SBIR Phase II: Advanced Molten Salt for Solar Thermal Power Generation with Supercritical Steam Turbines

SBIR 第二阶段：用于超临界汽轮机太阳能热发电的先进熔盐

• 批准号: 1230442
• 负责人: Justin Raade
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Halotechnics, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-15 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1230442&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Advanced; Molten

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes to develop a novel molten salt for solar thermal power generation with supercritical steam turbines. Solar thermal technology developers must increase the operating temperature of their plants to lower their levelized cost of electricity and reduce the cost of thermal storage. Building upon a successful Phase I program, the project team has developed a prototype salt mixture that could enable this trend. It is low cost, exhibits a melting point below 240 deg. C, and has a high maximum temperature of 700 deg. C, a broad operating range currently unavailable elsewhere. The project will conduct a high throughput R&D program to rapidly screen up to thousands of unique mixtures of inorganic salts to optimize the physical properties of the prototype fluid. The project will apply combinatorial chemistry techniques, originally developed for pharmaceutical applications, to this new field. After screening many candidates, the project will evaluate the materials compatibility of a few promising mixtures with common steel and nickel-based alloys. Corrosion mitigation techniques will be developed and evaluated. The project will conduct flow testing in a lab-scale test loop capable of 700 deg. C operation.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be the enabling of low-cost electricity from the sun. It is imperative that society reduce its usage of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal) to address pressing concerns - climate change and environmental degradation, energy security, and price volatility. Solar thermal power, a compelling source of renewable electricity at large scale, is the most promising solution to reduce fossil fuel use. However, electricity from solar thermal power currently costs too much to be directly competitive with fossil fuels. Furthermore, solar thermal plants need a cheap way to store heat in order to produce power after sundown or when utilities demand it. This project focuses on the material at the heart of these plants - the heat transfer fluid - and thermal storage system. The market for thermal storage is projected to reach $3.7 billion by 2015. Thermal storage is growing increasingly valuable as utilities realize the need for solar power that can deliver smooth, reliable output regardless of weather conditions. The development of the proposed innovation would both reduce the cost of solar thermal power and enable economical thermal storage, bringing the nation significantly closer to eliminating the use of coal.

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目提出开发一种新型熔盐，用于超临界蒸汽涡轮机的太阳能热发电。太阳能热技术开发商必须提高其工厂的运行温度，以降低其电力成本并降低热存储成本。在成功的第一阶段计划的基础上，项目团队开发了一种可以实现这一趋势的原型盐混合物。它成本低，熔点低于240 ℃。C，并具有700度的高最高温度。C，目前其他地方无法提供的广泛的操作范围。该项目将进行高通量研发计划，以快速筛选多达数千种独特的无机盐混合物，以优化原型流体的物理特性。该项目将把最初为制药应用开发的组合化学技术应用于这一新领域。 在筛选了许多候选材料之后，该项目将评估一些有前途的混合物与普通钢和镍基合金的材料相容性。将开发和评估腐蚀缓解技术。该项目将在一个实验室规模的测试回路中进行流量测试，该测试回路能够在700摄氏度的温度下运行。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是能够从太阳获得低成本电力。社会必须减少化石燃料（石油、天然气、煤炭）的使用，以解决紧迫的问题--气候变化和环境退化、能源安全和价格波动。 太阳能热发电是一种引人注目的大规模可再生电力来源，是减少化石燃料使用的最有前途的解决方案。然而，太阳能热电目前成本太高，无法与化石燃料直接竞争。此外，太阳能热电站需要一种廉价的方式来储存热量，以便在日落后或公用事业需要时发电。该项目的重点是这些电站的核心材料-传热流体-和储热系统。到2015年，热存储市场预计将达到37亿美元。随着公用事业公司意识到对太阳能的需求，热存储越来越有价值，无论天气条件如何，太阳能都可以提供平稳，可靠的输出。拟议创新的发展将降低太阳能热电的成本，并实现经济的热存储，使国家大大接近消除煤炭的使用。