TY - JOUR A1 - Puppe, Michael A1 - Giuliano, Stefano A1 - Frantz, Cathy A1 - Uhlig, Ralf A1 - Schumacher, Ralph A1 - Ibraheem, Wagdi A1 - Schmalz, Stefan A1 - Waldmann, Barbara A1 - Guder, Christoph A1 - Peter, Dennis A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Alexopoulos, Spiros A1 - Spiegel, Michael A1 - Wortmann, Jürgen A1 - Hinrichs, Matthias A1 - Engelhard, Manfred A1 - Aust, Michael T1 - Techno-economic optimization of molten salt solar tower plants JF - AIP Conference Proceedings art.no. 040033 N2 - In this paper the results of a techno-economic analysis of improved and optimized molten salt solar tower plants (MSSTP plants) are presented. The potential improvements that were analyzed include different receiver designs, different designs of the HTF-system and plant control, increased molten salt temperatures (up to 640°C) and multi-tower systems. Detailed technological and economic models of the solar field, solar receiver and high temperature fluid system (HTF-system) were developed and used to find potential improvements compared to a reference plant based on Solar Two technology and up-to-date cost estimations. The annual yield model calculates the annual outputs and the LCOE of all variants. An improved external tubular receiver and improved HTF-system achieves a significant decrease of LCOE compared to the reference. This is caused by lower receiver cost as well as improvements of the HTF-system and plant operation strategy, significantly reducing the plant own consumption. A novel star receiver shows potential for further cost decrease. The cavity receiver concepts result in higher LCOE due to their high investment cost, despite achieving higher efficiencies. Increased molten salt temperatures seem possible with an adapted, closed loop HTF-system and achieve comparable results to the original improved system (with 565°C) under the given boundary conditions. In this analysis all multi tower systems show lower economic viability compared to single tower systems, caused by high additional cost for piping connections and higher cost of the receivers. REFERENCES Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5067069 VL - 2033 IS - Issue 1 PB - AIP Publishing CY - Melville, NY ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Frantz, Cathy A1 - Binder, Matthias A1 - Busch, Konrad A1 - Ebert, Miriam A1 - Heinrich, Andreas A1 - Kaczmarkiewicz, Nadine A1 - Schlögl-Knothe, Bärbel A1 - Kunze, Tobias A1 - Schuhbauer, Christian A1 - Stetka, Markus A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Spiegel, Michael A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Bauer, Thomas A1 - Bonk, Alexander A1 - Eisen, Stefan A1 - Funck, Bernhard T1 - Basic Engineering of a High Performance Molten Salt Tower Receiver System T2 - Solar Paces 2020 Y1 - 2020 SP - 1 EP - 10 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Flesch, Robert A1 - Alexopoulos, Spiros A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Improved efficiency prediction of a molten salt receiver based on dynamic cloud passage simulation T2 - AIP Conference Proceedings Y1 - 2019 SN - 978-0-7354-1866-0 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5117566 VL - 2126 IS - 1 SP - 030054-1 EP - 030054-8 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mahdi, Zahra A1 - Rendón, Carlos A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Novel concept for indirect solar-heated methane reforming T2 - AIP Conference Proceedings Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5117694 SN - 0094-243X VL - 2126 SP - 180014-1 EP - 180014-7 PB - AIP Publishing CY - Melville, NY ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Angele, Florian A1 - Nouri, Bijan A1 - Schwarzbözl, Peter A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Impact of DNI forecast quality on performance prediction for a commercial scale solar tower: Application of nowcasting DNI maps to dynamic solar tower simulation T2 - SolarPACES conference proceedings N2 - Concerning current efforts to improve operational efficiency and to lower overall costs of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants with prediction-based algorithms, this study investigates the quality and uncertainty of nowcasting data regarding the implications for process predictions. DNI (direct normal irradiation) maps from an all-sky imager-based nowcasting system are applied to a dynamic prediction model coupled with ray tracing. The results underline the need for high-resolution DNI maps in order to predict net yield and receiver outlet temperature realistically. Furthermore, based on a statistical uncertainty analysis, a correlation is developed, which allows for predicting the uncertainty of the net power prediction based on the corresponding DNI forecast uncertainty. However, the study reveals significant prediction errors and the demand for further improvement in the accuracy at which local shadings are forecasted. KW - Process