Proposal for the Development of Chilean LiNO3 as Thermal Energy Storage Material for CSP Plants
Abstract
This paper presents an evaluation of the influence of LiNO3, obtained from the Atacama desert brines in a ternary mixture composed by 30wt%LiNO3 + 13wt%NaNO3 + 57wt% KNO3. The addition of lithium nitrate is assumed to improve the performance of molten salts and promising results were obtained with respect to the melting point (a reduction of 96 °C was found in comparison with the solar salt) and a maximum thermal stability temperature around 596 °C. Additionally, the ternary mixture proposed would mean an improvement of about 16% regarding heat capacity. Finally, it was also determined in a larger volume (pilot plant scale, 1 Ton) a minimum working temperature below 190 °C obtaining the ternary molten salt completely melted.