CERTH’s Solar Simulator consists of up to eleven ellipsoid (Photo 1), Xenon arc lamps, 6 kWel each. These lamps exhibit an emission spectrum that closely matches the solar spectrum making them a well-suited light source for the high-quality simulation of sunlight. The eleven reflectors have a common focus point, while the focal distance is set to 3000 mm with a concentration factor of up to 4800 suns (4.8 MW/m2 maximum heat flux value). The maximum temperatures can reach and/or exceed 2000 oC.
The receiver area has been specifically designed to accommodate different types of receiver-reactors, either commercial or custom, in-house designed and constructed. Insulation is used to protect any uncovered areas of the reactor and to minimize heat losses.
The Solar Simulator allows the heat flux to be adjusted by aligning the position of the lamps. By modifying the area of incident power, the heat flux applied on the reactor is increased or decreased, allowing for temperature variations. The lamps are operated with high quality DC current provided by suitable rectifiers within a control range of 140-170 A and 35-40 V. An igniter is used to create the ignition voltage of ~40 kV to ionize the xenon gas.
A wide variety of applications, spanning from materials to thermochemical processes (e.g., limestone calcination, hydrothermal liquefaction, solar fuels production etc.) evaluation respectively, lie within the sectors of interest. The applied heat flux and the number of reflectors used are adjusted according to the requirements of each application. Experimental testing using the Solar Simulator typically represents an intermediate step between conventional laboratory testing and on-field testing. Currently, for the needs of solar hydrothermal liquefaction tests, the setup is adjusted to 4 lamps (Photo 2).
