Optimization of Molten Salt Electric Heaters
The aim of this research project is to optimize the design of molten salt electric heaters, documenting main challenges and solutions to address them, and thereby laying the grounds towards a subsequent heater design verification and validation on-site, botha prototype at Exheat’s lab and a MW scale heater to be tested under real operating conditions.
Funded by:
Funded by Exheat Group Ltd
Time period:
March 2020 – March 2026
Project partners:
Background
Molten salt electric heaters can be of particular interest for active hybridization of CSP with solar PV, in a configuration where the salts are first pre-heated with oil coming from parabolic troughs and is then boosted via electric heaters to match same temperatures as those seen in CSP tower configurations. In-line electric heaters can also be used to charge the molten salts directly, without CSP, in the form of the so-called Carnot Batteries, which could particularly play an important role in reconversion of decommissioned coal plants where the steam cycle can still be operative. Despite in-line heaters have been used in other industrial applications involving different fluids, little to none is known about commercial applications in which in-line electric heaters have been specifically designed for operating with molten salts.
Aims and objectives
The aim of this research project is to optimize the design of molten salt electric heaters, documenting main challenges and solutions to address them, and thereby laying the grounds towards a subsequent heater design verification and validation on-site, botha prototype at Exheat’s lab and a MW scale heater to be tested under real operating conditions.
Publications
Publications coming out of this project will be available through Diva
Project contact persons
Dr. Rafael Guédez
Principal Investigator at KTH
Industrial PhD Candidate - Project member at KTH
R&D Manager – Exheat Group Ltd.