Development of a Ceramic Pressurized Volumetric Solar Receiver for Supercritical CO₂ Brayton Cycle

Recently, the supercritical CO₂ (s-CO₂) Brayton cycle has been identified as a promising candidate for solar-thermal energy conversion due to its potentially high thermal efficiency (50%, for turbine inlet temperatures of ∼ 1000K). Realization of such a system requires development of solar receivers which can raise the temperature of s-CO₂ by over 200K, to a receiver outlet temperature of 1000K. Volumetric receivers are an attractive alternative to tubular receivers due to their geometry, functionality and reduced thermal losses. A concept of a ceramic pressurized volumetric receiver for s-CO₂ has been developed in this work. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis along with a Discrete Ordinate Method (DOM) radiation heat transfer model has been carried out, and the results for temperature distribution in the receiver and the resulting thermal efficiency are presented. We address issues regarding material selection for the absorber structure, window, coating, receiver body and insulation. A modular small scale prototype with 0.5 kWth solar heat input has been designed. The design of a s-CO₂ loop for testing this receiver module is also presented in this work.