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Solar Energy Vol. 66, No. 2, pp. 91101, 1999 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd S 0 0 3 8 0 9 2 X ( 9 8 ) 0 0 1 0 8 X All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0038-092X / 99 / $ - see front matter

TECHNO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF A 10 MWe SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANT USING AMMONIA-BASED THERMOCHEMICAL ENERGY STORAGE
ANDREAS LUZZI* , , KEITH LOVEGROVE*, ERMANNO FILIPPI**, HANS FRICKER***, MANFRED SCHMITZ-GOEB****, MATHEW CHANDAPILLAI***** and STEPHEN KANEFF******
*Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra ACT 0200, Australia **Ammonia Casale S.A., Via Sorengo 7, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland ***FC Consulting, Breitestrasse 22, 8544 Rickenbach, Switzerland ****L&C Steinmuller GmbH, Postfach 100855, 51643 Gummersbach, Germany *****Siemens Power Generation, 207 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ******Energy Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Revised version accepted 19 August 1998

AbstractThe production of solar thermal power on a continuous, 24-h basis is possible by applying thermochemical energy storage. An international group of industrial and academic partners is studying such a base-load solar power plant concept, where the reversible thermo-catalytic ammonia reaction serves as the energy vector between supply and demand. Early results conrm the technical soundness of the concept using conventional technology, equipment and materials, and indicate also the potential for economic viability. A rst-of-a-kind, solar-only demonstration power plant with a net capacity of 10 MWe would require a capital investment of the order of AUD 180 million and operate with a net solar-to-electric conversion efciency of 18% and a capacity factor of 80%. This would result in levelised electricity costs of less than AUD 0.25 per kWh. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM DESIGN

Thermochemical reactions offer an interesting means to effectively convert, store as well as transport solar energy, with the potential to make solar power available on a 24-h basis. Following original work by Carden (1977) and co-workers, recent R&D progress at the Australian National University (ANU) by Lovegrove and Luzzi (1996) has encouraged the investigation of the viability of a complete solar thermal power plant system based on the reversible thermochemical ammonia reaction: NH 3 6DH( Enthalpy of reaction) 0.5N 2 1 1.5H 2 . The main objective has been to thoroughly assess the techno-economic performance of a hypothetical 10 MWe solar thermal power plant, designed for 24-h base-load operation. This paper reports on the status of this study by summarising results regarding the design, performance modelling and preliminary costing of key system components.

Fig. 1 illustrates a ow sheet of the conceptual system design under evaluation. The system is based around one or more endothermic reactors (R-101), which are driven by solar heat, and a single exothermic reactor for heat recovery via generation of superheated steam (R-102). Associated with these reactors are counter-ow heat exchangers (E-101 and E-102). They exchange heat between the inlet and outlet reactant ows and so ensure that the remainder of the system (e.g. energy storage, transport piping and compressors) operate at ambient temperature.

3. OPERATING PARAMETER SELECTION

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: ISES member. Fax: 1 61-2-6249-0506; E-mail: luzzi@faceng.anu.edu.au. 91

A capacity of 10 MWe has been chosen for the base-load solar thermal power plant in this study since such a capacity would comfortably meet some 3050% of the current mean loads of main mining facilities as well as of typical major towns at Australian remote and end-of-grid locations (Wolf, 1992). Furthermore, a 10 MWe base-load solar plant would allow for application of cost effective, conventional steam Rankine cycle as well as ammonia synthesis plant technology, and for mass-production of the solar eld components.

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Fig. 1. Conceptional system design of a solar thermal power plant using an ammonia-based thermochemical closed-loop for energy conversion, storage and transport.

