat Exchanger

The ceramic-based heat exchanger is one of the leading contenders for high-efficiency concentrating solar power plants using a molten salt heat transfer fluid and a supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton power cycle operating at temperatures above 700 °C due to the excellent resistance of ceramics to corrosion, oxidation, erosion, creep, and fouling. In the present study, the thermal performance of a ceramic silicon carbide prototype heat exchanger, with semi-elliptical heat transfer channels, integrated header channels, and a counterflow configuration fabricated by using binder jetting additive manufacturing, was experimentally investigated. Experimental heat transfer tests of the prototype were conducted at high temperatures and under various test fluid flow rates and inlet temperatures. The experimental heat transfer rates compared favorably with simulation predictions.

Numerical study of molten salt flow and heat transfer in a pipe applied non-uniform magnetic field

Based on the magnetohydrodynamics model, this study numerically investigated the influence of a transverse non-uniform magnetic field on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of molten salt in a conductive pipe. The magnetic field was constructed with three sections including gradient and uniform regions, which was fitting to real application of the magnetic field. The flow and heat transfer of molten salt were studied within the ranges of 0 ≤ Ha ≤ 200 and 3000 ≤ Re ≤ 12 000. The results indicated that variation of magnetic field had significant effects on the flow velocity, turbulent intensity, and Joule heat, thus influencing the temperature and the Nusselt number of molten salt. Although the flow in core region was suppressed by the magnetic field, the flow velocity was enhanced and turbulence was reduced near the pipe wall, which was shown obviously different within three regions of the magnetic field. An interesting phenomenon of local heat transfer enhancement with increasing magnetic intensity was observed in the first section of the magnetic field, which was from the complex effects of flow velocity and turbulence. In addition, the Joule heat was calculated and analyzed to determine its influence on heat transfer under the magnetic field. A detailed analyzation of magnetic fluid flow in this study was provided to hopefully promote the molten salt in real application of flow and heat transfer.

CO2-derived carbon for improving thermal energy storage of molten carbonate

Molten salt is an excellent medium for heat transfer and storage in solar thermal power generation. The heat transfer and storage performance of molten salt can be significantly enhanced by adding carbon materials. However, the poor dispersion stability of carbon materials in molten salts remains a big challenge. This work reports a kind of dispersive carbon materials in molten carbonate that possess a unique microstructure and are rich in oxygen-containing functional groups. The carbon material was electrochemically produced in molten salt using CO2 as feeding material, which allowed the salt to wet its surface and thereby resulted in good wetting and dispersion properties in molten carbonate. With a carbon concentration of 0.05 wt%, the specific heat capacity of molten Li2CO3–Na2CO3–K2CO3 increases by 89.6 % from 1.67 J g−1 K−1 to 3.17 J g−1 K−1 and thermal conductivity by 181.9 % from 0.61 W m−1 K−1 to 1.71 W m−1 K−1. Overall, this work opens a new avenue for the application of CO2-derived carbon in efficient heat storage.

Interlayer spacing control strategy to construct the rapid thermal conductivity channel in the molten salt phase change materials

With the goal of improving the thermal conductivity of inorganic salt PCMs without significantly affecting the thermal energy storage density, a functionalized modification strategy to regulate the layer spacing of nano two-dimensional (2D) materials was proposed to construct a thermal conduction pathway in phase change materials (PCMs). In the instance of graphene, we proposed hydroxylation to increase the lamellar spacing between graphene, improve its dispersion in molten salt PCMs, and speed heat transfer of graphene composite molten salt. When compared to pure graphene, the addition of hydroxylated graphene (GOH) improved the thermal conductivity of PCMs significantly. The thermal conductivity model demonstrated that the thermal conductivity pathway can be constructed by equally dispersing enough GOH to further increase the thermal conductivity. When the GOH percentage was 0.8 %, the composite's thermal conductivity was 2.60 W/(m·K), which was 118.5 % greater than the graphene composite with the same content. When the melting point was 240.00 °C, the composite material had a high latent heat of 355.52 J/g. The morphology characterization and thermal conductivity model analysis show that adjusting the layer spacing can improve graphene dispersion, facilitating the construction of thermal conduction pathway in PCMs, accelerating heat transfer, and essentially maintaining PCMs' original thermal energy storage density. Therefore, the strategy of regulating the layer spacing of 2D materials in this study has the potential to extend the application of other 2D materials used in PCMs to improve the heat storage properties.

