The Design and Testing of a Molten Salt Steam Generator for Solar Application

This paper describes the design and testing of the Steam Generator Subsystem (SGS) for the Molten Salt Electric Experiment at Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Molten Salt Electric Experiment (MSEE) has been established at the Department of Energy’s five megawatt thermal Solar Central Receiver Test Facility, to demonstrate the feasibility of the molten salt central receiver concept. The experiment is capable of generating 0.75 megawatts of electric power from solar energy, with the capability of storing seven megawatt-hours of thermal energy. The steam generator subsystem transfers sensible heat from the solar-heated molten nitrate salt to produce steam to drive a conventional turbine. This paper discusses the design requirements dictated by the steam generator application and also reviews the process conditions. Details of each of the SGS components are given, featuring the aspects of the design and performance unique to the solar application. The paper concludes with a summary of the test results confirming the overall design of the subsystem.