1

UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA
Solar thermal power generation
using the Brayton cycle
W.G. le Roux (MEng)
Prof. J.P. Meyer
Prof. T. Bello-Ochende
Thermofluids Research Group
Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering
University of Pretoria
German South African Research Lecture Series: Energy Sciences
Tshwane University of Technology, 10 April 2013
Scope of research Thermodynamic
optimisation
Open and direct solar thermal
Brayton cycle
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Entropy Generation Minimisation
Maximise net power output
Optimise geometry of
recuperator and receiver
Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
Irreversibilities
Prof. J.P. Meyer (Head of
Department) and prof. Bello-
Ochende as study leaders
Compressor
Recuperator
Load
Air in 1
Air out
3
6
4
7
8
9 10
c t net
W W W
& & &
=
Receiver
11
5
* Q
&
2
Turbine
Solar resource South Africa
Why Solar?
Solar resource - World
According to DLR
Solar resource South Africa
Why Solar?
The Department of Minerals and Energy places South Africas annual direct
normal irradiation (DNI) between 2 500kWh/m2 and 2 900 kWh/m2 with an
average of almost 300 days of sunshine per year.
Solar resource - Pyranometer
According to Stine and Geyer
(2001)
Global horisontal irradiance
Pyrheliometer measures DNI
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
I
r
r
a
d
i
a
n
c
e

(
W
/
m
^
2
)
Time (h)
Irradiance of beam
Mean i rradiance of global
radiation, tracked
Mean i rradiance of global
radiation horizontal
Solar resource South Africa, Pretoria
Meteonorm
Solar power
Photovoltaics
CSP
Solar water heaters
CSP - Concentrating methods
Solar Tower
CSP (Concentrated solar power)
Power conversion cycles:
Stirling Dish
Steam Rankine Cycle
Brayton cycle
Stirling Dish
Stirling Engine
Stirling Dish
Ripasso Energy, a solar
technology provider based in
Sweden, has commissioned the
first units of their Concentrated
Solar Power (CSP) installation in
Upington, South Africa.
The technology is based on
parabolic mirrors and Stirling
Power Converters (SPC). During
the initial operation a new solar-
to-grid-quality-electricity
efficiency world record of 32 %
has been achieved.
Rankine cycle
Sandia National laboratories
Fluid water
Lower temperatures
Trough
Compressor
Recuperator
Load
Air in 1
Air out
3
6
4
7
8
9 10
c t net
W W W
& & &
=
Receiver
11
5
* Q
&
2
Turbine
Air/Gas
High temperatures
Dish/Tower
Brayton Cycle
Small-scale open and direct solar thermal Brayton
cycle with recuperator
Advantages
High recommendation [1, 2] (cost, efficiency)
Air as working fluid
Hot air exhaust
Water heating
Space heating
Absorpsion refrigeration
Recuperator
high efficiency and
low compressor pressure ratios
Disadvantages
recuperator and receiver pressure losses
turbo-machine efficiencies
recuperator effectiveness [3]
Heat losses
[1] Chen L., Zhang, W. and Sun, F., 2007; [2] Mills, D., 2004; [3] Stine and Harrigan, 1985
irreversibilities
Why small-scale?
Advantages of micro-grid
Smaller financial commitment
No municipality or larger corporation
Disadvantage of micro-grid
Grid management
Small-scale solar thermal Brayton cycle
design considerations
Dish
Tracking
Sensors
Receiver
Recuperator
Heat loss, pressure loss
Micro-turbine
Solar Brayton - Dish
Soltrace
Reflectance
Shape
Reflectance of aluminium - 79% to 86%.
Polished aluminium - 91% specular reflectance.
Solar Brayton Dish
Solar Brayton Dish Reflectivity vs
time
Tracking - Elevation
SunEarthtools
Tracking - Azimuth
Mousazadeh et al. (2004), Poulek and Libra (2000)
Two-axis solar tracking required
Solar tracking
Active
Passive
Micro-
processor
and electro-
optical
sensor
based
Auxiliary
bifacial solar
cell based
Date and time
based or a
combination of
sensor and
date/time based
Fluid
Bi-
metallic
strips
Solar thermal Brayton - Receiver
Receiver types
Pressurised tube receiver (cavity)
air/water/oil/salt
Open volumetric pressurised receivers (sucks air in
through a fan)
Closed volumetric receiver (sucks pressurised air
in, using quartz glass cover)
Solar particle receivers (air particle mixture
absorbs solar radiation)
Receiver types
Pressurised tube
receiver (cavity)
air/water/oil/salt
Solar thermal Brayton - Receiver
Open/closed
volumetric
receiver
http://www.volker-quaschning.de/articles/fundamentals2/index.php
Solar thermal Brayton - Receiver
Particle receiver (air-particle
mixture absorbs sunlight)
Compressor
Recuperator
Load
Air in 1
Air out
3
6
4
7
8
9 10
c t net
W W W
& & &
=
Receiver
11
5
* Q
&
2
Turbine
Solar thermal Brayton - Recuperator
Solar thermal Brayton - Recuperator
Solar thermal Brayton plate type
recuperator
L
reg
a
b
t H
Solar thermal Brayton plate type
recuperator
Micro-turbine, coupling
Micro-turbine compressor map
Micro-turbine turbine map
Research
Determination of cavity receiver wall temperatures effects
of tracking errors, slope errors, specularity errors
Modelling Matlab (steady), Flownex (time)
Determining maximum net power output total entropy
generation minimisation (optimising components)
Experimental setup
Compressor
Recuperator
Load
Air in 1
Air out
3
6
4
7
8
9 10
c t net
W W W
& & &
=
Receiver
11
5
* Q
&
2
Turbine
Research results cavity receiver
temperatures as function of errors
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Position
0.0067
0.021
0.0335
0.0067 (Average flux
assumption)
Tracking error: 0
Optical error (rad)
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Position
0.0067 0.021 0.0335
Tracking error: 3
Optical error (rad)
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
(