Numerical study on the flow and heat transfer of molten salt in a horizontal pipe applied transverse magnetic field

Based on a modification of a magnetohydrodynamic turbulence model, a numerical study was performed to investigate the effects of transverse uniform and gradient magnetic field on the turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics of a low melting point molten salt in a stainless steel pipe. With the Hartmann number from 0 to 80, the numerical results showed that the fluid flow displayed anisotropic distributions under the magnetic field with decrease of velocity in the mainstream region, and decrease of turbulent intensity, whereas the flow velocity increased in the boundary layer near the Hartmann and Roberts wall. Especially, a velocity jet phenomenon was observed in the Roberts boundary layers at higher Hartmann number in the uniform magnetic field or the positive gradient magnetic field. Under the gradient magnetic field, the flow and heat transfer of molten salt displayed much more variations than under the uniform magnetic field. The magnetohydrodynamic calculation results proposed here might be helpful to the design of the composite heat transfer system for molten salt in actual industrial applications.

Heat Transfer and Flow Friction Performance of Molten Salt and Supercritical CO2 in Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger

Molten salt and supercritical CO2 (sCO2) have been selected as the two most promising heat transfer fluids in the 3rd generation of solar thermal power generation, so it is very important to study their heat transfer and flow characteristics for the design of heat exchanger. This research studies thermohydraulic performance of molten salt and sCO2 in a printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) with different channel configurations. A PCHE unit with straight channel for molten salt and discontinuous fin for sCO2 was selected for the fin shape optimization of sCO2 side. Results show that the newly proposed Fin II channel can reduce the flow resistance of sCO2 compared with the airfoil Fin I, and Fanning friction factor can be decreased by 11.93% at the expense of Colburn factor decreased by 2.24%. The mechanism of heat transfer enhancement is analyzed by using field synergy principle, and the results show that the temperature field, velocity field and pressure field have better synergy in the Fin II channel. The optimal finned channel improves the comprehensive performance of PCHE, which contributes to the third generation of solar thermal power generation.

Experimental research on heat transfer characteristic of HITEC molten salt in evacuated tube solar collector

HITEC molten salt (7% NaNO3, 53% KNO3, 40% NaNO2) has been identified as a suitable heat transfer fluid for concentrated solar power (CSP) systems, such as parabolic trough collectors (PTC) and evacuated tube solar collectors (ETSC). In order to optimize the flow and heat transfer performance of HITEC in ETSC, a molten salt heat transfer test rig was built to conduct an experimental study, varying inlet and outlet temperatures and mass flow rates of HITEC. Results show that the heat loss of HITEC in ETSC is lower than the other tubes. The convective heat transfer coefficient of HITEC is much lower than that of HITEC in round tube. Because the experimental data of HITEC in ETSC largely differed from the classical correlation equations, a new empirical heat transfer correlation equation was set for HITEC in ETSC, and the deviation between the experiment data and new correlation was within ±19.2%. Finally, by comparing the inlet and outlet temperatures of ETSC under different irradiation intensities, it is concluded that the ETSC can work stably when the temperature exceeds 700 W/m2.

Development and characterization of a quaternary nitrate based molten salt heat transfer fluid for concentrated solar power plant

Over the past few years, there has been growing interest in using inorganic quaternary nitrate-based molten salt mixtures as a highly effective heat transfer fluid (HTF) for concentrated power plants, primarily because they can achieve low melting temperatures. However, the high viscosity of these salt mixtures is still a significant challenge that hinders their widespread adoption. The high viscosity leads to high pumping power requirements, which increases operational costs, and reduces the efficiency of the Rankine cycle. To address this challenge, this study developed and characterized a novel quaternary molten salt, focusing on the effect of LiNO3 additions on the salt's viscosity, thermal conductivity, melting point temperature, heat capacity, and thermal stability. The quaternary mixture comprised KNO3, LiNO3, Ca(NO3)2, and NaNO2, with varying percentages of each salt. The study utilized various standard techniques to examine the characteristics of the developed mixture. Results showed that increasing LiNO3 content led to a decrease in melting temperature, higher heat capacity, improved thermal stability, conductivity, and reduced viscosity at solidification temperature. The lowest endothermic peak for the new mixture emerged at 73.5 °C, which is significantly lower than that of commercial Hitec and Hitec XL, indicating better potential for use as a heat transfer fluid for concentrated solar thermal power plant applications. Furthermore, the thermal stability results showed high stability up to 590 °C for all the samples examined. Overall, the new quaternary molten salt shows promise as a potential replacement for current organic synthetic oil, offering a more efficient solution.