prediction KW - DNI forecasting KW - Nowcasting KW - Uncertainty analysis KW - Molten salt receiver system, Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.675 SN - 2751-9899 (online) N1 - 28th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 27-30 September, Albuquerque, NM, USA IS - Vol. 1 PB - TIB Open Publishing CY - Hannover ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schulte, Jonas A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Frantz, Cathy A1 - Schloms, Felix A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Control concept for a molten salt receiver in star design: Development, optimization and testing with cloud passage scenarios T2 - SolarPACES conference proceedings N2 - A promising approach to reduce the system costs of molten salt solar receivers is to enable the irradiation of the absorber tubes on both sides. The star design is an innovative receiver design, pursuing this approach. The unconventional design leads to new challenges in controlling the system. This paper presents a control concept for a molten salt receiver system in star design. The control parameters are optimized in a defined test cycle by minimizing a cost function. The control concept is tested in realistic cloud passage scenarios based on real weather data. During these tests, the control system showed no sign of unstable behavior, but to perform sufficiently in every scenario further research and development like integrating Model Predictive Controls (MPCs) need to be done. The presented concept is a starting point to do so. KW - Molten salt receiver KW - Star design KW - Control optimization KW - Cloud passages Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.52825/solarpaces.v1i.693 SN - 2751-9899 (online) N1 - 28th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems, 27-30 September, Albuquerque, NM, USA IS - Vol. 1 PB - TIB Open Publishing CY - Hannover ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mahdi, Zahra A1 - Dersch, Jürgen A1 - Schmitz, Pascal A1 - Dieckmann, Simon A1 - Caminos, Ricardo Alexander Chico A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Schmitz, Mark A1 - Gielen, Hans A1 - Gedle, Yibekal A1 - Büscher, Rauno T1 - Technical assessment of Brayton cycle heat pumps for the integration in hybrid PV-CSP power plants T2 - SOLARPACES 2020 N2 - The hybridization of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Photovoltaics (PV) systems is a promising approach to reduce costs of solar power plants, while increasing dispatchability and flexibility of power generation. High temperature heat pumps (HT HP) can be utilized to boost the salt temperature in the thermal energy storage (TES) of a Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) system from 385 °C up to 565 °C. A PV field can supply the power for the HT HP, thus effectively storing the PV power as thermal energy. Besides cost-efficiently storing energy from the PV field, the power block efficiency of the overall system is improved due to the higher steam parameters. This paper presents a technical assessment of Brayton cycle heat pumps to be integrated in hybrid PV-CSP power plants. As a first step, a theoretical analysis was carried out to find the most suitable working fluid. The analysis included the fluids Air, Argon (Ar), Nitrogen (N2) and Carbon dioxide (CO2). N2 has been chosen as the optimal working fluid for the system. After the selection of the ideal working medium, different concepts for the arrangement of a HT HP in a PV-CSP hybrid power plant were developed and simulated in EBSILON®Professional. The concepts were evaluated technically by comparing the number of components required, pressure losses and coefficient of performance (COP). KW - Solar thermal technologies KW - Hybrid energy system KW - Concentrated solar power KW - Power plants KW - Energy storage Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-0-7354-4195-8 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0086269 SN - 1551-7616 (online) SN - 0094-243X (print) N1 - 26th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems 28 September–2 October 2020 Freiburg, Germany IS - 2445 / 1 PB - AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Flesch, Robert A1 - Schwarzbözl, Peter A1 - Herrmann, Ulf A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José T1 - Advanced two phase flow model for transient molten salt receiver system simulation JF - Solar Energy N2 - In order to realistically predict and optimize the actual performance of a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant sophisticated simulation models and methods are required. This paper presents a detailed dynamic simulation model for a Molten Salt Solar Tower (MST) system, which is capable of simulating transient operation including detailed startup and shutdown procedures including drainage and refill. For appropriate representation of the transient behavior of the receiver as well as replication of local