Falling Particle Receiver research has been global. Dr Jin-Soo Kim in Australia’s Falling Particles Process Bay, Newcastle Energy Centre IMAGE©CSIRO
Government-funded research into decarbonizing heavy industry using concentrated solar thermal (CST) yields results with the world’s first spin-off based on a new kind of high temperature solar receiver – the falling particle receiver.
Because of the simplicity and durability of particle-based CST, and its ability to operate at very high temperatures, international solar researchers have long believed that it could get to commercial readiness faster than other novel CST technologies under development…
Now it has.
FPR Energy – for Falling Particle Receiver Energy – is the world’s first startup based on this new kind of solar technology, that has been years in the making through international research.
Falling particle receivers are at the cutting edge of CST technologies in which heat is generated by thousands of mirrors that concentrate sunlight into a solar receiver atop a tower. To date, molten salt, a watery liquid, has been used to absorb and transfer the heat in this receiver to be stored to run a traditional steam cycle or deployed as direct heat.
But instead, in falling particle receivers, ceramic particles are used to absorb and transfer this highly concentrated solar heat. The particles fall as a thin curtain over a descending cascade forming the absorber surface of the solar receiver, transferring solar heat to a gas; like air, steam or s-CO2, to store and run a Brayton power cycle, or deployed as – much hotter – direct heat.
Particles enable a high temperature solar breakthrough
“Particle CST technology has no temperature limitation,”confirmed Jin-Soo Kim, who has led solar receiver research at CSIRO for six years as Principal Research Scientist.
“So this is not like the molten salt, which is limited by both high and low temperatures. We can see industrial decarbonization by providing the process heat, and also, depending on the process temperature, it can provide the heat for the thermal chemical reaction. So the application area is quite wide open, depending on the customer’s needs.”
The ceramic particles FPR Energy will use are already used in the gas fracking industry to prop rock fractures apart to liberate natural gas. They are spherical, so they flow like a liquid and have been shown to withstand being heated up to 1200°C and back to air temperature daily for years, making them a robust and durable way to absorb and transfer solar heat.
Tall silos can store the hot particles for firm, fully dispatchable power generation, or to provide consistent 24/7 heat for industrial processes or for producing liquid fuels using solar thermochemistry (see How solar fuels are made).
