SIPS 2018

DETAILLED PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Energy and Molten Salts
Marcelle Gaune Escard¹;
¹AIX-MARSEILLE UNIVERSITE/POLYTECH, CNRS/IUSTI UMR7343, Marseille, France;
PAPER: 445/Molten/Keynote (Oral)
SCHEDULED: 17:40/Tue./Bossa (150/3rd)

ABSTRACT:
Molten salt technology [1] has very diverse applications. Interest in the use of molten salts in industrial processes is continually increasing, and these media are gradually becoming accepted as a normal field of chemical engineering. Applications include extraction of metals, as well as heat and surface treatment of metals and alloys. In the field of energy, molten salts are commonly used as a medium for high-temperature batteries, fuel cells as well as for nuclear and solar energy systems. They play a crucial role for heat transfer and energy storage in nuclear and solar energy systems. Molten salt reactors might spell a nuclear energy revolution. A molten salt reactor (MSR) is a type of nuclear reactor that uses liquid fuel instead of the solid fuel rods used in conventional nuclear reactors. Using liquid fuel provides many advantages in safety and simplicity of design.MSRs are a huge departure from the conventional reactors most people are familiar with. Key features include: unparalleled safety, a solution to nuclear waste and stockpiles of plutonium, abundant energy cheaper than energy from coal, load following solar and wind power, abundant energy for hundreds of years, replacement of fossil fuels where wind and solar are problematic (CO<sub>2</sub> -free liquid fuels). Molten salts are also excellent materials for thermal energy storage for high-efficiency solar power facilities. Among the different types of thermal energy storage, one can be realized through two different phenomena associated with materials that produce storage. This is known as storage by sensible heat and latent heat storage. Sensible heat of molten salts is also used for storing solar energy at a high temperature. Molten salts can be employed as a thermal energy storage method to retain thermal energy. Presently, this is a commercially used technology to store the heat collected by concentrated solar power (e.g., from a solar tower or solar trough). The heat can later be converted into super-heated steam to power conventional steam turbines and generate electricity in bad weather or at night. Various eutectic mixtures of different salts are used (e.g., sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate and calcium nitrate).

References:
References:

1. Molten Salts Chemistry and Technology, Marcelle Gaune-Escard, Geir Martin Haarberg,
, Eds., John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2014