Lukas Heller

Ob bei Klimawandel, Krieg oder Pandemie: Wissenschaft wird immer wieder in Frage gestellt und delegitimiert – sei es durch wissenschaftsexterne extreme Akteur*innen oder sogar durch Mitglieder des Wissenschaftsbetriebs selbst. Doch bei aller Delegitimier…

Two dinuclear metal complexes bearing the purine derivative 7-methyl-6-furylpurine (1b) as a ligand are reported. In [Ag₂(1b)₂(DMSO)₂](ClO₄)₂·DMSO and [Cu₂(1b)₂(NO₃)₂], two bridging purine derivatives coordinate the two metal ions via their N3 and N9 positions. In the silver(I) complex, the coordination environment of each metal ion is completed by a DMSO ligand, whereas an additional nitrato ligand coordinates to each copper(I) ion. The intramolecular Ag···Ag distance of 3.1069(5) Å is in agreement with the presence of a weak argentophilic interaction, whereas the Cu···Cu distance of 2.9382(4) Å is too long to be indicative of a cuprophilic interaction. The compounds represent the first examples of dinuclear complexes comprising two N3,N9-bridging purine derivatives without any additional bridging ligand.

A dual-pressure air receiver has previously been proposed as part of a hybrid receiver system preheating pressurized air in a solarized gas turbine and providing hot non-pressurized air to power the bottoming cycle of a combined cycle CSP plant. The receiver, based on a bundle of metallic tubular absorbers, was found to not be able to provide the non-pressurized air at the required temperature. Three enhancements to the basic design are presented and thermally modeled: (a) Finned absorber tubes to increase the convective heat transfer, (b) quartz glass elements to alleviate convective losses and improve the flow inside the tube bundle as well as (c) additional absorber elements behind the tube bundle. It could be shown that finned absorber tubes as well as the additional absorber elements have potential to improve the thermal performance of the receiver while a quartz glass window and flow-enhancing quartz elements could be indispensable additions to either of the other enhancements.

A major advantage of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants is their ability to store thermal energy at a cost far lower than that of current battery technologies. A recent techno-economic study found that packed rock bed thermal storage systems can be constructed with capital costs of less than 10 United States dollar (USD)/kWh_t, significantly cheaper than the two-tank molten salt thermal storage currently used in CSP plants (about 22–30 USD/kWh_t). However, little work has been published on determining optimum rock bed design parameters in the context of a CSP plant. The parametric study in this paper is intended to provide an overview of the bed flow lengths, particle sizes, mass fluxes, and Biot numbers which are expected to minimize the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for a central receiver CSP plant with a nominal storage capacity of 12 h. The findings show that rock diameters of 20–25 mm will usually give LCOE values at or very close to the minimum LCOE for the combined rock bed and CSP plant. Biot numbers between 0.1 and 0.2 are shown to have little influence on the position of the optimum (with respect to particle diameter) for all practical purposes. Optimum bed lengths are dependent on the Biot number and range between 3 and 10 m for a particle diameter of 20 mm.

Tubular metallic pressurized air solar receivers face challenges in terms of temperature distribution on the absorber tubes and the limited sustainable solar influx. The HPAR concept aims at mitigating these problems through a macro-volumetric design and a secondary non-pressurized air flow around the absorber elements. Here, a 360◦ manifestation of this concept for implementation in the dual-pressure SUNDISC cycle is presented. Computationally inexpensive models for the numerous heat flows were developed for use in parametric studies of a receiver’s geometric layout. Initial findings are presented on the optical penetration of concentrated solar radiation into the absorber structure, blocking of thermal radiation from hot surfaces and the influence of the flow path through the heated tubes. In the basic design the heat transfer to the non-pressurized air stream is found to be insufficient and possible measures for its improvement are given. Their effect will be examined in more detailed models of external convection and thermal radiation to be able to provide performance estimates of the system.