Prototype Testing of a Centrifugal Particle Receiver for High-Temperature Concentrating Solar Applications

A novel concept of a particle receiver for high-temperature solar applications was developed and evaluated in the present work. The so-called Centrifugal Particle Receiver (CentRec) uses small bauxite particles as absorber, heat transfer, and storage medium at the same time. Due to advantageous optical and thermal properties, the particles can be heated up to 1000 °C without sintering in the storage. High thermal efficiencies at high outlet temperatures are expected indicating a promising way for cost reduction in solar power tower applications. A $15kWth$ prototype was designed, built, and tested in order to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed concept. Extensive high flux experiments were conducted, investigating the thermal receiver performance and efficiency. For an input flux of 670 kW m⁻², the target outlet temperature of 900 °C at a receiver efficiency of about 75% was successfully demonstrated.