Performance Evaluation of the Pressurized Synhelion Absorbing Gas Receiver

Abstract

The pressurized design of the Synhelion absorbing gas receiver concept has been presented. Despite its intrinsic increased design complexity, foreseen advantages such as receiver downscaling and more compact piping and insulation systems were the drivers for the initial development of the 250 kW_th receiver design operating at high pressure (10 bar absolute). The latter was driven by the results of specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations aimed at evaluating the receiver thermo-fluid dynamics behaviour along with the relative performance. This paper shows the results of the two initial CFD simulations campaigns aimed at evaluating the effect, on the receiver performance, of the integration of absorbing inserts (i.e., a series of concentric disks specifically arranged into the cavity to capture the incoming concentrated solar radiation) and the position and shape of the inlet section of the heat transfer fluid. The simulations results allowed not only to evaluate the receiver performance, in terms of thermal efficiency, but also to observe some criticalities related to the motion of the HTF through the receiver.