Descripción del proyecto
Acoplamiento de la energía solar de concentración a un ciclo Brayton con turbina de gas neutro en carbono para aumentar la eficiencia
Los ciclos combinados Brayton de alta eficiencia utilizados en las centrales eléctricas tradicionales implican el consumo de combustibles fósiles mediante aire a presión. El equipo del proyecto ABraytCSPfuture, financiado con fondos europeos, prevé desarrollar una tecnología para centrales de energía solar de concentración (CSP, por sus siglas en inglés) acopladas a ciclos Brayton con turbina de gas neutros en carbono. Los investigadores demostrarán un diseño de reactor termoquímico/intercambiador de calor de doble lecho, compacto y sin precedentes. Esta unidad transferirá el calor de una corriente de aire no presurizada a otra presurizada, al tiempo que funcionará como reforzador térmico al elevar la temperatura de la corriente presurizada hasta el nivel necesario para los ciclos Brayton. Además, la densidad volumétrica de almacenamiento de energía solar de las CSP se incrementará significativamente gracias al uso de materiales redox estructurados basados en perovskita, preparados a partir de fuentes primarias rentables y abundantes, como medio de almacenamiento de calor.
Objetivo
ABraytCSPfuture sets forth an innovative, carbon-neutral way for implementing into future air-operated CSP plants the inherently much more efficient air-Brayton gas turbine power generation cycles in order to achieve higher solar-to-electricity efficiencies, vital for competitiveness of CSP and non-reachable by either PVs or molten salts and thermal oils, significantly increasing in parallel the plants’ storage capability. Both these functionalities will be made possible by developing and demonstrating the integrated operation of a first-of-its-kind, compact, dual-bed thermochemical reactor/heat exchanger design, comprised of non-moving, flow-through porous ceramic structures (honeycombs or foams) based on earth-abundant, inexpensive, non-toxic oxide materials, capable of performing simultaneously the following:
• transferring heat from a non-pressurized air stream to a pressurized one, while operating simultaneously as a “thermal booster”, raising the temperature of the pressurized stream to levels required for gas turbine air-Brayton cycles.
• Increasing significantly the volumetric solar energy storage density of such air-operated CSP plants by rendering their current sensible-only regenerative storage systems to hybrid sensible-thermochemical storage ones, within the same storage volume,
Both these functionalities will be materialized by exploiting reversible reduction/oxidation reactions of such oxides in direct contact with air, accompanied by significant endothermic/exothermic heat effects. The first one in particular, will be achieved by performing the reduction of these oxides with solar-heated air streams under atmospheric pressure but their exothermic oxidation with pressurized air streams. The proposed technology is set forth by an interdisciplinary partnership spanning the entire CSP value chain, comprised of leading research centers, universities, innovative SMEs and large enterprises, including ancillary services providers and technology end-users.
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringthermodynamic engineeringheat engineering
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrytransition metals
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringceramics
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energysolar energyconcentrated solar power
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinador
51147 Koln
Alemania