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Various commercial proppants originally produced for fracking industry were examined as candidate materials to be used in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants as heat transfer and storage medium. Material properties as well as application related functional properties have been elucidated in a comparative manner. Despite their similar chemical composition, varying microstructures resulted in distinct application related functional properties. Carboceramics proppants are determined as the most promising candidate with highest viscous flow temperature, heat capacity, solar absorptance after thermal aging and abrasion resistance owing to well crystallized microstructure without glassy components. Moreover, the importance of the microstructure to achieve desired application related properties is revealed, in the scope of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat loss testing of parabolic trough receivers with heating cartridge is well-established. In that technique temperature is measured by pressing thermocouples against the inside surface of the absorber tube. As the temperature of the thermocouple is influenced by radiation temperature and air temperature in the annulus, the temperature of the thermocouple is higher than the absorber temperature. The paper presents a measurement of absorber temperature over-prediction as function of heating power between 89 °C and 577 °C for three different insulation configuration yielding over-prediction between 4.4 K and 15.3 K. This shows, that absorber temperature over-prediction is at a relevant order of magnitude for heat loss measurements of parabolic trough receivers. Interpolation using 2nd- and 3rd-order 2d polynomials with the additional condition of disappearing over-prediction at HL=0 for correction of heat loss measurements is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from a characterization of DLR's second generation sun simulator test facility (OptiRec) for determining the optical performance of parabolic trough receivers. The configuration of the test bench is an elliptical mirror trough with flat end mirrors. Solar simulator lamps are situated in one focal line, the receiver in the other focal line. Water at ambient temperature flows through the receiver and allows for a calorimetric measurement of the absorbed power. Compared to the first generation test bench (ElliRec) the mirror material is changed from aluminum to glass, the ellipse size is changed and the handling is improved. Based on 34 measurements of the absorbed power the repeatability for OptiRec measurements is measured to 0.13% (1σ), compared to 0.2% in the ElliRec. Seven receivers from different manufacturers are measured in both test benches yielding consistent relative optical efficiency with <1.1% deviation. Particular differences are larger than the repeatability, which are attributed to differences in spectra and incidence angles between both test benches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports heat flux measurements on parabolic trough receivers, which are integrated to calculate the receiver overall heat loss. Integrated heat fluxes yield an overall heat loss value which agrees with DLR ThermoRec heat loss measurements within ± 5 %, in the simplified case of assuming a homogeneous heat flux distribution around the receiver circumference. Heat flux measurements also allow separating glass envelope and shielded bellow heat loss terms for receiver thermal modelling. Shielded bellows only represent 3 to 4 % of the receiver total length at ambient temperature, however heat flux measurements show that their contribution to the overall receiver heat loss ranges from 5 to 15 %, depending on the shield construction and the absorber temperature. The receiver specific heat loss thus tends to lie above the glass envelope specific heat loss. Almost homogeneous heat flux values are measured along the glass envelope length (variation below 5 %), while more inhomogeneous heat flux values are observed over circumference of the glass envelope (variation between top and side of 17 %). The measurement setup analysis shows a good repeatability, although a proper mounting of heat flux sensors is important in order to avoid systematic biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]