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Thermal Systems for Fluids

Reseach Area Management: Dr. Thomas Bauer

This research group addresses the development of high temperature thermal energy storages based on molten salt technology for solar and conventional thermal power plants as well as industrial process heat applications. State-of-the-art molten salt systems operate between 170 °C and 560 °C with salts utilized as both heat transfer fluids and storage media.

One focus is on the development of molten salt storage systems for power plants with steam as the working fluid. New material concepts are being pursued in order to extend the aforementioned temperature range while new molten salt storage systems with lower capital costs and improved operational behaviour are under development. Further attention is also paid to the integration of molten salt storage systems.

Research topics and current projects:

• Further development of molten salt storage technology for commercial concentrating solar power plants (CSP-plants)
• Transfer of molten salt technology to other application fields
• Increase of flexible operation for combined heat and power and conventional power plants
• Waste heat recovery and steam supply for industrial process heat
• Development of molten salt storage systems with lower capital costs (single tank thermocline-filler concept - TESIS:store)
• Salt chemistry, corrosion, process technology and measurement technology for molten salts
• Qualification of molten salt components in a component test rig (TESIS:com)
• Expansion of the temperature range of molten salts
• Process integration of molten salt storage systems