Solar energy storage by dark Mn-doped CaO-based heat carriers

Abstract

CaO-based heat carriers have shown great prospects for thermochemical energy storage in concentrated solar power systems due to the features such as rich reserves, environmental safety, high energy storage densities and high operation temperatures. However, the density decay because of sintering and poor direct solar absorption of white CaO-based heat carriers are the two main obstacles lying on the way to the realistic applications. This work introduced dark Mn-based inert support into calcium heat carriers, attempting to solve the above problems simultaneously. As an inert support, the finely dispersed Ca₂MnO₄ functioned as the metal framework to resist CaCO₃/CaO sintering. Consequently, the cyclic stability of CaO-based heat carriers, resulting in the high energy storage densities of ∼2000 kJ/kg even over 20 cycles. As a dark material, Ca₂MnO₄ successfully darkened CaO-based heat carriers, thereby greatly enhanced the direct solar absorption. In addition, the granulation of CaO-based heat carriers was also studied. The pellets showed satisfactory attrition resistance with only 9.85 wt% mass loss over 3200 cycles. In general, good physicochemical performance of Mn-doped CaO-based heat carrier endows it with great prospects for solar energy storage.

Keywords

CaO-based heat carriers / solar energy storage / Mn inert supports / solar absorption

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