Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is an electricity generation technology that concentrates solar irradiance through heliostats onto a small area, the receiver, where a heat transfer medium, currently a fluid (HTF), is used as heat carrier towards the heat storage and power block. It has been under the spotlight for a decade as one of the potential or promising renewable and sustainable energy technologies.

Using gas/solid suspensions as heat transfer medium in CSP has been advocated for the first time in the 1980′s and this novel concept relies on its possible application throughout the full CSP plant, i.e., in heat harvesting, conveying, storage and re-use, where it offers major advantages in comparison with the common heat transfer fluids such as water/steam, thermal fluids or molten salt. Although the particle suspension has a lower heat capacity than molten salts, the particle-driven system can operate without temperature limitation (except for the maximum allowable wall temperature of the receiver tubes), and it can also operate with higher hot-cold temperature gradients. Suspension temperatures of over 800 °C can be tolerated and achieved, with additional high efficiency thermodynamic systems being applicable. The application of high temperature particulate heat carriers moreover expands the possible thermodynamic cycles from Rankine steam cycles to Brayton gas cycles and even to combined electricity generating cycles.

This review paper deals with the development of the particle-driven CSP and assesses both its background fundamentals and its energy efficiency. Among the cited systems, batch and continuous operations with particle conveying loops are discussed. A short summary of relevant particle-related properties, and their use as heat transfer medium is included. Recent pilot plant experiments have demonstrated that a novel bubbling fluidized bed concept, the upflow bubbling fluidized bed (UBFB), recently adapted to use bubble rupture promoters and called dense upflow fluidized bed (DUFB), offers a considerable potential for use in a solar power tower plant for its excellent heat transfer at moderate to high receiver capacities.

For all CSP applications with particle circulation, a major challenge remains the transfer of hot and colder particles among the different constituents of the CSP system (receiver to storage, power block and return loop to the top of the solar tower). Potential conveying modes are discussed and compared. Whereas in solar heat capture, bubbling fluidized beds, particle falling films, vortex and rotary furnaces, among others, seem appropriate, both moving beds and bubbling fluidized beds are recommended in the heat storage and re-use, and examined in the review.

Common to all CSP applications are the thermodynamic cycles in the power block, where different secondary working fluids can be used to feed the turbines. These thermodynamic cycles are discussed in detail and the current or future most likely selections are presented.

Since the use of a back up fuel is recommended for all CSP systems, the hybrid operation with the use of alternative fuel back-up is also included in the review.

The review research is concluded by scale-up data and challenges, and provides a preliminary view into the prospects and the overall economy of the system. Market prospects for both novel concentrated solar power are expected to be excellent. Although the research provided lab- and pilot-scale based design methods and equations for the key unit operations of the novel solar power tower CSP concept, there is ample scope for future development of several topics, as finally recommended.

聚光太阳能 (CSP) 是一种发电技术，通过定日镜将太阳辐照度集中到一个小区域，即接收器，在该接收器中，传热介质，目前是流体 (HTF)，用作朝向储热和电源块的热载体. 十年来，它作为一种具有潜力或前景广阔的可再生和可持续能源技术一直备受关注。

在 1980 年代首次提倡在 CSP 中使用气/固悬浮液作为传热介质，这一新概念依赖于其在整个 CSP 工厂中的可能应用，即在热量收集、输送、储存和再利用与常见的传热流体（如水/蒸汽、导热流体或熔盐）相比，它具有主要优势。虽然颗粒悬浮液的热容量低于熔盐，但颗粒驱动系统可以不受温度限制（接收管的最大允许壁温除外），并且它还可以在更高的冷热温度梯度下运行。可以容忍和实现超过 800 °C 的悬浮温度，并且可以应用额外的高效热力学系统。

这篇评论文章讨论了粒子驱动 CSP 的发展，并评估了它的背景基础和能源效率。在引用的系统中，讨论了带有颗粒输送回路的批量和连续操作。包括相关粒子相关特性的简短摘要，以及它们作为传热介质的用途。最近的中试工厂实验表明，一种新颖的鼓泡流化床概念，即上流式鼓泡流化床 (UBFB)，最近适用于使用气泡破裂促进剂并称为密集上流式流化床 (DUFB)，为太阳能发电提供了相当大的潜力。塔式装置，因其在中高接收器容量下具有出色的传热性能。

对于所有具有粒子循环的 CSP 应用，主要挑战仍然是在 CSP 系统的不同组成部分（接收器到存储、电源块和返回回路到太阳能塔顶部）之间转移冷热粒子。讨论和比较了潜在的输送模式。虽然在太阳能热捕获中，鼓泡流化床、颗粒降膜、涡流和旋转炉等似乎是合适的，但在储热和再利用中建议使用移动床和鼓泡流化床，并在审查中进行检查。

所有 CSP 应用的共同点是动力块中的热力循环，其中可以使用不同的二次工作流体来为涡轮机供料。详细讨论了这些热力学循环，并提出了当前或未来最可能的选择。

由于建议对所有 CSP 系统使用备用燃料，因此审查中还包括使用替代燃料备用的混合动力运行。

回顾性研究通过放大数据和挑战得出结论，并对系统的前景和整体经济性提供了初步看法。预计这两种新型聚光太阳能的市场前景都非常好。尽管该研究为新型太阳能塔式 CSP 概念的关键单元操作提供了基于实验室和中试规模的设计方法和方程式，但正如最终建议的那样，未来几个主题的发展空间很大。