WP2-2 Development, Comparison and System Integration

The PhD thesis will cover solar process heat collector comparison, solar process heat integration and development aspects of solar process heat collectors. Measurement data of existing solar process heat systems in Switzerland will be analyzed and simulations of these installations shall be set up and carried out using tools for dynamic system simulations. The simulations will then be validated with the measurement data and the optimization potential shall be identified with simulations using parameter variations. The feasibility of different medium temperature collectors for different temperatures and integration concepts shall be assessed. Regarding the operation of process heat collector fields, several aspects such as the heating‐up, overheating/stagnation and control issues shall be analyzed using both measurement data and simulation results. Depending on industry cooperation, one or more medium temperature collectors will be (further) developed, optimized and characterized. For this, a suitable test rig for performance measurements up to 200 °C will be available at SPF. The potential of the reduction of production costs will be investigated together with industry partners.