Solar thermal treatment of non-metallic minerals: The potential application of the SOLPART technology

The solar horizontal bubbling fluidized bed concept developed within the SOLPART research project can be used as a solar receiver-reactor. This application offers a considerable industrial potential, as illustrated in the paper further to different experiments and industrial contacts. The most demanding application is the calcination of limestone, either as pure calcite, or as 85% mix in cement raw meal. The decomposition temperature exceeds 850 °C (nearly the application limits of refractory steel alloys). Other calcinations (e.g. dolomite, gypsum, phosphate rock, meta-kaolin, clays, etc.) are less demanding since occurring at a lower calcination temperature and with an endothermic reaction heat that is significantly lower than the reaction heat of CaCO₃, which is therefore considered as a relevant test case.