Solar Thermal R&D at IIT Jodhpur

Prof. Rajiv ShekharMaterials Science & Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

International Workshop “Design of Sub-Systems for Concentrated Solar Power Technologies,” December 19-22, Jodhpur

Background• National Solar Mission

• High cost in building CKD CSP power plants

• Limitations– Technology uncertainty

– Adaptation of technology to Indian conditions

– Expertise in generic technologies

– Design and manufacturing capabilities

– Human resource development

– O & M

• Limited focus on value-added applications

• Large-scale vs. distributed generation

R&TD: Generic Technologies Solar thermal

• Radiation resource assessment

• Solar field

– Reflectors: Fabrication, materials

– Receiver: (PT) Coatings, evacuated glass-metal seals, receiver design.

– Thermal fluid

• Heat exchanger design

• Direct steam generation

• Thermal storage

• Air cooled/hybrid condensers

• Power block

• Accessories

– Pumps for moving molten fluid

Mission Impossible?

• The PV “cell” bus– Logistics & assembly

– O&M

• Solar thermal– Develop expertise in solar (optical) field

components

– Assimilation of existing expertise

• Revolutionary vs. Evolutionary

• Space model

• We can do it “fast!!”

R&D focus at IITJ• Solar resource forecasting

• Volumetric air receiver for high temperatureprocess heat

• Storage: material, reactor design

• Direct steam generation

• Manufacturing– Solar selective coatings

– Evacuated glass metal seals

• DC Smart grid

• Integrated cooling solutions?

• Smart Energy Grid

Methodology

• “Systems” approach leading to “technologydeployment”

• Laboratory → pilot-scale → Demonstrationscale

• Collaborative research

– Industry-Academia-R&D institutions

– Prototype testing

• Human Resource Development

Collaboration • Asian Development Bank

– ICASET

• STEAG India

– Static & dynamic modelling & HRD

• IOCL-BHEL

– Experimental CSP test beds (National facility)

• IIT Kanpur + IIT Bombay

– Solar resource forecasting

• ABSTL

– Solar convective furnace

• MBM Engineering college

SOLAR ENERGY RESEARCH

Solar Resource Prediction

• Time, Day and Year as input .

• Predict global and direct radiation.

• Use Adaptive Recurrent Neural Network (ARNN) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP).

• Research carried out at IIT Kanpur.

Solar air tower simulator (4kWth)

Electrically heated

Air-Water Heat Exchangers

Dust Deposition on Heliostat

Non-uniform

deposition

a b

Figure 10: a) Single heliostat system, b) Triple heliostat system formed in Ansys for simulation. In triple heliostat

distance between two adjacent heliostats is h(7.4 cm).

Wind Wind

7.4 cm

Wind tunnel @ IIT J

a

B

C

d

E Figure 8: a) Double heliostat system used for experiment with h distance between them. b) Graph of Density of deposited

Dust on 1st heliostat shows uniform deposition occurred on front heliostat similar to single heliostat results and c) shows

non-uniform deposition on 2nd heliostat, d) vortex around the mirror edges from CFD analyzed results. e) Deposition on 2nd

heliostat in repeated experiment.

R R

U U

1st 2

nd

h h

U R

a

B

C

d

E Figure 8: a) Double heliostat system used for experiment with h distance between them. b) Graph of Density of deposited

Dust on 1st heliostat shows uniform deposition occurred on front heliostat similar to single heliostat results and c) shows

non-uniform deposition on 2nd heliostat, d) vortex around the mirror edges from CFD analyzed results. e) Deposition on 2nd

heliostat in repeated experiment.

R R

U U

1st 2

nd

h h

U R

Uniform depositionUniform deposition

Estimated threshold velocity for initiating

removal of dust

High Heat Flux Measurement

Experiment @ NFTDCMeasurement of temperature

Heat flux at the inlet of cylinder is estimated for the measured

temperature

Measured temperature

Solar Selective Coatings

• Electrodeposited black chrome with graphite encapsulated Fe-Co nanoparticles

• Sputtered AlN based cermets

• Solution processed Cr2O3 based cermets

Glass-to-Metal Seals

• Compression seals to join borosilicate glass to stainless steel

• Leakage rates

– Kovar-Kodial: 10-10 to 10-11 mbar l/s

– SS-Borosilicate: 8 x 10-10 mbar l/s

• Further development and evaluation in progress

DC Micro-GridsMotivation• Sync PV output with DC loads.• Reduced overall losses due to elimination of

multiple (AC/DC/AC) conversions.• DC micro-grids under constant power loads show

severe oscillations in voltage and current.

Milestones achieved• Modeling, design and fabrication of Boost

converters• Development and testing of robust sliding mode for

Boost converters• Modeling, design and fabrication of Voltage source

converter (VSC) to facilitate bidirectional powerexchange with utility grid at 3 phase 440V.

Pilot & Demonstration Plants

IITJ-IOCL-BHEL Experimental CSP Plant

BARC: SOLTOP-2

Team from IITJ, IITK, NFTDCFaculty members:Dr. Laltu Chandra, IITJDr. K. Balasubraminium, NFTDCDr. Deepak Fulwani, IITJDr. S. Harinipriya, IITJDr. V. NarayananDr. B. PratiharDr. A. Dixit, IITJProf. Laxmidhar Behera, IIT K Dr. Rahul Chibbar, IITJ Dr. Deepak Fulwan, IITJ Dr. Prodyut Chakraborty, IITJ Prof. P. S. Ghoshdastidar, IIT K Dr. P. K. Jayakumar, NFTDC Dr. Neeraj Gupta, IITJ

Students:

• Ph.D.: Mr. Suresh Kumar, Mr. Piyush K. Sharma (with IITK), Mr. Deepesh Patidar (IITJ), Mr. Belal Usmani;

• M. Tech: Rakesh, Nupur, Priyanka, Subhi, Digpal, Ayyaz, Ramniwas;

• B. Tech: Navneet, Darshan (SVNIT), Dheeraj, Sandip (NITD), Harshit, Tanmay, 4 students of MBM, Ankit,

Project Engineers:• Nitin Karwa, Vinod Kumar, Ashish Tiwari, Mr. Ritesh Patel, Jai

Ganesh

Land of the rising sun!