Table 1 lists key operating parameters for the main components of a 10 MWe system. All parameters concern a base-case scenario with an isobaric thermochemical ammonia loop that operates at a system pressure of 25 MPa.
4. PRELIMINARY RESULTS

4.1. Component design 4.1.1. Solar collectors. Two commercially mature solar collector technologies have been chosen for investigation with this study. Both technologies are based on steel space frames, which rotate on a concrete ring around a central hub. These collector technologies are the following: 1. 400-m 2 paraboloidal dish solar collector technology by Kaneff (1995) and co-workers at ANUs Energy Research Centre (ERC). Key

technical specications of this collector are listed in Table 2. Some 400 of these collectors have to be arranged in an array to provide for the full solar energy collection capacity of the 10 MWe base-load solar power plant. 2. 150-m 2 stretched-metal-membrane heliostat technology developed jointly by Steinmuller and Schlaich, Bergermann & Partner (SBP) in conjunction with the PHOEBUS power tower technology (TSA, 1994). The technical specications of this heliostat technology are listed in Table 3. A total of 2800 units of these heliostats have to be arranged in two circumferential elds around two towers to provide for the full solar energy collection capacity of the 10 MWe base-load solar power plant.

4.1.2. Ammonia dissociation. Based on the above solar collector technologies, the two fol-

Table 1. Operating parameters for the main components of a 10 MWe solar thermal power plant with ammonia-based thermochemical energy storage. Two solar technologies / concepts have been studied: the paraboloidal-dish / central-powergeneration and the AIR-Ammonia power tower Ammonia dissociation reactor 400 m 2 dish (400 units) AIR-Ammonia (two such units with 1400 heliostats each) Absorbed power Ammonia mass ow Reaction extent Absorbed power Air temperature Air mass ow Ammonia mass ow Reaction extent Operating pressure Bed ow design Ammonia capacity Operating pressure Steam superheat Steam mass ow Back pressure 308 kWth 0.127 kg s 2 1 0.8 (80%-wt.) 94 MWth 8408608C 576 t h 2 1 103 t h 2 1 0.8 (80%-wt.) 25 MPa Axial / radial 1500 t day 2 1 10 MPa 4308C 49.5 t h 2 1 10 kPa

Ammonia synthesis reactor with three adiabatic catalyst beds

Steam Rankine power cycle with four preheat stages

Techno-economic analysis of a 10 MWe solar thermal power plant Table 2. Technical specications of ERCs 400 m paraboloidal PowerDish Geometry Hexagonal aperture area Mean diameter Mean rim angle Focal length Back-silvered glass (1 mm) Tracking (sun-program) Cut-off wind speed Complete dish / absorber
2 TM

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solar collector technology 400 m 2 22.74 m 46.68 13.2 m 216 units Intermittent 60 km h 2 1 | 40 kg m 2 2

Triangular mirror panels Hydraulic drive actuation Specic weight

2 Table 3. Technical specications of L&C Steinmullers 150 m stretched-metal-membrane heliostat solar collector technology

Geometry Reective surface Electric drive actuation Design weight

Circular aperture area Diameter Focal length (vacuum control) Back-silvered glass (1 mm) Tracking (sun-program) Cut-off wind speed Complete heliostat

150 m 2 13.8 m 100 m - innite Mirror facets Continuous 50 km h 2 1 | 25 kg m 2 2

lowing concepts have been evaluated for solardriven ammonia dissociation using tubular xedbed catalytic reactors: (a) directly-solar-irradiated cavity receiver / multi-tube-reactor for ammonia dissociation at quasi-isothermal conditions, using the ERC 400-m 2 paraboloidal dish solar collector; (b) conventional, megawatt-scale tube-bundle reactor for ammonia dissociation. The reactor

is red using typically 7808608C hot air which could be generated from a volumetric air solar receiver technology using metallic or ceramic receivers. This concept is in this study referred to as the AIR-Ammonia concept. Fig. 2 shows a concept-(a)-type receiver / reactor design proposal for solar ammonia dissociation applying the ERC 400-m 2 paraboloidal dish solar collector technology. This particular design

Fig. 2. Design proposal for an ammonia dissociation receiver / reactor using the ERC 400 m 2 paraboloidal dish solar collector technology.

