Parabolic trough system

Aalborg CSP develops and supplies steam producing equipment for parabolic trough systems. Aalborg CSP is responsible for project management, quality assurance (QA), design and manufacturing.

The great advantages of our boiler system are the extreme low pressure losses on the heat transfer fluid side, the high steam purity, the natural circulation inside the boiler with a very high ratio, the high turn-down ratio and the fast start-up time. In the practical design tube plates are avoided, which has a positive impact on thermal stress related problems.

Solar parabolic troughs generate electric power from sunlight by focusing concentrated solar radiation on a tube filled with a heat transfer fluid (HTF). We are working on plants with either oil or molten salt as HTF. The steam generator uses the hot HTF to generate saturated and superheated steam. The steam is used in a steam turbine in order to produce electricity.

The steam generator for the parabolic trough plant is a state-of-the-art steam generator specially designed for turbine operation.

The economizer is a special designed header type of heat exchanger with a very high flexibility and an extreme low pressure drop on the HTF shell side. The coil design is very robust and it has a very high start-up ramp.

The evaporator unit is built up from three elements. The bottom drums are the evaporator heat exchangers. The heat exchangers are of header type with HTF on the tube side securing a high start-up ramp. The top drum is a steam drum connected to the heat exchangers by several risers and down comers. These risers and down comers secure that the circulation ratio is at least 15:1 in the evaporator unit. The high circulation ratio together with the state-of-art steam drum and its double stage steam seperation system secures a very high steam quality before it enters the superheater.

The superheater is also a header type of heat exchanger with HTF on the shell side and steam on the tube side. The coil design is very robust and flexible securing a very high start-up ramp and a long lifetime.

The standard reheater is a once through shell and tube heat exchanger with oil on the shell side. Optionally, the superheater design can be used for the reheater.

The steam generators are custom-designed and components vary from project to project.