Solar Thermal R&D at IIT Jodhpur

Prof. Rajiv Shekhar Materials 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 temperature process 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 “technology deployment” • Laboratory → pilot-scale → Demonstration scale • 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)

Air- Water Heat Exchange Electrically rs heated st nd 1 2 Dust Deposition on Heliostath h Uniform deposition a Uniform deposition U U

R R

C B d Non-uniformR st nd 1 2 U Wind Wind deposition h h 7.4 cm E a a Figureb 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 Figure 10: a) Single heliostat system, b) Triple heliostat system formed in Ansys for simulation. In triple heliostat non-uniform depositionU on 2nd heliostat, d) vortex around the mirror edges from CFD analyzed results. e) Deposition on 2nd distance between two adjacent heliostats is h(7.4 cm).U heliostat in repeated experiment.

R R

C B d R U Wind tunnel @ IIT J

E Figure 8: a) Double heliostat system used for experiment with h distance between them. b)Estimated Graph of Density of deposited threshold 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. velocity for initiating removal of dust High Heat Flux Measurement

Experiment @ NFTDC Measurement 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-Grids Motivation • 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 power exchange with utility grid at 3 phase 440V. Pilot & Demonstration Plants IITJ-IOCL-BHEL Experimental CSP Plant BARC: SOLTOP-2 Team from IITJ, IITK, NFTDC Faculty members: .Dr. Laltu Chandra, IITJ .Dr. K. Balasubraminium, NFTDC .Dr. Deepak Fulwani, IITJ .Dr. S. Harinipriya, IITJ .Dr. V. Narayanan .Dr. B. Pratihar .Dr. A. Dixit, IITJ .Prof. 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!