The present work deals with the initial design and performance evaluation of a novel thermal energy storage concept consisting of a packed bed of rocks with a radial gas flow, suitable for the a generation of air-driven concentrating solar power plants. In doing so, this article also presents a state of the art of most promising packed bed concepts, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages, all considered in the design of the new proposed system. A thermomechanical model of the concept was developed and used in simulations to assess its behavior during both charging and discharging processes, as well as to evaluate the influence of critical design parameters. This same model was used to compare the technical performance of the concept against that of more conventional packed-beds with axial-flow. Results show that the novel concept is able to outperform the other systems by enabling a theoretical reduction of 46% and 50% in radiation losses and pressure drops, respectively, thus calling for future investigations, including an in-depth thermos-mechanical study and life-cycle analysis of the concept prior to building a lab-scale prototype.

This work presents an innovative indirect supercritical CO2 – air driven concentrated solar power plant with a packed bed thermal energy storage. High supercritical CO2 turbine inlet temperature can be achieved, avoiding the temperature limitations set by the use of solar molten salts as primary heat transfer fluid. The packed bed thermal energy storage enables the decoupling between solar irradiation collection and electricity production, and it grants operational flexibility while enhancing the plant capacity factor. A quasi steady-state thermo-economic model of the integrated concentrating solar power plant has been developed. The thermo-economic performance of the proposed plant design has been evaluated via multi-objective optimizations and sensitivity analyses. Results show that a Levelized Cost of Electricity of 100 $/MWhe and a capacity factor higher than 50%can be achieved already at a 10 MWe nominal size. Such limited plant size bounds the capital investment and leads to more bankable and easily installable plants. Results also show that larger plants benefit from economy of scale, with a 65 $/MWhe cost identified for a 50 MWe plant. The receiver efficiency is found to be the most influential assumption. A 20% decrease of receiver efficiency would lead to an increase of more than 15% of the Levelized Cost of Electricity. These results show the potential of indirect supercritical CO2 – air driven concentrated solar power plant and highlight the importance of further air receiver development. More validations and verification tests are needed to ensure the system operation during long lifetime.

High temperature thermal energy storages are becoming more and more important as a key component in concentrating solar power plants. Packed bed storages represent an economically viable large scale energy storage solution. The present work deals with the analysis and optimization of a packed bed thermal energy storage. The influence of quasi-dynamic boundary conditions on the storage thermodynamic performance is evaluated. The Levelized Cost of Storage is innovatively applied to thermal energy storage design. A complete methodology to design packed bed thermal energy storage is proposed. In doing so, a comprehensive multi-objective optimization of an industrial scale packed bed is performed. The results show that quasi-dynamic boundary conditions lead to a reduction of around 5% of the storage thermal efficiency. Contrarily, the effect of the investigated design variables over the TES LCoS optimization is only slightly influenced by quasi-dynamic boundary conditions. Aspect ratio between 0.75 and 0.9 would maximize the storage thermal efficiency, while low preliminary efficiency around 0.47 would minimize the Levelized Cost of Storage. This work testifies that quasi-dynamic boundary conditions should be taken into considerations when optimizing thermal energy storage. The Levelized Cost of Storage could be also considered as a more reliable performance indicator for packed bed thermal energy storage, as it is less dependent on variable boundary conditions.

High-temperature thermal energy storage is becoming more and more important as a key component in concentrating solar power systems and as an economically viable large-scale energy storage solution. Ceramics and natural rocks based packed beds are one of the attracting solutions. For application temperatures above 600 ◦C, radiation heat transfer becomes the dominant heat transfer phenomenon and it greatly influences the performance of thermal storage systems. Coatings with different thermal properties (mainly thermal emissivity and thermal conductivity) could be exploited to modify the effective thermal properties of packed beds. In this work, we present a methodology to account for the thermal effect of a coating layer applied over the pebbles of a packed bed. The influences on the packed bed effective thermal conductivity of several characteristics of the coating material, packed bed arrangement, and filler material are investigated. The results show that low emissivity coatings could reduce the effective thermal conductivity of a rock based packed bed of about 58%, with respect to a similar uncoated solution, already at 800 ◦C. A low emissivity coating could also limit the increase in the thermal effective conductivity from the cold to the hot zone of the storage. Coatings would have a higher influence when applied in packed beds with large size particles, relatively high thermal conductivity of the substrate and void fraction. The application of different coatings, with various thermo-physical properties, in different parts of the storage could modify the effective thermal conductivity distribution and enable a partial control of the thermocline degradation, increasing the storage thermal efficiency.

