Award Date

12-1-2020

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction

First Committee Member

Samaan Ladkany

Second Committee Member

Nader Ghafoori

Third Committee Member

Ying Tian

Fourth Committee Member

Ryan Sherman

Fifth Committee Member

William Culbreth

Number of Pages

230

Abstract

Excess energy from solar power stations and other baseline power production methods canbe stored in molten salts (MS) in the 565°C range, therefore allowing the use of large containers to store energy for up to a week and generate eight hours of electricity or more to be used during peak demand hours, at night, or adverse weather conditions, depending on the container size. Supported by Office of Naval Research (ONR), this research presents a survey of molten salt properties used in solar power storage, as well as the history of molten salt usage for energy storage and production for nuclear and solar energy storage and production. Real life examples of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, both domestically and worldwide, are presented with details about the type of solar collection, capacity, and energy production. Recommendations are made regarding the efficient use of various types of molten salt. In addition, the design considerations for molten salt storage tanks are presented. An optimal molten salt cylindrical storage tank design layout is presented, as well as a practical cylindrical tank design and the considerations that go into the design. Two alternative shell shape designs for the storage tanks are also explored. In addition, heat transfer effects from the storage tanks due to the molten salts are explored as these considerations also impact the design process for tank construction.

Keywords

High temperature molten salts; Molten salt shell structures; Molten salts; Renewable energy; Solar energy

Disciplines

Civil Engineering

File Format

pdf

File Size

10700 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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