Lessons learnt during the construction and start-up of 3 cylindrical cavity-receivers facility integrated in a 750 kW solar tower plant for hydrogen production

Abstract

One of the key points of solar chemistry and solar engineering is the storage of solar energy into an easily transportable and transformable form, which is an energy carrier such as hydrogen. The two step thermochemical water splitting cycles are some of the most promising options to produce H2 from renewable sources. Some of these reactions have been investigated by CIEMAT-PSA throughout several projects in the framework of the HYDROSOL initiative. During the development of one of these projects, HYDROSOL-PLANT, it was assembled and operated a plant for solar thermo-chemical hydrogen production from water in a 750 kW scale on a solar tower. The pilot plant has been installed in the facility called SSPS-CRS, which consist of a central receiver solar tower system located on the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) in Spain. Main goals of the project were to construct a demonstration plant in the range of the 750 kW to verify the thermochemical H2O splitting technologies and operate the plant to demonstrate hydrogen production and storage on site. During the construction, assembly and start-up of the facility, many different issues have appeared, and different corrective measures were adopted in order to solve them. This work presents such aspects and the actions that were carried out to allow the facility to be operative. Additionally, a new project called HYDROSOL-BEYOND has been launched, which continues the works started in HYDROSOL-PLANT. This project implements several improvements to increase the efficiency of the facility, which are also explained in this work.