What is a HyMate system?
Hydrogen mitigation systems (HyMate) remove excess hydrogen from the heat transfer fluid (HTF) in utility scale CSP plants to increase power-plant lifetime and efficiency.
At a glance
Key benefits
How does it work
The thermal oil used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) in solar power plants degrades over time, resulting in a constant build-up of hydrogen. This poses a risk to the receivers. Once their built-in getters reach the maximum capacity, heat losses increase dramatically (x4). This phenomenon occurs much earlier than expected — typically within just 7 to 12 years of plant operation. Within a few years, over 50% of the solar field can be affected, resulting in a 20% drop in annual power output. Costly receiver repairs or replacements become mandatory, severely impacting both maintenance costs and plant performance.
Cost Assessment
Previously available methods for reducing hydrogen in HTF lack the effectiveness of HyMATE:
- Operation at lower HTF temperature: Reduces hydrogen formation at the cost of reduced turbine performance
- Venting: Removes hydrogen only partly with constant costs for nitrogen replacement and filters
- HTF refining: Reduces hydrogen formation, but requires high initial and continuous treatment efforts
None of these methods are sufficient to avoid the problem, and they are significantly more expensive!
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