Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) based test rig facility

Shashank Raj Gupta
Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) based test rig facility

Question: In which of the following city, Central government has established the Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) based test rig facility?
a) Raipur
b) Bengaluru
c) Hyderabad
d) None of these
Answer: (c)
Related facts:-

  • On 7 July 2021; the Union ministry of science & technology announced the establishment of Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) based test rig facility at Hyderabad.
  • CST at Hyderabad can help the growing solar industry in India to test capability and performance of solar thermal components like solar receiver tubes, heat transfer fluids, concentrating mirrors.
  • The facility has been set up by the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology (DST).
  • It will validate solar thermal components such as solar receiver tubes, heat transfer fluids, concentrating mirrors, and AR coated glass tubes, etc. of the CST system in field conditions.
  • It will validate the indigenous components by parallelly comparing the performance (heat gain and heat loss properties) of the standard components.
  • It wiil be done with varying the operating parameters (e.g., flow rates of Heat Transfer Fluids (HTFs) operating temperature, pressures, etc.) and different DNI (Direct Normal Irradiance) conditions.
  • The development of solar thermal technologies for low and medium-temperature applications requires much attention of indigenous solar thermal components manufacturing facilities.
  • There is the need that indigenous solar thermal components should have cost-effective engineering designs because most of the solar thermal companies import solar thermal components, particularly from China and Europe.
  • In this regard, ARCI is working on the development of cost-effective solar receiver tubes, anti-reflective (AR) coated glass covers, nanostructure material-based thermic fluids etc.
  • There is also the requirement of Development of durable reflective mirrors to enhance the performance and cutting down the cost of the solar thermal systems in India.
  • Apart from the development, the testing and validation of the components in real-field conditions are critical for the deployment of solar thermal technology.
  • In order to cater to this need, ARCI has established a concentrated solar thermal-based single-axis parabolic trough test rig facility sponsored by the Technology Research Centre (TRC) project, DST, Govt. of India.
  • The parabolic-trough test rig facility has features for simultaneous testing of standard and indigenous solar receiver tubes.
  • It has a thermic fluid-based closed-loop system which can operate between 50 to 350°C temperature ranges.
  • It can conduct heat gain studies in real-field conditions with the actual measurement of solar irradiance condition and has an electrical heater support for measuring the actual heat loss of solar receivers at different operating temperatures.
  • ARCI’s test rig facility provides the performance of indigenously developed solar thermal components in real-field operating conditions, thus attracting greater interest from the industries.
  • Recently, HPCL R&D, Bangalore, has sanctioned a project to ARCI for validating their indigenously developed heat transfer fluids with the comparison of a world-leading commercial product.

Links:-
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1733436