Maarky Thermal Systems Presents Paper during 2015 PowerGen Conference
Dr. Ranga Nadig presented his paper titled “Nitrogen Based Thermal Storage Medium for Concentrated Solar Power Plants” on Wednesday, December 9th at the 2015 PowerGen International Conference in Las Vegas, NV.
The abstract for the paper is below:
The loss of electrical power generation at nighttime in a Concentrated Solar Power Plant (CSP) is circumvented by using thermal storage. Thermal storage material is heated to elevated temperatures during daytime and then stored in large containers. At night, the energy from the heated material is used to generate high pressure steam which drives a turbine generator producing electricity.
Molten salt has been the thermal storage material of choice. Procurement and transportation of large quantities of molten salt to the solar plants at remote locations is a challenge. Molten salt freezes at about 550°F. Expensive additives can lower the freezing temperature. Freezing of molten salt in pipes, valves, heat exchangers and associated components at night leads to a whole new genre of problems. Irregularities in salt composition can alter the melting temperature and thermal properties thereby affecting the thermal storage design.
The patent pending Maarky concept of using nitrogen as the storage medium alleviates a number of disadvantages afflicting the use of molten salt. Eighty percent of Earth’s atmosphere is made of nitrogen and available for free. Nitrogen can be easily extracted from the atmosphere at the plant site. Nitrogen has stable thermodynamic properties and can be compressed and stored in large containers. Nitrogen is not combustible and leaks do not cause a safety hazard. If there is a leak then nitrogen escapes to the atmosphere where it came from. Nitrogen remains in gaseous state over a wide range of temperatures. The freezing problem is completely eliminated.
This paper discusses the patent pending Maarky concept of using nitrogen as storage medium in Concentrated Solar Power Plants. The advantages over molten salt systems and the mechanism of usage in various categories of CSPs are discussed.
To download a complete version of the paper, please click on the link provided.
