Análise energética e exergética do sistema de sal de uma planta de potência solar concentrada do tipo torre

Abstract

Promising alternative for the generation of dispatchable energy, a concentrated solar power plant focuses solar radiation at a particular point, transferring energy to an intermediate fluid. This fluid, in turn, provides energy to heat and vaporize water that operates a steam turbine. One of these types of plants uses a tower as a central receiver of the radiation concentrated by numerous heliostats and transfers the energy to a fluid known as Molten Salt (eutectic mixture of 60% of NaNO3 and 40% of KNO3), which acts as an intermediary fluid. Based on the solarimetric data from the city of Bom Jesus da Lapa, in Bahia, an analysis was performed based on the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics on the various components of this intermediate system. This analysis pointed to the receiver (focal point of the optical concentrators) as the main responsible for the performance limitation, corresponding to 93.37% of the total entropy generated in the molten salt circuit, meaning that this equipment must be the starting point for future studies of improvement.