A High Temperature Solar Particle Receiver

Abstract

A solar particle receiver was developed to heat a process gas to very high temperatures. Its operation is based on seeding the process gas with a very large numerical amount (but small mass fraction, less than 0.5%) of sub-micron radiation absorbing particles (see article by Bertocchi et al. in this issue). The gas-particle mixture is exposed to highly concentrated solar energy in the receiver. Peak temperatures obtained were 2,100 K with Nitrogen, and 2,000 K with air. Radiation to thermal energy conversion efficiencies were estimated to exceed 85%. The receiver accumulated 12 hours of operation at temperatures over 1,700 K without major failure 1.