Solar processing of reactive particles up to 900°C, the SOLPART project

Abstract

Energy intensive industries such as e.g the cement industry (based on calcination of CaCO3) need the major part of their energy input as thermal heat and are (behind the power industry) the biggest energy consumers and CO2 emitter. The cement, lime and clay sector represent more than 10% of antropogeneous CO2 emission. The power industry already applies different alternatives to implement renewable energies in their processes. This option currently is not available for energy intensive industries. Therefore, the main objective of the SOLPART H2020 project is to develop, at a pilot scale (30-50 kW), a high temperature (800-1000°C) 24h/day solar process suitable for particle treatment in energy intensive non-metallic minerals’ industries. Calcium carbonate decomposition (Calcination reaction: CaCO3 = CaO + CO2) is the most representative reaction in this type of application of solar process heat for industry.