Performance model and thermal comparison of different alternatives for the Fresnel single-tube receiver

•A thermal model for a single-tube Fresnel receiver has been developed.•A comparative analysis based on different design parameters, has been carried out.•A comparative analysis based on different working fluids, has been carried out.•The receiver thermal performance is characterized by energy and exergy efficiencies. Although most of recent commercial Solar Thermal Power Plants (STPP) installed worldwide are parabolic trough plants, it seems that Linear Fresnel Collectors (LFC) are becoming an attractive option to generate electricity from solar radiation. Contrary to parabolic trough collectors, the design of LFC receivers has many degrees of freedom, and two basic designs can be found in the literature: single-tube and multi-tube design. This article studies the single-tube design, for which a thermal model has been developed. This model has been thought to be accurate enough to characterize the heat transfer in a non-elementary geometry and flexible enough to support changes of the characteristic parameters in the receiver design. The thermal model proposed is based on a two-dimensional, steady-state energy balance, in the receiver cross section and along its length. One of the features of the model is the characterization of the convective and radiative heat transfer in the receiver cavity, as it is not an elementary geometry. Another feature is the possibility of studying the receiver performance with different working fluids, both single-phase or two-phase. At last, the receiver performance has been characterized by means of the energy and exergy efficiency. Both variables are important for a complete receiver thermal analysis, as will be shown in the paper. The model has been first applied to the comparative study of the thermal performance of LFC receivers based on the value of some parameters: selective coating emissivity in the tube and inlet fluid thermal properties, for the case of using water/steam. As a second result, the model has also been used to predict the performance of different working fluids: synthetic oil, water/steam, molten salt and air, also comparing the results of the Fresnel technology with those obtained in reference parabolic trough loops.