C
)
Position
0.0067 0.021 0.0335
Tracking error: 2
Optical error (rad)
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
C

)
Position
0.0067
0.021
0.0335
Tracking error: 1
Optical error (rad)
Research results Maximum net power output as
function of solar power and maximum receiver surface
temperature
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 0.11
(
k
W
)
(kg/s)
t
3
t
4
q
1
= 50 W/K
q
2
= 45 W/K
q
3
= 40 W/K
q
4
= 35 W/K
q
5
= 32 W/K
q
6
= 27 W/K
q
7
= 23 W/K
t
1
= 3.80
t
2
= 3.60
t
3
= 3.15
t
4
= 3.00
t
5
= 2.76
q
1
q
2
q
3
q
4
q
7 q
5
q
6
t
1
t
2
t
5
Research results Maximum net power output as
function of weather condition and maximum receiver
surface temperature
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
(
k
W
)
(kg/s)
C, Ts,max = 1200 K
C, Ts,max = 1100 K
C, Ts,max = 1000 K
B, Ts,max = 1200 K
B, Ts,max = 1100 K
B, Ts,max = 1000 K
Current setup
Experimental work
Experimental setup
University of Pretoria
Experimental setup University of Pretoria
For interest - Storage
Batteries
Rock storage
Molten Salt
Compressor Turbine
Recuperator
Load
1
2
3
4 e
net
Q
&

c
Receiver
Solar Heat
Exchanger
Air in
Air out
Ismail and Stuginsky (1999), Applied Thermal
Engineering
For interest
Large scale solar in South Africa
According to SASTELA
Abengoa:
o KaXu Solar One, a 100 MW parabolic trough plant with three hours of storage,
close to Pofadder;
o Khi Solar One, a 50 MW solar power tower with storage capacity of two hours, in
Upington.
Bokpoort CSP, a 50 MW parabolic trough power station with nine hours of storage,
located near Groblershoop, by the Saudi group, ACWA, in partnership with South
African solar and investment groups
Eskom is developing a 100MW power tower plant with nine hours of storage in
Upington; and
The Department of Energy is investigating the feasibility of establishing solar
power plants with capacity of up to 5 000MW in the Northern Cape.
Brayton oversees Solar CAT, Brayton Energy, Google
Questions?
willemleroux@gmail.com