Argonne National Laboratory Reports

Abstract

A system has been designed to use CPC collectors to collect solar energy and to generate steam for industrial process heat purposes. The system is divided into two loops with the collectors in the collector loop to operate a pre-heater and the collectors in the boiler loop to heat water to elevated pressures and temperatures. A flash boiler is used to throttle the heated water to steam. Two types of CPC collectors are chosen. In the collector loop the CPC collectors are fitted with concentric tube receivers. In the boiler loop the collectors employ heat pipes to transmit heat. This design is able to alleviate the scaling and plumbing problems. A fragile receiver tube can also be employed without rupture difficulties. The thermal processes in the collectors were analyzed using a computer modeling. The results were also used to develop a thermodynamic analysis of the total system. Calculations show that the design is technically feasible. The CPC collector is shown to have an efficiency that is very weakly dependent on its operating temperatures, which makes the collector particularly attractive in high temperature applications