New Thermal Energy Storage Materials From Industrial Wastes: Compatibility of Steel Slag With the Most Common Heat Transfer Fluids

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iñigo Ortega-Fernández ◽  
Javier Rodríguez-Aseguinolaza ◽  
Antoni Gil ◽  
Abdessamad Faik ◽  
Bruno D’Aguanno

Slag is one of the main waste materials of the iron and steel manufacturing. Every year about 20 × 106 tons of slag are generated in the U.S. and 43.5 × 106 tons in Europe. The valorization of this by-product as heat storage material in thermal energy storage (TES) systems has numerous advantages which include the possibility to extend the working temperature range up to 1000 °C, the reduction of the system cost, and at the same time, the decrease of the quantity of waste in the iron and steel industry. In this paper, two different electric arc furnace (EAF) slags from two companies located in the Basque Country (Spain) are studied. Their thermal stability and compatibility in direct contact with the most common heat transfer fluids (HTFs) used in the concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are analyzed. The experiments have been designed in order to cover a wide range of temperature up to the maximum operation temperature of 1000 °C corresponding to the future generation of CSP plants. In particular, three different fluids have been studied: synthetic oil (Syltherm 800®) at 400 °C, molten salt (Solar Salt) at 500 °C, and air at 1000 °C. In addition, a complete characterization of the studied slags and fluids used in the experiments is presented showing the behavior of these materials after 500 hr laboratory-tests.

Author(s):  
Iñigo Ortega ◽  
Javier Rodríguez-Aseguinolaza ◽  
Antoni Gil ◽  
Abdessamad Faik ◽  
Bruno D’Aguanno

Slag is one of the main waste materials of the iron and steel manufacturing. Every year about 20 million tons of slag are generated in the United States and 43.5 million tons in Europe. The revalorization of this by-product as heat storage material in thermal energy storage systems would have numerous advantages which include: the possibility to extend the working temperature range up to 1000 °C, the reduction of the system cost and, at the same time, the decrease of the quantity of waste in the iron and steel industry. In this paper, two different electric arc furnace slags from two companies located in the Basque Country (Spain) are studied. Their thermal stability and compatibility in direct contact with the most common heat transfer fluids used in the concentrated solar power plants are analyzed. The experiments have been designed in order to cover a wide temperature range up to the maximum operation temperature of the future generation of concentrated solar power plants (1000 °C). In particular, three different fluids have been studied: synthetic oil (Syltherm 800®) at 400 °C, molten salt (Solar Salt) at 500 °C and air at 1000 °C. In addition, a complete characterization of the studied slags and fluids used in the experiments is presented showing the behavior of these materials after 500 hour laboratory-tests.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 7771
Author(s):  
Leyla Amiri ◽  
Marco Antonio Rodrigues de Brito ◽  
Seyed Ali Ghoreishi-Madiseh ◽  
Navid Bahrani ◽  
Ferri P. Hassani ◽  
...  

This study seeks to investigate the concept of using large waste rocks from mining operations as waste-heat thermal energy storage for remote arctic communities, both commercial and residential. It holds its novelty in analyzing such systems with an experimentally validated transient three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer model that accounts for interphase energy balance using a local thermal non-equilibrium approach. The system performance is evaluated for a wide range of distinct parameters, such as porosity between 0.2 and 0.5, fluid velocity from 0.01 to 0.07 m/s, and the aspect ratio of the bed between 1 and 1.35. It is demonstrated that the mass flow rate of the heat transfer fluid does not expressively impact the total energy storage capacity of the rock mass, but it does significantly affect the charge/discharge times. Finally, it is shown that porosity has the greatest impact on both fluid flow and heat transfer. The evaluations show that about 540 GJ can be stored on the bed with a porosity of 0.2, and about 350 GJ on the one with 0.35, while the intermediate porosity leads to a total of 450 GJ. Additionally, thermal capacity is deemed to be the most important thermophysical factor in thermal energy storage performance.


Author(s):  
Nicolas Calvet ◽  
Antoine Meffre ◽  
Judith C. Gomez ◽  
Abdessamad Faik ◽  
Régis Olivès ◽  
...  

This paper investigates the possibility of using a post-industrial ceramic commercially called Cofalit as a promising, sustainable, and inexpensive ($10/ton) thermal energy storage material. This ceramic presents relevant properties to store thermal energy by means of sensible heat in the temperature range of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants from ambient temperature up to 1100 °C. In the present study, the compatibility of this ceramic was studied with two conventional heat transfer fluids: nitrate molten salts for medium-temperature applications (200 to 500 °C) and air for high-temperature applications (500 to 900 °C). The use of this ceramic in direct contact with the heat transfer fluid should significantly reduce the cost of thermal energy storage systems in CSP applications and help to achieve the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative cost targets.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes P. Kotzé ◽  
Theodor W. von Backström ◽  
Paul J. Erens

Cost and volume savings are some of the advantages offered by the use of latent heat thermal energy storage (TES). Metallic phase change materials (PCMs) have high thermal conductivity, which relate to high charging and discharging rates in TES system, and can operate at temperatures exceeding 560 °C. In the study, a eutectic aluminium–silicon alloy, AlSi12, is identified as a good potential PCM. AlSi12 has a melting temperature of 577 °C, which is above the working temperature of regular heat transfer fluids (HTFs). The eutectic sodium–potassium alloy (NaK) is identified as an ideal HTF in a storage system that uses metallic PCMs. A concept is presented that integrates the TES-unit and steam generator into one unit. As NaK is highly reactive with water, the inherently high thermal conductivity of AlSi12 is utilized in order to create a safe concept. As a proof of concept, a steam power-generating cycle was considered that is especially suited for a TES using AlSi12 as PCM. The plant was designed to deliver 100 MW with 15 h of storage. Thermodynamic and heat transfer analysis showed that the concept is viable. The analysis indicated that the cost of the AlSi12 storage material is 14.7 US$per kWh of thermal energy storage.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (06) ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
D. Yogi Goswami ◽  
Sudhakar Neti ◽  
Arun Muley ◽  
George Roe

This article highlights different research efforts to utilize thermal energy and thermal energy storage technologies. At several technical and panel sessions at the November ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Houston, there has been much discussion of cutting-edge work in thermal energy storage, including thermal energy storage materials, applications, and systems. Research into thermal energy storage is not limited to the confines of government and academia. Private companies are investigating whether they can incorporate thermal storage into some of their systems. Another potential advantage for solar thermal power is efficiency. Storing thermal energy as sensible heat is the most straightforward of the three methods, and the one that is the most widely deployed. A wide range of materials from simple concrete to synthetic oils has been tried for storing thermal energy. An energy storage system based on latent heat released as a material changes phase can be cost-effective. Thermal energy storage can become a game-changing technology wherever energy demand does not align exactly with energy supply. However, significant development challenges remain before these potential benefits can be realized.


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