Powdermet, Inc. SBIR Phase II Award, August 2020

Concentrating Solar Power utilizes molten salt thermal storage to enable 24 hour energy production and shift power production to times of less sunlight.Current molten salt operations use nitrate salts operating at 565°C.To improve performance, efficiency, and cost effectiveness switching to mixed chloride salts operating from 350-800°C is required. Increasing salt operating temperatures can reduce thermal energy storage system cost by up to 50% and improve efficiency by 23%. New materials are required to achieve 30 year life in thermal energy storage systems, including heat exchangers and storage tanks.This project will produce and qualify high and low thermal conductivity metallic composite materials with