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proposal builds on previous work done at the ANU by Lovegrove and Luzzi (1996) and by Bannister (1991). The reactor design of Fig. 2 is made of a circumferentially-arranged tube-bundle, placed inside an insulated top-hat receiver cavity. Each reactor tube features an annular catalyst bed which is designed to be heated through both of its boundaries. This can be achieved using a smalldiameter centre tube for the hot exiting reactants, operating in counter-ow with the reactor catalyst bed. Neither header is exposed to direct solar illumination. The use of a concept-(b)-type reactor, whereby the tubular packed-bed solar reactors are removed from direct solar irradiation and heated by solarproduced hot air instead, allows to predict reactor lifetime with much more condence than currently possible with concept-(a)-type solar receiver / reactors. Fig. 3 illustrates the two conventional reactor operation concepts investigated with this study. The most simple arrangement concerns an operation which uses the hot air in counter-ow with the catalytic reaction. This compares with quasi-isothermal reactor operation, achieved via appropriate placement of hot air injector nozzles alongside the reactor tubes. As with the ammonia dissociation reactor for the paraboloidal solar dish, annular catalyst beds are preferred with both reactor congurations.

4.1.3. Ammonia synthesis. An ammonia synthesis converter with a production capacity of up to 2000 MTD (metric-tonnes-per-day) has been developed by Ammonia Casale. The reactor is capable of utilising a large portion of the heat of reaction for the in-situ production of superheated steam at 4304508C and 10 MPa. The modular converter design comprises three adiabatic catalyst beds operating in an axial-radial mode, a bayonet-type boiler, and a preheater for the synthesis feed gas. The converter forms part of a complete ammonia synthesis loop, which includes a gas recycle loop with air-cooling and refrigeration stages for product separation, a make-up gas input, and a large compressor for gas circulation (refer to Luzzi et al., 1998). 4.1.4. Steam Rankine cycle. Since the space and control limitations of Casales proven ammonia synthesis converter do not permit the incorporation of a steam reheat conguration, a conventional single-stage steam Rankine cycle power conversion unit with four preheaters has been chosen by Siemens. The steam cycle has been designed to operate with a circulating cooling water system, employing a dry cooling tower with overnight water storage. 4.1.5. Heat exchangers. Counter-ow heat exchangers have been developed by FC Consulting to exchange the sensible heat from the hot exiting

Fig. 3. Sketch of ammonia dissociation reactor operation concepts for the AIR-Ammonia-type solar thermal power technology (A, quasi-isothermal operation; B, counter-ow operation).

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Fig. 4. Generic tube-and-shell design proposal for the high-pressure counter-ow heat exchangers studied in conjunction with the endothermic ammonia dissociation reaction.

reactants of the ammonia dissociation reactor(s) with the incoming, ambient-temperature liquid ammonia feed. The heat exchangers are designed as tube-and-shell boilers, with the hot synthesis gas tubes being formed as helical coils inside a pressure vessel. The design shown in Fig. 4 is modular in nature and insensitive to transient operation as well as to unequal thermal expansion between the two chambers.

Mass ow control will aim for a minimum of 80% of the ammonia feed being dissociated. Reciprocating pumps / expanders have been chosen for the pressure management of the highpressure storage vessels. They are operating across a peak pressure differential of up to 20 MPa for the base-case scenario of 25 MPa system pressure.

4.1.6. Compressors and pumps. A double function gas compressor will form part of the shaft of the steam turbine. This turbo-compressor was chosen to provide for steady-state circulation of the unreacted synthesis gas and for gas make-up. On the endothermic part of the system, a liquid ammonia feed pump is incorporated with each paraboloidal dish. Such pumps are PID-temperature-controlled by the actual process conditions within the ammonia dissociation reactor.