Investigation of field synergy principle for convective heat transfer with temperature-dependent fluid properties

The field synergy principle is widely used in the analyses and optimizations of convective heat transfer, but its original derivations are based on fluids with constant thermal properties. The applicability of the principle for fluids with temperature-dependent properties needs clarification. A theoretical analysis of the problem is conducted. It is found that a synergy principle of mass flux vector and specific enthalpy gradient is more fundamental. Because temperature gradients are parallel to specific enthalpy gradients, the original field synergy principle of velocity and temperature fields is still valid. Heat transfer of supercritical CO2 and molten salt in different finned channels is numerically studied, and different mean synergy angles are compared. It is found that the domain integration mean synergy angles calculated with specific enthalpy gradient or temperature gradient have the same trends. For the volume-weighted mean angles, the absolute value of dot product of velocity and temperature gradient should be used in calculating the local synergy angles. Otherwise, the trend of the volume-weighted mean angles can be contrary to the field synergy principle. Meanwhile, the accuracy of the mesh and the temperature gradient near the heat transfer surfaces is important for the numerical applications of the field synergy principle.

Numerical study on heat transfer characteristics of molten salt in a flat tube with circular helical wire

The combination of a new type of irregular-shaped helical wire and flat tube is used to further enhance heat transfer of molten salt for the first time due to the demands of efficient utilization of molten salt. The thermo-hydraulic performance of turbulent flow in a flat tube with irregular-shaped helical wire under constant wall temperature condition is investigated using Fluent software. The effects of helical pitch, wire diameter, gap width between the tube wall and helical wire, different fluids and inlet Reynolds number ranging from 1500 to 8500 are evaluated. It is found that adding irregular-shaped helical wire insert in flat tube can reduce greatly the lengths of flow and thermal entrance regions. The maximum heat transfer performance of flat tube with irregular-shaped helical wire is 400% that of smooth flat tube. The heat transfer performance increases with the wire diameter and decreases with the gap width and helical pitch. The maximum thermal performance factor with a value of 1.72 is observed based on a constant pumping power. Besides, the heat transfer performance of flat tube with irregular-shaped helical wire is 24.0%-40.2% larger than that of circular pipe with helical wire at low Reynolds number.

Advances in High-Temperature Molten Salt-Based Carbon Nanofluid Research

Molten salt is an excellent medium for heat transfer and storage. The unique microstructure of carbon nanomaterials leads to good mechanical stability, low density, high thermal conductivity, and high strength, etc. The addition of carbon nanomaterials to molten salt to form molten salt nanofluid can remarkably enhance the specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity of molten salt and reduce the molten salt viscosity, which is of great importance to increase the heat storage density and reduce the heat storage cost. Nevertheless, some challenges remain in the study of such nanofluids. The main challenge is the dispersion stability of carbon nanomaterials. Therefore, to improve research on carbon nanofluids, this paper summarizes the progress of carbon-based molten salt nanofluid research worldwide including the preparation methods of molten salt nanofluids, the improvement of heat transfer performance, and the improvement of heat storage performance. The effects of carbon nanoparticle concentration, size, and type on the heat transfer and storage performance of molten salt are derived, and the effects of nanoparticle shape on the heat transfer performance of molten salt are analyzed while more promising preparation methods for carbon-based molten salt nanofluids are proposed. In addition, the future problems that need to be solved for high-temperature molten salt-based carbon nanofluids are briefly discussed.

Mixed convective and radiative heat transfer of LiF-BeF2-ThF4-UF4 in a vertical circular tube

Molten salts are promising fluids for applications involving heat transfer and thermal energy storage. The buoyancy effect and radiative heat transfer effect are frequently ignored in previous studies that concentrate on forced convective heat transfer of molten salts. However, these effects might not be negligible, particularly for laminar flows of optically semi-transparent fluids, such as molten salts. Therefore, this study tries to understand the heat transfer characteristics of molten salts, including mixed (forced and natural) convective heat transfer and radiative heat transfer. A two-dimensional axisymmetric model is created in STAR-CCM+ for assisting (buoyancy-assisted) laminar flows of LiF-BeF2-ThF4-UF4 (67.5–20.0–12.0–0.5 mol%) in a 5-m long, 15-mm-inner-diameter vertical circular tube. The effects of several non-dimensional parameters on the velocity, temperature, and Nusselt number are examined, including the Reynolds number (Re¯=2.0×102to1.8×103), Grashof number (Gr¯=3.1×103to5.4×104), optical thickness (τ=0.1τ0to10τ0, τ0 = 0.27, 2.11, and 446.47 for the three bands λI = 0.10 to 3.36 µm, λII = 3.36 to 5.42 µm, and λIII = 5.42 to 100.00 µm, respectively), and emissivity (ε=0.0to1.0). A flow regime map is also suggested to assess the radiative heat transfer effect in molten salts. Our analysis demonstrates that: (1) the predicted results in this study deviate from published experimental data by 14.5 to 45.1 % without taking the buoyancy effect and radiative heat transfer effect into account, however, these differences are dramatically decreased to 10.1 to 17.4 % while considering the buoyancy effect or 7.5 to 14.7 % while considering the buoyancy effect and radiative heat transfer effect; (2) the radiative heat transfer effect tends to mitigate the buoyancy effect, but their net effect enhances heat transfer; (3) the buoyancy effect factor fbuoy and thermal radiation effect factor frad are, respectively, up to 38.5 % and 19.5 % under the conditions investigated, illustrating the need to evaluate the two effects for molten salts; (4)fbuoy becomes larger for smaller values of Re¯, τ, and ε, and larger values of Gr¯ and non-dimensional axial location x/Di. frad becomes larger for smaller values of Re¯ and larger values of Gr¯, τ, ε, and x/Di; and (5) the flow regime map provided in this study aids in determining whether the radiative heat transfer effect in molten salts is negligible.

