Moving Bed Heat Exchangers for Use With Heat Storage in Concentrating Solar Plants: A Multiphase Model

Abstract

Heat storage based on particulate materials is a promising option to provide a demand-oriented electricity production with utility-scale solar power plants. For energy storage discharge, a moving bed heat exchanger is considered and its design is investigated. As a basis for a flexible design tool, a multiphase model based on the Eulerian continuum approach was set up to describe the bulk flow and the thermal performance. The model was applied to an example heat exchanger layout, and the simulation results were compared with an empirical model, confirming the validity of the approach. Initial parameter variations identify the key parameters and their effect on the thermal performance.