4.1.7. Storage. Fig. 5 shows the two storage tank concepts studied for this study. The rst, and preferred, storage option keeps the main highpressure storage tank under isobaric condition at 25 MPa. This is achieved through the exchange of reactant gas with a second gas tank with shifting pressure operation. The second storage option works with a low-pressure ammonia tank of typically 3 MPa to store liquid ammonia as displacement uid for the main high-pressure reactants tank. In either case, a reversible com-

Fig. 5. Storage tank concepts studied with the thermochemical ammonia system.

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pressor / expander is used to provide pressure control. Concerning the application of pressure vessels, the obvious technology to use is a series of commercially available forged vessels with a volume of typically 3 m 3 each. Such vessels are frequently used with high-pressure storage of hydrogen. But this option, which would require some 3750 units, has been ruled-out due to prohibitively high costs. As an alternative design option, a network of long pipeline sections as applied with the natural gas industry can be used instead. In keeping with international safety standards and with the limits of Australian manufacturing, a mild steel with a minimum yield strength of 359 MPa has been chosen for this pipeline storage design option. Using a nominal pipe size DN-300 (323.9 mm OD/ 12.7 mm wall thickness), a cumulative length of 162 km of such piping is required to facilitate 24-h base-load operation of a hypothetical 10 MWe solar thermochemical power plant operating in Central Australia.

4.1.8. Piping. The interconnecting piping between the dish array has been assumed to form part of the storage vessel equipment. Ambient-temperature transport of reactants through both axes of rotation of the 400-m 2 dish was designed for by applying exible tubing (Luzzi, 1996). A tube-bundle consisting of 10 1 / 4-inch steel tubes (6.375 mm OD/ 0.89 mm wall thickness) is needed per transport line. Rotation around the vertical axis by 61358 can be facilitated by a 12-m-long tube-bundle, whereas rotation around the vertical axis by 6458 requires a tube-bundle length of 4 m. 4.2. Performance modelling 4.2.1. Ammonia dissociation. A numerical twodimensional pseudo-homogenous model has been used to predict the performance of tubular, packed-bed catalytic ammonia dissociation reactor designs. The model is based on a code written by Richardson et al. (1988). It has been adapted and experimentally veried for the ammonia reaction by Lovegrove (1996). 4.2.2. Paraboloidal dish. Normalised heat ux proles have been studied for tubular reactors for application with ERCs 400-m 2 paraboloidal dish. Aiming for a heat ux prole that results in the lowest possible reactor wall temperatures, a nonsymmetric Gaussian heat ux prole (refer to Fig. 6) seems desirable. It is generally attainable

Fig. 6. Predicted axial performance proles of one 1.0-m-long solar ammonia dissociation reactor tube with annular catalyst bed. One of 32 reactor tubes (26.7 mm OD/ 2.87 mm wall thickness), heated by a combination of solar ux (external heat) and internal counter-ow of the hot exiting reactants via 10 mm OD centre tube (ammonia feed mass ow 3.5 g s 2 1 , working pressure 25 MPa, pressure drop 0.35 MPa, iron-cobalt catalyst DNK-2R by Haldor Topse, 11.5 kWchem ).

with paraboloidal dishes applying top-hat cavity receivers. Using a new photogrammetric measurement technology, Johnston (1995) has assessed the optical quality of ERCs prototype 400-m 2 paraboloidal solar dish, determining a mean surface normal error (SNE) of about 6 mrad. Development progress addressing dish design, manufacturing and installation conrms that massmanufactured dishes will perform with an SNE of better than 4.5 mrad. Such dishes will result in a peak solar concentration of around 3000 suns, with 90% of the sunlight intercepted by a 0.7-m diameter disk (99% sunlight / 1.0 m disk) mounted in the dishs focal plane. Fig. 6, for example, shows the results from performance modelling undertaken for a cavity

