PROJECTS
Did you know that there are only four manufacturers of coated piping for thermosolar plants in the world?
IK4-TEKNIKER develops equipment and a multi-layer functional coating for the thermosolar sector with a two-fold aim in mind: on the one hand, supplying technology to thermoelectric solar plants that are reliant on overseas suppliers and know-how and, on the other, addressing performance optimisation challenges with regard to the facilities involved.
Parabolic cylinder collector technology for solar thermal power plants plays a key role in the field of renewable energies, given that it accounts for more than 1,500 MW of operational capacity worldwide.
To increase the competitiveness of this technology, it is necessary to increase the plant efficiency. This increased efficiency implies an increase in operating temperature above the existing 400ºC.
The currently available selective absorbers, however, cannot operate at temperatures above 400ºC as they degrade.
In this case, a multilayer functional coating was developed on actual 4m length pipes.
It consists of a metallic, infra-red radiation reflective layer, an absorbent cermet type visible radiation layer composed of metallic particles in a dielectric matrix and an anti-reflective layer formed by a low index refractive oxide capable of working at higher temperatures.
This coating is able to work at temperatures of 600ºC without showing any degradation in accelerated ageing tests.
