Engineering:Solar furnace

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Short description: Focal point for concentrated sunlight; contains working fluid to be heated
For the cooking apparatus, see Solar cooker. For electricity generation, see Solar power tower.
The solar furnace at Odeillo in the Pyrénées-Orientales in France can reach temperatures of 3,500 °C (6,330 °F).

A solar furnace is a structure that uses concentrated solar power to produce high temperatures, usually for industry. Parabolic mirrors or heliostats concentrate light (Insolation) onto a focal point. The temperature at the focal point may reach 3,500 °C (6,330 °F), and this heat can be used to generate electricity, melt steel, make hydrogen fuel or nanomaterials.

The largest solar furnace is at Odeillo in the Pyrénées-Orientales in France, opened in 1970. It employs an array of plane mirrors to gather sunlight, reflecting it onto a larger curved mirror.

History

The ancient Greek / Latin term heliocaminus means "solar furnace" and refers to a glass-enclosed sunroom intentionally designed to become hotter than the outside air temperature.[1]

Legendary accounts of the Siege of Syracuse (213–212 BC) tell of Archimedes' heat ray, a set of burnished brass mirrors or burning glasses supposedly used to ignite attacking ships, though modern historians doubt its veracity.

On 24 September 1901, Knut C. Wideen was granted a patent for a "System for collecting and utilizing solar heat", which included a solar furnace.[2]

The first modern solar furnace is believed to have been built in France in 1949 by Professor Félix Trombe. The device, the Mont-Louis Solar Furnace is still in place at Mont-Louis. The Pyrenees were chosen as the site because the area experiences clear skies up to 300 days a year.[3]

The Odeillo Solar Furnace is a larger and more powerful solar furnace. It was built between 1962 and 1968, and started operating in 1969. It's currently the most powerful, based on an achievable temperature of 3500 °C.

The Solar Furnace of Uzbekistan was built in Uzbekistan and opened in 1981 as a part of a Soviet Union "Sun" Complex Research Facility, being the world largest concentrator.[4]

Uses

The rays are focused onto an area the size of a cooking pot and can reach 4,000 °C (7,230 °F), depending on the process installed; for example:

  • about 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) for metallic receivers producing hot air for the next-generation solar towers as it will be tested at the Themis plant with the Pegase project[5]
  • about 1,400 °C (2,550 °F) to produce hydrogen by cracking methane molecules[6]
  • up to 2,500 °C (4,530 °F) to test materials for extreme environment such as nuclear reactors or space vehicle atmospheric reentry
  • up to 3,500 °C (6,330 °F) to produce nanomaterials by solar induced sublimation and controlled cooling, such as carbon nanotubes[7] or zinc nanoparticles[8]

It has been suggested that solar furnaces could be used in space to provide energy for manufacturing purposes.

Their reliance on sunny weather is a limiting factor as a source of renewable energy on Earth but could be tied to thermal energy storage systems for energy production through these periods and into the night.

Smaller-scale devices

Paella being cooked with a solar cooker

The solar furnace principle is being used to make inexpensive solar cookers and solar-powered barbecues, and for solar water pasteurization.[9][10] A prototype Scheffler reflector is being constructed in India for use in a solar crematorium. This 50 m2 reflector will generate temperatures of 700 °C (1,292 °F) and save 200–300 kg of firewood used per cremation.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "MEEF Roman Architectural Glossary". http://www.eng-forum.com/articles/Glossaries/Architecture_Roman.htm. 
  2. ↑ U.S. Patent 683,088
  3. ↑ Odeillo Solar Furnace official website, retrieved 12 July 2007
  4. ↑ English Russia's post about the Uzbekistan Soviet Solar Furnace
  5. ↑ "PEGASE project home page". http://www.promes.cnrs.fr/pegase/index.php. 
  6. ↑ SOLHYCARB, EU funded project, ETHZ official page
  7. ↑ Flamant G., Luxembourg D., Robert J.F., Laplaze D., Optimizing fullerene synthesis in a 50 kW solar reactor, (2004) Solar Energy, 77 (1), pp. 73-80.
  8. ↑ T. Ait Ahcene, C. Monty, J. Kouam, A. Thorel, G. Petot-Ervas, A. Djemel, Preparation by solar physical vapor deposition (SPVD) and nanostructural study of pure and Bi doped ZnO nanopowders, Journal of the European Ceramic Society, Volume 27, Issue 12, 2007, Pages 3413-342
  9. ↑ "SOLAR COOKERS How to make, use, and enjoy". Solar Cookers International. 2004. https://www.solarcookers.org/application/files/4715/5778/9440/SCI_How_to_Make_Use_and_Enjoy.pdf. 
  10. ↑ US patent for solar barbecue granted in 1992 .
  11. ↑ "Development Of A Solar Crematorium". Solare Brüecke. http://www.solare-bruecke.org/infoartikel/Papers_%20from_SCI_Conference_2006/22_wolfgang_scheffler.pdf. 



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