Modeling of Hot and Cold Storage Silos With a Moving Packed-Bed Shell-and-Plate Heat Exchanger in a Particle Based Concentrated Solar Power System

The next generation of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems is envisioned to use solid particles for heat collection and storage. This paper presents a computational model for a particle storage silo and for a heat exchanger in which hot solid particles exchange heat with super critical carbon dioxide that serves as the working fluid for the CSP power block. A novel storage silo model is presented in which the particles are modeled as a quasi-1D fin. All heat conduction through particles is calculated using the ZBS model for particle heat conduction. Silo geometry is based upon G3P3 requirements for thermal storage. The heat exchanger model is compared against previously completed models. Temperatures for the stored particles and insulation layers in a quasi steady-state configuration where the particles are emptied and refilled every 10 hours over a 100 hour period.