A Study of a Solar-Thermochemical Energy Transport System for the Pacific Northwest

如果太阳能要对国家能源经济做出重大贡献，它必须取代化石燃料的使用，为工业部门提供过程热量。工业使用的高温蒸汽一般在200-700 oC。在聚光太阳能设施中，可以很容易地获得这个范围内的温度。但过程热的大多数工业用户并不位于可靠的太阳能通量的气候中。如何有效地将太阳能聚光器中的高温热能存储和输送到使用点是一项重大挑战。如果太阳能聚光器中可利用的高温能量被用作气体之间吸热反应的过程热，那么太阳能将被储存在反应的产物中。然后，气体产品可以在常温下通过传统管道输送到数百公里外的工业用户手中，在那里可以通过相反的放热反应回收能量。这样的系统被称为热化学管，或化学热管。这项研究计划拨款将审查化学热管系统的技术和经济可行性。将考虑将太阳能吸收与感兴趣的化学反应分离的反应堆-接收器系统的设计。

If solar energy is to make a significant contribution to the national energy economy, it must displace the use of fossil fuels to supply process heat to the industrial sector. Industry generally uses high temperature steam in the range 200-700 oC1. Temperatures in this range can be attained with ease in a concentrating solar facility. But most industrial users of process heat are not located in a climate of reliable solar flux. It is a major challenge to efficiently store and deliver the high temperature thermal energy from the solar concentrator to the point of use. If the high temperature energy available in the solar concentrator were used as the process heat for an endothermic reaction between gases, then the solar energy would be stored in the products of the reaction. The gaseous products then could be transported at ambient temperatures in a conventional pipeline hundreds of kilometers to the industrial user, where energy could be recovered in the reverse, exothermic reaction. Such a system is known as a thermochemical pipe, or chemical heat pipe. This research planning grant will examine the technical and economic feasibility of a chemical heat pipe system. The design of a reactor-receiver system that decouples the absorption of the solar energy from the chemical reaction of interest will be considered.