Material Research on Molten Halide Salts for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Abstract

Molten halide salts have wide applications in industrial processes, e.g., as electrolytes in high-temperature electrochemical plating and extraction of metals such as Li, Na and Mg. Recently, more and more attention is paid on their promising applications in the field of energy, e.g., in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants as thermal energy storage (TES) and heat transfer fluid (HTF) materials, in molten salt batteries (LMBs) as high-temperature electrolytes, in molten salt nuclear reactors as fuel fluids and heat transfer fluid (HTF) materials. In this presentation, the current progress in research and development of molten halide salts for energy-related applications such as TES/HTF in next generation CSP plants and electrolytes in LMBs is presented.