Experimental Analysis of Forced Convective Heat Transfer of Nitrate Salt in a Circular Tube at High Reynolds Numbers and Temperatures

The forced convective heat transfer of molten nitrate salt in a circular smooth tube is experimentally investigated using a water-cooled induction heater. This novel setup is first validated using water as the main fluid, as its heat transfer is well-known. To enable an accurate deduction of the Nusselt number, a detailed review on the state-of-the-art of the thermophysical properties of Solar Salt is provided. The final experiments are carried out with “Solar Salt” at fluid bulk temperature ranging between 300°C and 550°C. The salt mass flow is varied in order to cover Reynolds numbers ranging from 14000 up to 220000. Furthermore, the experiments are conducted for different heat fluxes ranging from 330 kW/m² up to 920 kW/m². This paper provides data on the behavior of the forced convective heat transfer of molten salt for Reynolds numbers larger than 100000. To investigate the impact of local overheating of the salt above its chemical stability limit (i.e. 600°C), the mean Nusselt number is evaluated for inner wall temperatures up to 633°C. Mean Nusselt numbers are reported and compared to the well-known Gnielinski correlation.

Study of combined heat and power plant integration with thermal energy storage for operational flexibility

Increasing the share of renewable energy in the future electricity market requires measures to maintain the stability of the grid, owing to the volatility and intermittency of renewable energy. For a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, molten salt thermal energy storage (TES) can be added to improve the flexibility to meet the needs of peak shaving. This paper proposed a novel cascade reheat steam extraction system to adjust the electrical load by using EBSILON software applied to thermal simulation and thermal analysis. A 350 MW supercritical CHP plant was used as an example to analyze the thermal and peak shaving performance under variable operating conditions. Meanwhile, through the static simulation, the change in the load and the efficiency of TES can be calculated during the charging and discharging cycle. The results show that the efficiency of TES is 40–51 %. With an increase in the load, the efficiency of TES is reduced, and the exergy loss range is from 4 MW to 12.4 MW mainly due to the throttling process and the molten salt heat transfer process. Moreover, the thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency of the novel system are higher than those of the traditional CHP plant below 60 % turbine heat acceptance, so it is relatively economical to run for peak shaving under low loads. Finally, depending on the corresponding operating strategy, a reduction of the minimum load by up to 1 % of the rated output electrical load during charging and an increase of the maximum load by up to 2 % of the rated output electrical load during discharging are possible. Overall, the proposed system provides a feasible method for the flexibilization of CHP plants alongside new renewable systems.

Additive manufacturing and testing of a ceramic heat exchanger for high-temperature and high-pressure applications for concentrating solar power

Heat exchangers with excellent corrosion and oxidation resistances are essential for the next-generation concentrating solar power (CSP) plants using a molten salt heat transfer fluid and a supercritical CO2 Brayton power cycle that can operate at temperatures >700 °C for higher efficiencies. Techniques were developed for additively manufacturing ceramic materials for applications involving high temperature, high pressure, and high corrosion resistance as needed for the CSP application. Based on a previous ceramic heat exchanger design with its cross-section geometry of the flow channels optimized for heat transfer and mechanical strength, lab-scale prototype heat exchangers, with integrated headers and incorporated flow channel dimensional compensations, were fabricated by using the binder jetting process. The printed prototype heat exchangers were successfully densified through the processes of liquid polymer infiltration and pyrolysis. In addition, thermophysical properties of the densified silicon carbide parts were measured to provide necessary design information. Experimental heat transfer testing of the lab-scale prototype heat exchanger was conducted, and the experimental data agreed reasonably well with the simulated results. This agreement provides validation of the simulation models for their applicability to the development of a full-scale ceramic heat exchanger.