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receiver / reactor design according to Fig. 2, using COMPREC, a three dimensional ray-tracing code developed by Johnston (1995). It is proposed that the ammonia dissociation reactor consists of 32 tubes (26.7 mm OD/ 2.87 mm wall thickness), each 1.0 m long and linked to an inlet as well as outlet header, and featuring an annular catalyst bed. Modelling of these reactor tubes assumed heating by a combination of solar ux (external heat) and of internal counter-ow of the hot exiting reactants via 10 mm OD centre tube (NDI insolation 1000 W m 2 2 , 100% mirror reectivity, ammonia feed mass ow 3.5 g s 2 1 , working pressure 25 MPa, pressure drop 0.35 MPa). Using Haldor Topses triply-promoted iron-cobalt catalyst DNK-2R, these idealised parameters would lead to a chemical conversion of up to 11.5 kWchem per reactor tube (reaction extent of 85%), or to a total of 369 kWchem for the full reactor. This capacity represents some 92% of the total intercepted solar power.

4.2.3. AIR- Ammonia. Isothermal reactor operation would be preferred from a material performance point of view. The AIR-Ammonia concept however, where air is used as heat transfer medium, requires air mass and therefore air return temperatures to be as low as possible. Thanks to the constant specic heat property of air as heating uid, it can be applied in counterow with the ammonia dissociation reactor concept. Compared with isothermal operation however, such operation is only achievable at the expense of an increase in reactor length and catalyst use. The predicted axial performance proles of a 5-m-long ammonia dissociation reactor with annular catalyst bed, for example, is presented in Fig. 7. Such a tube could form part of a megawatt-size, tube-bundle ammonia dissociation reactor arrangement. The reactor tube is based on a 33.4 mm diameter (OD) tube with 2.77 mm wall thickness, and heated by a combination of 8608C hot air (external heat) and internal counter-ow of the hot exiting reactants via centre tube with 10 mm OD. Modelling assumed an ideal direct beam solar irradiation of 1000 W m 2 2 and a mirror reectivity of 100%. An ammonia feed mass ow of 3.86 g s 2 1 , an air mass ow for reactor heating of 21.5 g s 2 1 and a working pressure of 25 MPa were chosen. One such reactor tube was predicted to achieve a reaction extent of 79% and to convert up to 12.0 kWchem , releasing the reactants with a temperature of about 4558C and the air heating

Fig. 7. Predicted axial performance proles of one 5.0-m-long ammonia dissociation reactor tube with annular catalyst bed. One of 2400 reactor tubes (33.4 mm OD/ 2.77 mm wall thickness), heated by a combination of hot air (external heat) and internal counter-ow of the hot exiting reactants via 10 mm OD centre tube (ammonia mass ow 3.86 g s 2 1 , air mass ow 21.5 g s 2 1 , working pressure 25 MPa, pressure drop 0.2 MPa, iron-cobalt catalyst DNK-2R, 12 kWchem ).

uid at about 5808C. This air stream can be lowered further in temperature for the super-heating of the incoming ammonia feed. Such heat exchangers have been designed as well as performance modelled by FC Consulting (Luzzi et al., 1998). The described reactor arrangement, whereby the exiting hot reactants are applied for reactor heating via internal counter-ow, saves up to 45% of the hot air heat supply, if compared with a conventional, once-through catalyst bed. The cumulative capacity of 173 MWchem requires some 14 400 units of the modelled 1-inch reactor tubes assembled in six reactor-tube-bundles. These bundles would t in an insulated hexagon with a width of close to 4.2 m. Other reactor tube sizes and congurations have also been considered. It was found that an economic optimisation for a realistic project design requires

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Fig. 8. Process arrangement of ammonia synthesis loop used as basis for performance modelling.

careful consideration of materials, manufacturing and operational costs.

within the ammonia synthesis loops heat exchangers at temperatures below 808C.

