A Literature Review of Igneous Moroccan Rocks for Thermal Energy Storage in CSP Plants

摘要

It has been proved that thermal energy storage (TES) is a convincing technology ensuring the continuous generation of concentrating solar power (CSP) as well as to play a major role in the industrial field. Since then, a dual-media thermocline (DMT) becomes the appropriate storage system, according to technical and economic criteria used to evaluate CSP plant performances. Certainly, to better understand the thermal behavior of this system, it is important to measure and control the effect of thermo-physical properties of the storage material (rocks). However, the choice of the suitable material used as potential storage remains a great challenge. In this scope, there are few experimental studies on dual-media thermocline which are reported in the literature. This paper aims to present a specific literature review on the igneous rocks (Granite, Basalt, Peridotite, Gabbro...) as filler storage materials in TES application. These rocks are identified in different regions of Morocco. Comparison of their thermo-physical properties (density, thermal capacity, thermal conductivity, porosity...) and their thermal stabilities were presented and discussed. This comparative study shows that the Peridotite rock is the most suitable to be used as a storage material at high temperature in TES systems.