IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i4p880-d1589826.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Solar Selective Absorber Coating with Ag Infrared Reflector for Receiver Tubes Operating at 550 °C

Author

Listed:
  • Salvatore Esposito

    (Portici Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), P.le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Portici, Italy)

  • Antonio D’Angelo

    (Portici Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), P.le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Portici, Italy)

  • Claudia Diletto

    (Portici Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), P.le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Portici, Italy)

  • Gabriella Rossi

    (Portici Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), P.le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Portici, Italy)

  • Raffaele Volpe

    (Portici Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), P.le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Portici, Italy)

  • Antonio Guglielmo

    (Portici Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), P.le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Portici, Italy)

  • Anna De Girolamo Del Mauro

    (Portici Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), P.le E. Fermi 1, 80055 Portici, Italy)

  • Claudia Prestigiacomo

    (Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Michela Lanchi

    (Casaccia Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Via Anguillarese 301, S. Maria di Galeria, 00123 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

The present work introduces a new solar selective absorber coating (SSAC) for the receiver tube of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems, proposing silver as an infrared reflector for application at 550 °C. In the past, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) has developed SSACs suitable for applications at 550 °C, featuring solar absorbers based on graded multilayer cermet of WN-AlN and W-Al 2 O 3 and an infrared reflector of tungsten. Although these coatings ensured properly stable photothermal performance at 550 °C, due to the low tungsten diffusivity, their hemispherical emittance could be reduced by using metals with higher reflectance in the infrared region, like silver. However, the high diffusivity of silver compromises its use at high temperatures. This last drawback has been addressed by foreseeing two stabilizing layers enclosing the Ag infrared reflector. One W stabilizing layer was placed between the substrate and the Ag infrared reflector, whereas a second stabilizing layer, selected among aluminum nitride deposited with a low and high nitrogen flow and aluminum oxide deposited at a low oxygen flow, was placed between the Ag infrared reflector and the solar absorber. Accelerated aging tests revealed a negligible (not detectable) degradation of the solar absorptance for the new SSACs. Furthermore, the hemispherical emittance at 550 °C increased by 0.75% and 0.42% for solar coatings with aluminum nitride stabilizing layers deposited through a high and low nitrogen flow, respectively. Differently, the increase was evaluated as being equal to 0.08% for the solar coating with an aluminum oxide stabilizing layer deposited through a low oxygen flow. The manufactured solar coating with a stabilizing layer of aluminum nitride deposited with a low nitrogen flow exhibited a solar absorptance of 95%, comparable to ENEA coatings incorporating a W infrared reflector for applications at 550 °C, whereas the estimated hemispherical emittance at 550 °C was 2% lower than that of the best ENEA coating with a W infrared reflector for the same temperature.

Suggested Citation

  • Salvatore Esposito & Antonio D’Angelo & Claudia Diletto & Gabriella Rossi & Raffaele Volpe & Antonio Guglielmo & Anna De Girolamo Del Mauro & Claudia Prestigiacomo & Michela Lanchi, 2025. "Solar Selective Absorber Coating with Ag Infrared Reflector for Receiver Tubes Operating at 550 °C," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-28, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:4:p:880-:d:1589826
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/4/880/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/4/880/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Caccia & M. Tabandeh-Khorshid & G. Itskos & A. R. Strayer & A. S. Caldwell & S. Pidaparti & S. Singnisai & A. D. Rohskopf & A. M. Schroeder & D. Jarrahbashi & T. Kang & S. Sahoo & N. R. Kadasala & , 2018. "Ceramic–metal composites for heat exchangers in concentrated solar power plants," Nature, Nature, vol. 562(7727), pages 406-409, October.
    2. Salvatore Esposito & Antonio D’Angelo & Claudia Diletto & Antonio Guglielmo & Michela Lanchi & Gabriella Rossi, 2021. "Solar Coatings Based on Ag Infrared Reflector with High Stability at Medium and High Temperature," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-18, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Zhen & Lu, Daogang & Wang, Zhichao & Cao, Qiong, 2023. "Analysis on flow and heat transfer performance of SCO2 in airfoil channels with different fin angles of attack," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    2. Matthew L. Bauer, 2022. "De-Risking Solar Receivers to Achieve SunShot Targets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, March.
    3. Wang, Wen-Qi & Li, Ming-Jia & Jiang, Rui & Hu, Yi-Huang & He, Ya-Ling, 2022. "Receiver with light-trapping nanostructured coating: A possible way to achieve high-efficiency solar thermal conversion for the next-generation concentrating solar power," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 159-171.
    4. Alamdari, Pedram & Khatamifar, Mehdi & Lin, Wenxian, 2024. "Heat loss analysis review: Parabolic trough and linear Fresnel collectors," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    5. Wang, Jikang & Zhang, Yuanting & Zhang, Weichen & Qiu, Yu & Li, Qing, 2022. "Design and evaluation of a lab-scale tungsten receiver for ultra-high-temperature solar energy harvesting," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    6. Li, Zhen & Lu, Daogang & Lin, Manjiao & Cao, Qiong, 2024. "Investigation of the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of SCO2 in a modified hybrid airfoil channel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    7. Chen, Hao & Zhao, Li & Cong, Haifeng & Li, Xingang, 2022. "Synthesis of waste heat recovery using solar organic Rankine cycle in the separation of benzene/toluene/p-xylene process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    8. Zhu, Qingzi & Pishahang, Mehdi & Bichnevicius, Michael & Amy, Caleb & Caccia, Mario & Sandhage, Kenneth H. & Henry, Asegun, 2022. "The importance of maldistribution matching for thermal performance of compact heat exchangers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    9. Wang, Wen-Qi & Li, Ming-Jia & Jiang, Rui & Cheng, Ze-Dong & He, Ya-Ling, 2022. "A comparison between lumped parameter method and computational fluid dynamics method for steady and transient optical-thermal characteristics of the molten salt receiver in solar power tower," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    10. Zhang, Yuanting & Qiu, Yu & Li, Qing & Henry, Asegun, 2022. "Optical-thermal-mechanical characteristics of an ultra-high-temperature graphite receiver designed for concentrating solar power," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    11. Tyagi, Akanksha & Warrior, Dhruv & Ganesan, Karthik & Jain, Rishabh & Chandhok, Vibhuti & Dasgupta, Amrita & Dsouza, Swati & Kim, Tae-Yoon & Ramji, Aditya & Krishnan, Deepak & Gupta, Geetika & Tagotra, 2023. "Addressing Vulnerabilities in the Supply Chain of Critical Minerals," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt8m46128h, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    12. Xinyu Zhang & Yunting Ge, 2023. "Power Generation with Renewable Energy and Advanced Supercritical CO 2 Thermodynamic Power Cycles: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-32, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:4:p:880-:d:1589826. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.