Thermal performance of Al2O3 Nanoparticle Enhanced Ionic Liquids (NEILs) for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) applications

Thermal energy storage for CSP (Concentrating Solar Power)

— The major advantage of concentrating solar power before photovoltaic is the possibility to store thermal energy at large scale allowing dispatchability. Then, only CSP solar power plants including thermal storage can be operated 24 h/day using exclusively the solar resource. Nevertheless, due to a too low availability in mined nitrate salts, the actual mature technology of the two tanks molte...

Dual Mode MPC for a Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plant

A model predictive control strategy for a concentrated solar thermal power plant is proposed. Design of the proposed controller is based on an estimated linear time-invariant state space model around a nominal operating point. The model is estimated directly from inputoutput data using the subspace identification method and taking into account the frequency response of the plant. Input-output d...

High-performance absorbers for solar thermal applications

Energy has emerged as one of the most significant and universal concerns society will face in this century. Currently, the world relies on fossil fuels to produce 86% of its energy. However, the combustion of fossil fuels generates greenhouse gases, a major factor responsible for global warming. Because concentrated solar thermal (CST) systems offer a pathway to a cost-competitive alternative t...

Energy applications of ionic liquids

Concentrated assemblies of magnetic nanoparticles in ionic liquids.

Maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) nanoparticles (NPs) can be successfully dispersed in a protic ionic liquid, ethylammonium nitrate (EAN), by transfer from aqueous dispersions into EAN. As the aqueous systems are well controlled, several parameters can be tuned. Their crucial role towards the interparticle potential and the structure of the dispersions is evidenced: (i) the size of the NPs tunes the interpar...