Thesis
Molten salts as heat transfer fluids for solar thermal power plants
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
01 Jul 2015
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-6537
Abstract
Carbon dioxide, primarily created by burning fossil fuels, is an overwhelming component to the global warming problem. With these environmental issues surrounding fossil fuels, it is important to fully develop alternative energy options. Solar thermal power is a viable solution to the world's energy problem and is an environmentally friendly and safe solution. The purpose of this thesis is to determine melting temperature, heat capacity and density of molten salts and investigate their viability as a heat transfer fluid for a solar thermal power plant. The solar thermal power plant model developed by Powell and Edgar [1] was utilized and altered to implement the properties determined for NaCl, KCl and a NaCl-KCl mixture. The unit cell structures for each were developed in MATLAB to determine the necessary material properties for the solar thermal power plant simulation. The melting temperature was determined using Tosi-Fumi interaction potentials. Using the simulation results for the melting temperature, the heat capacity and density were determined for the molten salts' melt and crystal structures. The parameters of NaCl and KCl were used in the power plant simulation to study their effect on power. Both molten salts did not perform as well as the original molten salt used by Powell and Edgar. An additional study was conducted to determine the effects of density and heat capacity on power. As anticipated, a higher heat capacity increases the power output, whereas density does not affect the power output. Due to the low heat capacities of NaCl and KCl, these are not realistic options for heat storage. Overall, molten salts possess high thermal stability and high thermal conductivities. The simulations created in this study provide the building blocks for future work in more complex molten salts, such as solar salt, Hitec and Hitec XL.
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Details
- Title
- Molten salts as heat transfer fluids for solar thermal power plants
- Creators
- Krysten Minnici - DU
- Contributors
- Jonathan E. Spanier (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Science (M.S.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Materials (Science and) Engineering (Metallurgical Engineering) (1970-2026); College of Engineering (1970-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 6537; 991014632063904721