Publications

Thermodynamic Analysis of Solid–Liquid Phase Equilibria of Nitrate Salts

Davison, Scott M.; Sun, Amy C.

In this work, we analyze solid–liquid phase equilibria of molten nitrate salt mixtures. Molten salts are used as heat transfer fluids within concentrated solar power systems. Further understanding of the thermophysical properties of the salt solutions is integral to designing the newest generation of solar power systems. We make use of classical thermodynamics to quickly model the phase equilibrium of mixtures of nitrate salts. This modeling work can serve as a complement to existing experimental efforts in identifying appropriate multicomponent salt mixtures for solar power applications. We present phase calculations of ternary and quaternary mixtures of LiNO3, NaNO3, KNO3, and CsNO3 modeled using the Wilson equation for liquid phase activity coefficients and binary solid–liquid equilibrium data.