Ceramic-based packed bed solutions are becoming more common in the energy fields as both thermal energy storage and heat exchanger. Such solutions are usually designed for the working temperature ranges above600 ◦C, thus thermal radiation becomes significant and even acts as the dominant heat transfer mechanism. Therefore, applying high-temperature coatings with different thermal properties could be an efficient way in enhancing the performance of these applications. In this work, the high-temperature long residency and cyclic thermal stability of six inorganic coatings applied on a ceramic substrate are investigated. Both qualitative and quantitative assessments are performed. The results show that HIE-Coat 840MX and Pyropaint 634 ZO exhibit excellent thermal stability performance both at high-temperature testing (1000 ◦C) and under thermal cycle testing (400 ◦C–800 ◦C). TiO2 based coatings could be a viable solution if the powder is pre-treated to avoid polymorph transition during the operation. Stainless steel 304 powder-based coating could also be a possible solution, since the adhesive curbs the oxidation and hinders the coating from deterioration. Contrarily, Pyromark2500 and MgO-based coating show different degradation problems that limit their exploitation in high-temperature applications undergoing thermal cycles. The investigated coatings show a wide range of thermal emissivity (between 0.6 and 0.9), with stable or decreasing trends with temperature. This enables a potential20% change of the effective thermal conductivity for the packing structure. This work is a stepping-stone towards further detailed experimental studies on the influence of coatings on various packed bed thermal storage systems, and thus offer a new option in improving the performances of the energy equipment with packed bed systems.

Ceramic particles-based packed bed systems are attracting the interest from various high-temperature applications such as thermal energy storage, nuclear cooling reactors, and catalytic support structures. Considering that these systems work above 600 ◦C, thermal radiation becomes significant or even the major heat transfer mechanism. The use of coatings with different thermal and optical properties could represent a way to tune and enhance the thermodynamic performances of the packed bed systems. In this study, the thermal stability of several metallic (Inconel, Nitinol, and Stainless Steel) based coatings is investigated at both high temperature and cyclic thermal conditions. Consequently, the optical properties and their temperature dependence are measured. The results show that both Nitinol and Stainless Steel coatings have excellent thermal stability at temperatures as high as 1000 ◦C and after multiple thermal cycles. Contrarily, Inconel (particularly 625) based coatings show abundant coating degradation. The investigated coatings also offer a wide range of thermal emissivity (between0.6 and 0.9 in the temperature range of 400–1000 ◦C), and variable trends against increasing temperature. This work is a stepping-stone towards further detailed experimental and modelling studies on the heat transfer enhancement in different ceramic-based packed bed applications through using metallic coatings.

High-temperature packed-bed thermal energy storage represents an economically viable large-scale energy storage solution for a future fossil-free energy scenario. The present work introduces first-of-a-kind experimental setup of a radial packed-bed TES, and its performance assessment based on experimental investigations. The storage performance is analyzed based on a set of dimensionless criteria and indicators. The laboratory-scale prototype has an energy capacity of 49.7 kWhth and working temperatures between 25 ◦C and 700 ◦C with anon-pressurized dry airflow. The influence of different working fluid mass flow rates and inlet temperatures during charge and discharge is assessed. The proposed storage design ensures limited pressure drop, lower than1 mbar, and thermal losses, about 1.11 % during dwell after charging at 700 ◦C until a state of charge of 55.8 %. A maximum overall thermal efficiency of 71.8 % has been recorded and trade-offs between efficiency, thermal uniformity, and thermocline thickness are highlighted. This work testifies that reduced pressure drops are the key advantage of radial-flow packed-bed designs. Thermocline degradation is shown to be the main weak point of this thermal energy storage design.

High-temperature thermal energy storage is recognized to be a key technology to ensure a future fossil-free energy scenario. Packed bed thermal energy storage is an economically viable high-temperature and large-scale energy storage solution. The present work introduces the experimental investigation of an innovative 49.7 kWhth radial-flow type high-temperature packed bed thermal energy storage under dynamic boundary conditions. Various quasi-dynamic air flow rate profiles, representative of different potential applications, have been tested during the charge process to investigate their influence on the thermodynamic performance of the storage. The outlet thermal power during the discharge has been controlled by managing the air flow rate. Short operational cycles have also been performed. The results show that dynamic boundary conditions can lead to a thermal efficiency reduction between 0.5 and 5 % with respect to static conditions. A control of the air mass flow rate could be an efficient strategy to stabilize the thermal power output during the discharge while minimizing peaks in the pressure drop. This work testifies that specific dynamic boundary conditions should be included during the thermal storage design process since they could largely affect the unit thermodynamic performance and potential scale-up. If no specific dynamic profiles are available during the packed bed storage design stage, it is suggested to consider average air mass flow rate to guarantee limited efficiency reduction.