4.2.4. Ammonia synthesis loop. Fig. 8 shows the arrangement of the chosen ammonia synthesis loop upon which performance modelling by Ammonia Casale (Filippi, 1996) has been based. Table 4 lists results from performance modelling based on a 1500-MTD ammonia converter raising 10-MPa steam at 4308C and operating as part of a synthesis loop with economiser. The cumulative pressure drop of the complete synthesis gas loop of less than 0.99 MPa is remarkably low. This gure also includes the ammonia synthesis converter. In this 25-MPa system pressure example of Table 4, 66.3% of the enthalpy of reaction is recovered by the steam Rankine cycle. This gure is close to 95% of the heat of the gas-phase reaction only which is actually released in the ammonia converter for steam generation. The remainder of the enthalpy of reaction is associated with the condensation of ammonia which occurs

4.2.5. Steam Rankine cycle. The performance of steam Rankine cycles based upon air cooling with overnight feedwater storage has been modelled by Siemens. For example, applying a commercial steam turbine with four preheat stages, a gross generator capacity of 12.4 MWe can be achieved using 49.5 t h 2 1 of superheated steam at 4408C and 10 MPa. This assumes a cold-end exhaust at 0.1 bar (absolute) and 45.838C. 4.2.6. Overall system performance. The net conversion efciency of a rst, realistic 1500MTD/ 25-MPa ammonia synthesis loop with steam generation and a 10-MPa steam Rankine cycle incorporating four preheat stages has been calculated to reach close to 30%. This gure includes all auxiliary power consumption of the ammonia synthesis loop as well as of the steam Rankine cycle, resulting in a net power production of the order of 10.2 MWe . Overall, a net solar-to-electric conversion ef-

Table 4. Performance modelling of an ammonia synthesis loop at 25 MPa, with an ammonia converter raising 10 MPa steam at 4308C Ammonia production rate Operating pressure Total catalyst volume Condensation temperature NH 3 at converter inlet NH 3 at converter outlet Steam produced (@ 4 MPa) Steam temperature Auxiliary power for gas chilling Auxiliary power for gas circulation [t day 2 1 ] [MPa] [m 3 ] [8C] [mol.%] [mol.%] [t H 2 O / t NH 3 ] [8C] [kW/ t NH 3 ] [kW/ t NH 3 ] 1500 25 23 10 4.7 21.8 0.94 430 24.1 13.7

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ciency of about 18% can be expected from a demonstration system based on the paraboloidal dish solar collector technology.

4.3. Preliminary cost estimates

At the time of writing, costing of the base-load power plant has not yet been initiated. We however attempted to provide an indicative cost estimate of the main components of the whole system. All costs are 1997 prices, calculated on the basis of past project experience as well as of new quotes from a variety of European and Australian manufacturers. Costs are in Australian dollars (AUD), including shipment, installation and operational testing in Australia. But expenses for project engineering, administration, government charges (such as import duties and sales tax) and insurance have not been accounted for.

4.3.1. Solar collector eld. The investment costs of a solar collector eld comprising 400 paraboloidal dishes, each with 400 m 2 aperture area, have been established by the authors in collaboration with Spacetech (1997). Excluding the solar ammonia dissociation receiver / reactors, but including all piping ground-to-receiver, a 400dish collector eld has been priced at AUD 340 per m 2 of collector area. For the solar power tower design concept based on an AIR-Ammonia technology with a volumetric air receiver, we estimated the investment costs for a 2800-unit heliostat eld using collectors with 150 m 2 aperture area each to amount to about AUD 220 per m 2 of collector area. 4.3.2. Ammonia dissociation. The costs for the 400 identical receiver / reactors described by Fig. 2 for solar ammonia dissociation at the focus of a 400-m 2 paraboloidal dish has been estimated as AUD 24 500 per dish. This includes a charge of 17.6 kg of triply-promoted iron-cobalt catalyst DNK-2R per reactor, at costs of about AUD 200 per kg. We estimated the costs of the counter-ow reactants-to-ammonia heat exchangers to be between AUD 15 000 and AUD 24 000 per solar dish, very much depending on the nal choice of design and materials. The exible tube-bundles needed to transport the reactants through both axes of rotation of the 400-m 2 dishes have been costed by the authors as about AUD 3000 per dish. Regarding the AIR-Ammonia concept, it is proposed to install two identical systems with a

