TRANSIENT SIMULATION OF A MOLTEN SALT TWO TANK THERMAL STORAGE SYSTEM

Gabriel Ivan Medina Tapia¹; Arthur Kleyton Azevedo de Araújo¹; João Gutemberg Barbosa de Farias Filho¹

¹ Federal University of Rio Grando do Norte

doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-0230

Resumo

Solar energy is an inexhaustible clean source of energy, however the capacity factor of these plants is low if compared to other sources such as hydro and nuclear. Among renewables, the solar thermal is able to retain the excess energy in thermal storage systems and thus use this energy in periods of cloudiness and after dusk, when the incidence of sunlight is not enough to generate power. This work attempts to simulate a two-tanks sensible heat thermal storage system using the molten salt as heat transfer fluid, which is the most used in solar power plants. The analysis consists of the transient simulation of heat exchange mechanisms in the storage tanks fully charged and discharged. The simulation is performed for the climatic data of the Brazilian semi-arid region and the heat loss results are compared to actual situations available in the literature.

Palavras-chave: Thermal energy storage; solar power energy; two tanks storage system