Performance Assessment of an Improved Open Volumetric Receiver Design with 250 MWth

Open volumetric receivers for central receiver power plants with air as heat transfer fluid have long been a niche development mainly due to the comparatively low efficiency of the state of the art. In the current study a novel receiver design for a 250 MW solar tower is presented which is optimised for reduced radiative losses and high air return ratios – a crucial parameter for obtaining high efficiencies of open volumetric receivers. With the help of a CFD model, which was recently specifically developed for the simulation of open volumetric receivers, the performance of the new receiver design was assessed. Under design conditions at a hot air temperature of 670°C the receiver efficiency based on the intercept on the absorber reaches 84.3 %. Under optimised conditions and a larger temperature difference between hot air and return air the efficiency exceeds 90 %