Design considerations for a high-temperature particle storage bin

Solid particle receivers provide an opportunity to run concentrating solar tower receivers at higher temperatures (∼800° C) resulting in increased CSP system efficiencies overall. CSP plants with thermal storage have an economic advantage over other renewable energies without energy storage. A flat-bottomed particle storage bin with internal refractory insulation was designed for the 1MWt Generation 3 Particle Pilot Plant (G3P3) at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories. Computational simulations using a cyclic steady-state model were performed to evaluate the effect that aspect ratio (height to diameter ratio) has on thermal losses. A second method has been developed to model heat transfer of particles in funnel flow. Small scale testing was performed to validate the approach.