2025 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit
Symposium EN04-Concentrating Solar Thermal Materials for Industrial Decarbonization and Heat Storage
Renewable energy production and industrial decarbonization are receiving increased attention as global warming races towards the threshold identified UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Concentrating solar thermal (CST) is a well-established renewable power generation technology that can be coupled with a thermal energy storage system for off-sun electricity generation, potentially at greater scales and lower costs than traditional electrochemical storage methods. Recently, the application of CST for electricity generation has expanded beyond steam turbines, to supercritical CO(2) power blocks and solar thermoelectric generators (STEG)--inexpensive solid-state devices that can convert heat directly into electricity without the need for sun tracking.
CST has the potential to drive high-temperature chemical processes for production of commodity chemicals and low-carbon fuels, e.g., hydrogen and ammonia, and for decarbonisation of energy-intensive thermally-driven industrial processes such as water desalination, mineral purification, ore refining, calcination, and biorefining. CST energy can be directly stored as chemical energy, enabling photo-thermal catalytic reactions such as water splitting to produce hydrogen, CO(2) methanation, photocatalytic organic synthesis, and selective catalysis of volatile organic pollutants, to be fully solar-driven without secondary energy inputs.
Materials development is key for next generation CST technologies targeting high-temperature processes (ranging from 500°C up to > 1200°C) for electricity generation and solar thermochemical processes. This symposium aims to advance the discussion on materials for CST and to bring together researchers of diverse backgrounds to address the multidisciplinary challenges of this growing field. Graduate students, post-docs, and early-career researchers are encouraged to submit abstracts. The symposium is expected to attract support from academia, national laboratories, and the commercial sector due to its potential for renewable energy generation and decarbonisation of industrial processes.
CST has the potential to drive high-temperature chemical processes for production of commodity chemicals and low-carbon fuels, e.g., hydrogen and ammonia, and for decarbonisation of energy-intensive thermally-driven industrial processes such as water desalination, mineral purification, ore refining, calcination, and biorefining. CST energy can be directly stored as chemical energy, enabling photo-thermal catalytic reactions such as water splitting to produce hydrogen, CO(2) methanation, photocatalytic organic synthesis, and selective catalysis of volatile organic pollutants, to be fully solar-driven without secondary energy inputs.
Materials development is key for next generation CST technologies targeting high-temperature processes (ranging from 500°C up to > 1200°C) for electricity generation and solar thermochemical processes. This symposium aims to advance the discussion on materials for CST and to bring together researchers of diverse backgrounds to address the multidisciplinary challenges of this growing field. Graduate students, post-docs, and early-career researchers are encouraged to submit abstracts. The symposium is expected to attract support from academia, national laboratories, and the commercial sector due to its potential for renewable energy generation and decarbonisation of industrial processes.
Topics will include:
- High-temperature materials discovery and development through computational models and AI/machine learning
- Thermal and thermochemical energy storage materials (e.g., molten salts, particles, metal hydrides/hydroxides, and metal oxides)
- Materials for solar thermochemical production of hydrogen, fuels, and fine chemicals
- Materials for solar thermal decarbonisation of industrial processes, including process heat, cement, ore processing, pyrolysis, gasification, and desalination
- Design and manufacture of materials for operation under extreme conditions (heat, pressure, corrosion) for thermal energy storage, heat transfer, and power blocks (steam and supercritical CO2)
- Advances in coating materials and application methods for receivers, heliostats, and inner tube surfaces for heat transfer/storage transport
- Theory, simulation, and modelling of thermomechanical, thermochemical, thermoelectric, and thermo-optical properties of emerging materials
- Advanced (e.g., high spatiotemporal resolution, high throughput, multimodal) in situ and ex situ materials characterisation and screening
- Investigation of performance, durability, reliability, and degradation of CST materials
Invited Speakers:
- Gözde Alkan (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Germany)
- Renkun Chen (University of California, San Diego, USA)
- Andrej Lenert (University of Michigan, USA)
- Takahiro Nomura (Hokkaido University, Japan)
- Todd Otanicar (Boise State University, USA)
- Victor H Ramos Sanchez (Northern Arizona University, USA)
- Kai Schickedanz (Wacker Chemie AG, Germany)
- Kaoru Tsuda (Nano Frontier Technology, Japan)
- Matthew Witman (Sandia National Laboratories, USA)
Symposium Organizers
Loreto Valenzuela
La Plataforma Solar de Almería
Plataforma Solar de Almeria
Spain
Andrea Ambrosini
Sandia National Laboratories
Concentrating Solar Technologies
USA
Ramón Escobar Galindo
Universidad de Sevilla
Department of Applied Physics I
Spain
Adrianus Indrat Aria
Cranfield University
Surface Engineering and Precision Institute
United Kingdom
Topics
ceramic
fluid
metal
standards
thermal stresses