125-m tall, steel-reinforced concrete tower each. These towers are required to each house a circumferential volumetric air receiver / absorber with a capacity of about 103 MWth . We have estimated the costs for each complete tower (including foundation, elevator, crane and stairs) as AUD 3.2 million and for the complete volumetric air receiver system as AUD 7.7 million. We have established that the entire tube-bundle ammonia dissociation reactor for the AIR-Ammonia system could incur costs of between AUD 28.4 and AUD 46.4 million, depending on the nal choice of system design. These costs will increase by the expenses for two counter-ow heat exchangers. The rst one is a reactants-toammonia heat exchanger while the second one serves to superheat the ammonia vapour using the hot air exiting from the reactor heating. The cumulative costs for all of the necessary heat exchangers will amount to about AUD 10.714.2 million.

4.3.3. Ammonia synthesis loop. We estimated the costs for a 1500 MTD ammonia synthesis converter to be AUD 5.1 million. The piping, heat exchange and refrigeration equipment for the ammonia synthesis loop will cost AUD 5.3 million. The turbo-compressor for the gas recycling as well as gas make-up has been priced at AUD 2.9 million. 4.3.4. Steam Rankine cycle. The steam Rankine cycle, excluding the boiler which has already been accounted for with the ammonia synthesis reactor, will cost about AUD 7.3 million. This includes the turbine, four heat exchangers for the preheating stages, exciter, condensers and instrumentation as well as controls. 4.3.5. Storage. The economics of both storage options have been pre-investigated. The rst option, being the 162-km length of DN-300 natural-gas-type pipeline suitable for operation at 25 MPa, was estimated in collaboration with BHP (1997) to cost AUD 45.8 million. The second option, where up to 3750 units of 3-m 3 forged pressure vessels would be used, was estimated by Mannesmann Stahlaschen (1997) to cost AUD 111.4 million. The cost for the ammonia inventory of 1350 tonnes, delivered on-site to a location in Central Australia, will be of the order of AUD 0.95 million. 4.3.6. Balance of plant. We estimated the costs for instrumentation and controls, electrical equip-

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ment (including transformer, switchyard and grid connection), the cooling water system (excluding cooling water storage), raw water supply, storage and pre-treatment, consumables including chemicals (apart from the working uid of the thermochemical loop), and blow-down as AUD 12.3 million. Table 5 summarises the preliminary capital cost estimates. The capital cost breakdown of Table 5 can be split according to four main areas. For example, typical expenses for the paraboloidal dish technology are: (i) 42% for the solar part, including infrastructure and endothermic energy conversion, (ii) 26% for the storage part, including the ammonia inventory, (iii) 18% for the entire power generation part, including exothermic energy conversion, and (iv) the remaining 14% for contingencies, engineering, constructionand management-related expenses. As typical with solar power plants in general, the capital costs are dominated by the expenses for the solar components. Despite the preliminary nature of the costing data, it is indicated that the dish-based solar technology is likely to be more cost-effective for the solar thermochemical ammonia concept than the AIR-Ammonia technology due to a more direct energy transfer from the sun to the ammonia system. Assuming economic parameters which are typical for utilities, and given a sunny location such as Central Australia, we calculated the levelised electricity generation costs for this rst-of-a-kind, solar-only 10 MWe base-load solar thermal power plant to be less than AUD 0.25 per kWh.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Preliminary results from a techno-economic investigation of the viability of the solar thermal power plant concept using ammonia-based thermochemical energy storage are encouraging. This solar power plant concept can make best use of industrially proven as well as commercialised material, technology and equipment. Innovative engineering approaches are nevertheless found desirable, mainly in the area of energy storage. Very early costing gures indicate the potential for economic viability of this solar power plant concept. For example, a capital investment of about AUD 180 million will be necessary for a 10 MWe base-load, solar-only power plant using ANUs 400-m 2 paraboloidal dish solar collector technology. This in turn would lead to levelised electricity costs of less than AUD 0.25 per kWh, provided the technology is applied in a sunny area such as Central Australia.

