A review on the application of liquid metals as heat transfer fluid in Concentrated Solar Power technologies

摘要

Among all renewable energy sources Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems are considered a technology that will play an important role in future energetic scenarios and that will become economically competitive with conventional fossil fuel power systems. As an example, among the next generation of CSP systems, Solar Central Receiver Systems (CRS) is a technology that is considered to have a high improving potential, especially if rising the operating temperature at about 1000 degrees C in order to increase the efficiency and thus reduce the dimensions of the receiver and the overall costs of the system. In order to achieve these temperatures liquid metals may be proposed to replace conventional fluids, namely water, air and molten salts, as a new generation of heat transfer fluids.