The plant supplies the generated solar heat to the industrial customer ADPO at the Antwerp site (Belgium). The system has been used since 2020 for steam generation for an industrial process in the chemical industry.
The collector field spans a gross aperture area of 1,107.8 square metres and has a nominal capacity of 0.5 megawatts. The collectors were supplied by the manufacturer Solarlite and are of the type HT/SL5770. They consist of glass/silver mirrors and vacuum absorber tubes. A silicone oil (Helisol) is used as the heat transfer fluid, which operates at temperatures between 200 and 300 degrees Celsius. The absorbed heat is utilized in a downstream steam boiler, where process steam with temperatures of approximately 160 to 170 degrees Celsius is generated. The main components of the auxiliary systems (Balance of Plant), including pumps, the steam boiler, and expansion vessels, are housed in a container near the solar field.
View of the collector array from below.
The collectors are mounted on raised supports, allowing the space underneath to be used.
Additionally, the plant was out of operation for maintenance on approximately eight days during the period and on a further six sunny days due to weather conditions (high wind speeds) or at the customer’s request. According to Solarlite’s estimates, a continuous operation could have achieved a specific annual yield of nearly 450 kilowatt-hours per square metre per year.
Evaluation of operating results
The evaluation of the operational results demonstrated that concentrating solar thermal plants can achieve significant energy yields even in Central European climate zones.
Furthermore, the comparison shows that the heat yield of a parabolic trough collector field in the high-temperature range can be of a similar magnitude to that of a flat-plate collector field at lower temperatures, such as those used in district heating networks. This underlines the potential of concentrating collector systems as an additional option for sustainable heat supply in temperate climates.
Contact
Dr.-Ing. Eckhard Lüpfert
Head of Concentrating Solar Technologies Department
