Solar thermal aerogel receiver and materials therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11851334-B2
Application number	US-202017091141-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 6, 2020
Priority date	Feb 24, 2016
Publication date	Dec 26, 2023
Grant date	Dec 26, 2023

Abstract

A silica aerogel having a mean pore size less than 5 nm with a standard deviation of 3 nm. The silica aerogel may have greater than 95% solar-weighted transmittance at a thickness of 8 mm for wavelengths in the range of 250 nm to 2500 nm, and a 400° C. black-body weighted specific extinction coefficient of greater than 8 m2/kg for wavelengths of 1.5 μm to 15 μm. Silica aerogel synthesis methods are described. A solar thermal aerogel receiver (STAR) may include an opaque frame defining an opening, an aerogel layer disposed in the opaque frame, with at least a portion of the aerogel layer being proximate the opening, and a heat transfer fluid pipe in thermal contact with and proximate the aerogel layer. A concentrating solar energy system may include a STAR and at least one reflector to direct sunlight to an opening in the STAR.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An aerogel material comprising:
silica aerogel defining a porous material with pores having a mean radius of less than 5 nm with a standard deviation of 3 nm; and
a coating having a thickness of 5 nm or less, wherein the coating comprises at least one of Al 2 O 3 or HfO 2 .

2. The aerogel material of claim 1 , wherein the aerogel material comprises percent solids of less than 10%.

3. The aerogel material of claim 1 , wherein the aerogel material comprises a mean particle size of 1.3 nm.

4. The aerogel material of claim 1 , wherein the silica aerogel has a solar absorptance of >0.9 and IR emittance of <0.3 at a temperature of 400° C. when in thermal contact with a black absorber.

5. The aerogel material of claim 1 , wherein the silica aerogel further comprises a dopant.

6. The aerogel material of claim 1 , wherein the silica aerogel has a thermal conductivity of less than 0.025 W/mK at room temperature.

7. The aerogel material of claim 1 , wherein the silica aerogel has a thermal conductivity of less than 0.1 W/mK at 400° C.

8. The aerogel material of claim 1 , wherein the aerogel material has a thickness selected from a range of 5 mm to 15 mm.

9. The aerogel material of claim 8 , wherein the aerogel material has a thickness of 8 mm.

10. The aerogel material of claim 1 , wherein the silica aerogel has greater than 95% solar-weighted transmittance for wavelengths in a range of 250 nm to 2500 nm.

Assignees

• Massachusetts Inst Technology

Inventors

• Chen Gang
• Wang Evelyn N
• Boriskina Svetlana
• Weinstein Lee A
• Yang Sungwoo
• Bhatia Bikramjit S
• Zhao Lin
• Strobach Elise M
• Cooper Thomas A
• Bierman David M
• Huang Xiaopeng
• Loomis James

Classifications

• C01B33/1585 Primary

  Dehydration into aerogels · CPC title

• B01J13/0091

  Preparation of aerogels, e.g. xerogels · CPC title

• C01B33/14

  Colloidal silica, e.g. dispersions, gels, sols · CPC title

• C04B14/064

  Silica aerogel · CPC title

• F24S10/95

  having evaporator sections and condenser sections, e.g. heat pipes · CPC title