CSP Loop

[Terminus0]

I'm working on a project at my work using a small number of CSP Solar Troughs (10) for heating up water from 90 C to 160 C @120 psi with a mass flow of 1.2 kg/s.

Normally CSP Troughs are in a separate loop from the process with a heat exchanger between, but my boss wants me to design the process with the troughs directly in the loop. I did some simple calcs and with each Trough in a line providing an estimated (avg) 3.5 kW thermal of power the temp rise was small. Which is why Solar Troughs are usually in a separate loop so the liquid can circulate multiple times before it gets up to a high temp.

Can someone back me up? Or tell me if I'm wrong, because if I'm right I need to go tell my boss he's wrong.

 

[IRstuff]

The reason, from what I can tell, for CSP troughs to use a separate loop is that the "fluid" needs to have a substantially higher boiling point than the water it's trying to boil. The molten salt fluid is supposedly at >200°C.

As for your calculations, the delta temp is low because the water doesn't spend much time in the pipe getting warmed up.

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[Terminus0]

Yes that was the conclusion I came to pretty fast.

Sometimes my boss tells me to do things that don't make any sense, when he's out of his element. This is not the first time I've had to correct him for something.

I just wanted someone to give me a second look at the math, and thermo.