Acknowledgements We are grateful to the Swiss Ministry of Energy (BEW/ OFEN) for its nancial support toward this study. Very much acknowledged are the tremendous in-kind contributions of a great many companies worldwide.

REFERENCES
Bannister P. (1991) An Experimental and Analytical Assessment of a Steam Rankine Solar Thermal System. Ph.D. Thesis, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. BHP Oil & Gas Pipe (1997) Wollongong, Australia. Private correspondence. Carden P. (1977) Energy corradiation using the reversible ammonia reaction. Solar Energy 19, 365378.

Table 5. Breakdown of the preliminary capital cost estimates [AUD million] for an ammonia-based 10 MWe base-load solar power plant. The distributed-dish / central-power-generation concept is compared with the volumetric air receiver solar power tower concept (termed AIR-Ammonia) Cost item Infrastructure Solar collector eld Volumetric air receivers (2 units) Concrete towers (2 units) Ammonia dissociation reactor Heat exchangers (endothermic) Flexible reactants tube-bundle Ammonia synthesis reactor / boiler Compressor for gas circulation Other equipment of synthesis loop Steam Rankine cycle (excluding boiler) Energy storage and transport (pipe) Ammonia inventory Balance of plant (incl. electr. equipm.) Sub-total Contingencies Engineering & construc. management Total 400 m 2 dish 3.3 54.4 9.8 6.0 1.2 5.1 5.3 2.9 7.3 45.8 1.0 12.3 154.4 15.4 10.7 180.5 AIR-Ammonia 5.9 92.4 15.4 6.4 28.4 10.7 5.1 5.3 2.9 7.3 45.8 1.0 12.3 237.9 23.8 16.4 278.1

Techno-economic analysis of a 10 MWe solar thermal power plant Filippi E. (1996) Fluid dynamics modelling of large scale chemical reactors, Crosscuts 5 / 2, 2327 (Newsletter of the Swiss Centre for Scientic Computing, 6928 Manno, Switzerland). Johnston G. (1995) Flux mapping the 400 m 2 big dish at the Australian National University. Solar Eng. 117, 290293. Kaneff S. 1995. Practicable reduction in rate of environmental degradation via mass utilisation of solar energy based on paraboloidal dish systems. In: Colville, E. (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Symposium on Energy, Environment and Economics, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 275282. Lovegrove K. (1996) High pressure ammonia dissociation experiments for solar energy transport and storage. Int. J. Energy Res. 20, 965978. Lovegrove K. and Luzzi A. (1996) Endothermic reactors for an ammonia based thermochemical solar energy storage and transport system. Solar Energy 56, 361371. Luzzi A. 1996. Solar Thermo-catalytic Ammonia Dissociation. Ph.D Thesis, Department of Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

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Luzzi A. Lovegrove, K., Filippi, E., Fricker, H., SchmitzGoeb, M., Chandapillai, M., Kaneff, S., 1998. Base-load solar power using the Haber-Bosch process. Final Report, Swiss Ministry of Energy, 3003 Bern, Switzerland. Mannesmann Stahlaschen GmbH, Homburg, Germany, 1997. Private correspondence. Richardson J., Paripatyadar S. and Shen J. (1988) Dynamics of a sodium heat pipe reforming reactor. AIChE J. 34, 743 752. Spacetech Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Australia, 1997. Private correspondence. TSA, 1994. PHOEBUS, A solar tower plant with volumetric air receiver. Post-feasibility study 1C. TSA Consortium, Gummersbach, Germany. Wolf R. 1992. Technical and economical potential of solar thermal power generation between 1 MW and 100 MW in Australia. Final Report, University of Sydney, Department of Applied Physics, Australia.