New alumina forming steels for future energy production with focus on high efficiency CSP´s

Important results from the project

Quote from the ALSTEr project plan 2014 11 25: "At the end of the project, there is enough data to decide on the production of a ductile low temperature Al2O3 forming steel (LT-FeCrAl) for the temperature range 300-750 ° C, i.e. Effort Area 1, New offer. " Sandvik / Kanthal has decided to manufacture 10 tons of the best ALSEr alloy already during this year, which can be seen as a record in time of academic research going into full-scale test production.

Expected long term effects

Quote from ALSTEr project plan 2014 11 25: "More generally, this project will meet target areas 5 and 6 with sustainable growth and increased resource efficiency with regard to both commodities and energy. Global sustainability and environmental goals will be achieved faster as this steel type can contribute to Competitive renewable energy production from the sun within 5-7 years. " A prototype CSP based on ALSTEr steel and with molten lead as HTF will be built in 2017-18 within the EU project NEXTOWER. This means that the goals might be reached earlier than planned.

Approach and implementation

The development of a new ductile FeCrAl steel has been based on available thermodynamic data combined with empirical results from earlier projects regarding effects of so-called Reactive Elements (RE) which are not fully described in the databases, especially not map oxidation and stabilization of various aluminas. Liquid lead with dissolved oxygen has proved to be an excellent environment to screen different materials oxidation resistance in an efficient manner. Salts exposures are in general not adequate for studying the oxidation properties of steels.