Purdue leading DOE SunShot Project to enhance the efficiency of concentrated solar power technology

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Vice President Joe Biden is announcing Wednesday (Sept. 16) that Purdue University has received an advanced U.S. Department of Energy research award to improve concentrating solar power (CSP) technology. Funded by the DOE SunShot Initiative, a research team from Purdue aims to test the material limitations of critical components often found in large-scale solar power plants.

The "power tower" system, a prominent type of CSP plant, uses an array of solar mirrors to transfer heat at the top of a tower to a high-temperature liquid. This liquid then carries the heat to a heat exchanger that transfers the heat to a fluid that drives a turbine to generate electricity.

Purdue, working with the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Wisconsin, is developing a manufacturing method to produce a critical component of the power tower system: the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger must be capable of handling high-temperature fluids under high pressure at 800 degrees Celsius, or nearly 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, said Kenneth Sandhage, the Reilly Professor of Materials Engineering in Purdue's School of Materials Engineering.