Temperature dependence of high-temperature corrosion on nickel-based alloy in molten carbonates for concentrated solar power applications

Abstract

Concentrated solar power plants present several issues due to salt-induced corrosion, and the modelling of these mechanisms is needed for estimating power plants lifetime predictions. Moreover, a small variation of temperature can lead to microstructure changes due to allotropic transformations and thus free energy of formation of phases within the materials. Therefore, a corrosion study of molten carbonates, being high potential heat transfer fluids for CSP applications, on H230 alloy was performed at 700ºC, 750ºC and 800ºC up to 1000 h, in air atmosphere. The diffusion processes inducing the corrosion mechanism were analyzed and modelled with microstructural characterizations and thermogravimetric studies.