Published Paper Details:

Our research focuses on molten salts and their potential as a heat transfer fluid. Molten salts have been used in high temperature applications such as coal gasification medium, waste oxidation at high temperatures, thermal energy storage medium, and heat transfer fluid (HTF) in Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems. They are particularly useful as a heat transfer fluid in a CSP due to their main characteristics such as low vapour pressure, wide operating range, low viscosity, and high volumetric heat capacity. Molten salts are compared to conventionally used HTFs, as well as other low temperature fluids such as water and experimental fluids such as liquid metals and their eutectic mixtures. The molten salts chosen for this report are primarily binary, ternary, or quaternary mixtures containing alkali and alkaline earth metal nitrates such as sodium, potassium, lithium, caesium, calcium nitrate, and sodium nitrite. The thermophysical properties of the salts were compared. These are melting point, density, viscosity, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity. The effect of using molten salts as a heat transfer fluid on plant performance and economics has also been discussed. The fluids under consideration have great potential for current and future applications in renewable energy storage and transformation processes.