Silicon Carbide Solar Receiver for high temperature gas-particle processes – SiCSun

Solar concentrators allow the production of heat in the temperature range 150°-3000°C, but commercially this range is limited to 150-560°C. The exploitation of the high fraction of this temperature range (400-560°C) has led to the commercial development of concentrated solar power plants (CSP) - 6.5 GW installed worldwide - with efficiencies similar to PV cells with the advantage of massive thermal storage authorizing the production of electricity at full power for more than 10 hours. The development of CSP is currently hampered by the high cost of investment and the need to have a sufficient direct solar radiation resource (only available in the south of France but more widely in Spain for example). However, electricity generation is not the only possible and desirable application of concentrated solar technologies (CST). Indeed, as these technologies first produce heat with good efficiency (50 to 70%), they are applicable to the production of industrial heat (70% of energy consumption in industry) and green fuels such as hydrogen and syngas (H2 + CO). The SiCSun project aims to carry out the proof of concept of a ceramic solar receiver using particles as a heat transfer fluid or reactive medium. It also aims to study the scientific and technological issues associated with the development of this innovation. In particular, it is a question of providing design, management and maintenance tools for the control of parietal heat transfers, gas-particle flows and thermomechanical stresses undergone by the envelope (tube) in SiC.