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

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目建议开发一种新型熔盐，用于超临界汽轮机的太阳能热力发电。太阳能热技术开发商必须提高其工厂的运行温度，以降低其标准化的电力成本，并降低储热成本。在一个成功的第一阶段计划的基础上，项目组已经开发出一种原型盐混合物，可以实现这一趋势。它成本低，熔点低于240℃。C，最高温度为700℃。C，宽广的工作范围目前在其他地方是无法获得的。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性质。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后，该项目将评估几种有希望的混合物与普通钢和镍基合金的材料兼容性。将开发和评估缓蚀技术。该项目将在实验室规模的测试回路中进行流量测试，测试范围为700度。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是实现来自太阳能的低成本电力。当务之急是社会减少化石燃料(石油、天然气、煤炭)的使用，以解决气候变化和环境退化、能源安全和价格波动等紧迫问题。太阳能热电是一种引人注目的大规模可再生能源，是减少化石燃料使用的最有前途的解决方案。然而，太阳能热电目前的成本太高，无法与化石燃料直接竞争。此外，太阳能热电厂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公司需要时发电。该项目的重点是这些工厂的核心材料--换热流体--以及储热系统。到2015年，热能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，无论天气条件如何，都可以提供平稳、可靠的输出，因此热存储的价值越来越高。这项拟议中的创新的发展既可以降低太阳能热电的成本，又可以实现经济的储热，使美国离消除煤炭的使用又近了一大步。

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.