Publications Details
A solarized brayton engine based on turbo-charger technology and the dlr receiver
Northern Research and Engineering Corp. (NREC) is currently under contract to Sandia National Laboratories to solarize a 30 kWe Brayton engine that is based on turbo-charger technology. This program is also supported by the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR), which is supplying the solar receiver through an agreement with the International Energy Agencyl Solar PACES. The engine is a low pressure, highly recuperated engine. The turbo-machinery is built up from commercial turbo-chargers, which ensures low cost and high reliability. A combustor will be included in the system to allow for full power production during cloud transients. Current estimates are that the engine/alternator thermal-to-electric efficiency will be 30+%. The solar receiver to be supplied by DLR will be an advanced version of their VOBREC volumetric receiver. This receiver has a parabolic quartz window and ceramic foam absorber. The estimated efficiency of the receiver is 9W%. Sandia has developed an economic model to estimate the levelized energy cost (LEC) of energy produced by dish/engine systems. The model includes both the operating characteristics of the dishes and engines as well as a detailed economic model. The results of the analysis indicate that the dish/Brayton systems compare favorably with dishlstirling systems.