bulk and surface temperatures a discretized receiver model based on a novel homogeneous two-phase (2P) flow modelling approach is implemented in Modelica Dymola®. This allows for reasonable representation of the very different hydraulic and thermal properties of molten salt versus air as well as the transition between both. This dynamic 2P receiver model is embedded in a comprehensive one-dimensional model of a commercial scale MST system and coupled with a transient receiver flux density distribution from raytracing based heliostat field simulation. This enables for detailed process prediction with reasonable computational effort, while providing data such as local salt film and wall temperatures, realistic control behavior as well as net performance of the overall system. Besides a model description, this paper presents some results of a validation as well as the simulation of a complete startup procedure. Finally, a study on numerical simulation performance and grid dependencies is presented and discussed. KW - Molten salt solar tower KW - Molten salt receiver system KW - Dynamic simulation KW - Two-phase modelling KW - Transient flux distribution Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.12.065 SN - 0038-092X (print) SN - 1471-1257 (online) VL - 232 SP - 362 EP - 375 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schulte, Jonas A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Noureldin, Kareem A1 - May, Martin A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Gradient controlled startup procedure of a molten-salt power-to-heat energy storage plant based on dynamic process simulation T2 - SolarPACES: Solar Power & Chemical Energy Systems N2 - The integration of high temperature thermal energy storages into existing conventional power plants can help to reduce the CO2 emissions of those plants and lead to lower capital expenditures for building energy storage systems, due to the use of synergy effects [1]. One possibility to implement that, is a molten salt storage system with a powerful power-to-heat unit. This paper presents two possible control concepts for the startup of the charging system of such a facility. The procedures are implemented in a detailed dynamic process model. The performance and safety regarding the film temperatures at heat transmitting surfaces are investigated in the process simulations. To improve the accuracy in predicting the film temperatures, CFD simulations of the electrical heater are carried out and the results are merged with the dynamic model. The results show that both investigated control concepts are safe regarding the temperature limits. The gradient controlled startup performed better than the temperature-controlled startup. Nevertheless, there are several uncertainties that need to be investigated further. KW - Power plants KW - Energy storage KW - Associated liquids Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-0-7354-4623-6 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0148741 SN - 1551-7616 (online) SN - 0094-243X (print) N1 - 27th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems 27 September–1 October 2021 Online IS - 2815 / 1 PB - AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schwager, Christian A1 - Angele, Florian A1 - Schwarzbözl, Peter A1 - Teixeira Boura, Cristiano José A1 - Herrmann, Ulf T1 - Model predictive assistance for operational decision making in molten salt receiver systems T2 - SolarPACES: Solar Power & Chemical Energy Systems N2 - Despite the challenges of pioneering molten salt towers (MST), it remains the leading technology in central receiver power plants today, thanks to cost effective storage integration and high cost reduction potential. The limited controllability in volatile solar conditions can cause significant losses, which are difficult to estimate without comprehensive modeling [1]. This paper presents a Methodology to generate predictions of the dynamic behavior of the receiver system as part of an operating assistance system (OAS). Based on this, it delivers proposals if and when to drain and refill the receiver during a cloudy period in order maximize the net yield and quantifies the amount of net electricity gained by this. After prior analysis with a detailed dynamic two-phase model of the entire receiver system, two different reduced modeling approaches where developed and implemented in the OAS. A tailored decision algorithm utilizes both models to deliver the desired predictions efficiently and with appropriate accuracy. KW - Power plants KW - Associated liquids KW - Decision theory KW - Electrochemistry Y1 - 2023 SN - 978-0-7354-4623-6 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0151514 SN - 1551-7616 (online) SN - 0094-243X (print) N1 - 27th International Conference on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems 27 September–1 October 2021 Online IS - 2815 / 1 PB - AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY ER -