Solar volumetric-receivers have been successfully used in both electricity production and thermochemical applications. This paper studies the applicability of this technology to the production of process heat for high-temperature uses (573–1073 K).

A non-deterministic uncertainty and global sensitivity analysis, based on the Sobol’s method, is developed for a parabolic-trough direct steam generation plant for process heat applications. The objective of this work is to evaluate the robustness of the simulation-based design stage,...

The efficiency of any thermal power plant is related to the maximum working temperature that some components can reach. Examples of material constraints are the first stage blades of a gas turbine or the receiver of a solar tower plant, but there are other temperature constraints, such as the...

The thermal evaluation of different absorber configurations for a volumetric solar receiver designed for a solar furnace has been carried out by means of commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software in a 2D numerical model. Simulation results for proposed configurations depending on...

Direct steam generation (DSG) process in the absorber tubes of parabolic-trough solar collectors is experiencing an important development in the last decade. This concentrated solar technology can be used in solar fields for electricity production or industrial-process heat supply. The modeling...

This paper presents an overview of the parabolic-trough collectors that have been built and marketed during the past century, as well as the prototypes currently under development. It also presents a survey of systems which could incorporate this type of concentrating solar system to supply...