Development of a staged particle heat exchanger for particle thermal energy storage systems

Abstract A new concept of a staged moving bed particle heat exchanger comprising flow constrictions in multiple short stages is presented. This concept allows for a simpler design, and potentially improves particle side heat transfer as found in heat transfer modelling and experiment results. Staging the particle heat exchanger into a series of short sections could prevent the full thermal development of granular flow. The incorporated flow constriction arrangement also allows renewal of the thermal entrance zone and re-mixing of particles at each stage, thus enhancing the particle-side heat transfer coefficient.