On the Feasibility of Thermochemical Energy Storage for CSP plants : Technology Evaluation and Conceptual Design

Sammanfattning: This master thesis focuses on the review of the thermochemical energy storage (TCES) concept and its application in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants. The TCES concept has been reviewed and critically analyzed, highlighting the advantages and digging into the challenges that this technology must overcome to reach commercial scale. As an emerging concept, research interest is just starting to grow. Studies are scarce and there are only a handful of experimental campaigns. This work has therefore focused on the conceptual design, material properties matching and preliminary economic analysis. Thermodynamic performance as well as kinetics of a model system have been described. The model system consists of a solid bed of Calcium Hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) activated by heat transfer from molten salts (MS). A heat transfer model was built using COMSOL Multiphysics. The results indicate that due to low thermal conductivity of the studied materials, poor performance results and long charging times are required for material activation. The cost of the system can vary between 7 and 32 times the cost for current MS storage, highlighting that important improvements are required for the development of this technology.