High-temperature angular-selective radiant surfaces for the de-carbonisation of energy intensive industries.

Project Information

HEASeRS

Grant agreement ID: 101027316

DOI

10.3030/101027316

Project closed

EC signature date 16 April 2021

Start date 15 November 2021

End date 17 March 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 160 932,48

EU contribution

€ 160 932,48

Coordinated by

Fundacion IMDEA Energia
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HEASeRS (High-temperature angular-selective radiant surfaces for the de-carbonisation of energy intensive industries.)

Reporting period: 2021-11-15 to 2023-11-14

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The High-tEmperature Angular-Selective Radiant Surfaces (HEASeRS) project focused on issues related with the decarbonisation of high-temperature processes, for energy production and storage as well as Energy Intensive Industries (EEIs). The specific problem being addressed is the lack of design options for high-temperature heat and thermal radiation transfer devices.

High-temperature heat generation for industrial processes and electricity production accounts for more than 54% of the global CO2 emissions . The European Union has set the ambitious target of European carbon neutrality by 2050 which will require the top 4 CO2 emission industries (i.e. electricity, cement, steel and chemical commodities production) to innovate and adapt. Work developed in the HEASeRS project contributes to this effort by developing alternative methods to modify the performance of high-temperature materials that are ubiquitous in EEIs.

The overall objectives were to study the impact of the geometry of the surface of materials used in industry on their optical properties at multiple lengths scales. The vision proposed is to develop solutions based on surface geometry modification for radiative properties control that do not involve the use of complex multi-materials assemblies and associated manufacturing difficulties. This approach is generally applicable to all high-temperature processes and exempt of most of the limitations of existing design paradigms.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project was divided into 3 technical work packages (WPs 1-3) and a secondment (WP 4). WPs 5 and 6 concerned dissemination and project management aspects.

In WP 1: Micro-scale, the work focused on the evaluation of the effect of surface roughness on the radiative properties of industrially relevant materials. The work was divided in theory and experimental considerations. Experimentally, the work involved measurement of material micro-scale surface topography and compositions, as well as directional optical properties in a range of specialized equipment. Theory-wise, numerical ray-tracing and bi-directional reflectance models were evaluated and their applicability to real measurements assessed.

In WP 2: Meso-scale, a series of 3D printed alloy 718 underwent thorough evaluation including material aging and characterisation of the optical properties (reflectance and emittance) in oxidised state. Here again, theory was compared to experiments to investigate the cross-influence of the micro-scale and meso-scale aspects.

In WP3: Macro-scale, preliminary work looking at the influence on non-ideal properties on the design of radiant cavities was conducted, along with exploration of advanced simulation techniques for conducto-radiative simulations able to facilitate design optimisation tasks in the future.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Overall, the project contributed to start to address a gap in the literature regarding the optical properties of industrially relevant, non-ideal materials, and in particular the impact of their surface geometry. Specific, WP-wise results and progress beyond the state of the art are listed below.
For WP 1 – Micro-Scale:
- Observation of lack of Lambertian behaviour on industrially relevant rough materials, including significant specularity at increasing incident angles and off-angle specular behaviours.
- Acquisition of a large amount of bi-directional reflectance data and associated samples composition and surface micro-scale topography which are necessary to develop further understanding of the impact of real roughness profiles on the optical properties of industrial materials.
- Development of open-source numerical tools for:
1. The interpretation, correction, analysis and conversion to STL of surface profilometry of rough surfaces with extraction of anisotropic statistical information.
2. The numerical simulation of rough surfaces and bi-directional reflectances via Monte-Carlo Ray Tracing in a general purpose open-source ray-tracer.
3. An open access library to process, analyse and represent of BDRF data.

For WP 2 – Meso-scale:
- First reported additively manufactured surface features on high-temperature materials to modify their optical/radiative properties and successful demonstration that such surface geometries do influence significantly the directional radiative properties.
- Demonstration that simple and widely-used approximations of optical behaviour such as the lambertian or partly specular assumptions cannot accurately reproduce experimental measurements, indicating that the interplay between surface roughness and meso-scale is important.
- Measurement of directional emittance on 3D patterned Inconel materials up to 700 °C.

For WP 3 – Macro-scale:
- Preliminary assessment of the influence of surface optical properties on the effective absorptance of a larger scale device.

Results from activities developed during HEASeRS were disseminated via two oral presentations and three poster presentations in international conferences. Beyond this traditional scientific output, the Researcher communicated the project and the main results to industrial actors in a range of relevant sectors (cement, concentrated solar energy, thermal energy storage, oil and gas, specialty ceramics manufacturing). While it is, at the end of this project, too early to observe socio-economical benefits if the action, the activities developed in HEASeRS constitute the first step in establishing an original research line that will bring societal benefits through decarbonisation when the findings are integrated into the relevant energy and high-temperature process industries.