MOSA

Molten Salt Test Loop for Thermal Energy Systems

This molten salt test loop is a replica of a thermal energy storage system with molten salts and a two-tank configuration. With 40t of molten salts plant, this facility consists basically in:

• Two tanks, one vertical, for hot molten salts, and another horizontal, for cold molten salts.
• A thermal oil loop that can be used for heating the salt up to 380oC and cooling it to 290oC.
• A CO2-molten salt heat exchanger for heating the salt up to 500oC with CO2 supplied by parabolic trough collectors.
• Two flanged sections, where different components for this type of loops (e.g. valves, flow meters, heat trace, pumps…) can be tested.

Being a set up which is a reduced scale of a commercial two-tank molten salt storage system, everything related to this type of systems can be tested in this facility.

For more information see:
M. M. Rodríguez-García, and E. Zarza, “Design and Construction of an Experimental Molten Salt Test Loop”, Proceedings of the 17th International SolarPACES Conference, Granada, 2011.

Applications

• Checking of components (pumps, valves, flowmeters, etc.) for their use in a molten salt medium.
• Optimization of procedures in normal operation for a two-tank system configuration.
• Optimization of procedures in risk situations for a two-tank system configuration. Designing recovery procedures.
• Validation of models and simulation approaches for molten salt thermal systems.
• Characterization of heat exchangers for molten salt/oil.
• Characterization of heat exchangers for molten salt/gas.
• Characterization of thermocline tanks.