Evaluation of the optimal geometry of air cooled condensers for concentrated solar power plants through the LCA approach

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is an emerging technology for environmental-friendly power generation. Almost all existing CSP plants currently use Water Cooled Condensers, but an increasing use of Air Cooled Condensers is predictable, because of limited water supplies and high costs of cooling water; furthermore, there are several projects to develop CSP plant in desert areas. The MACCSol research project (Development and verification of a novel modular air cooled condenser for enhanced concentrated solar power generation), funded under the EU 7th Framework Programme, provides an innovative modular dry cooling approach. During the design phase, that is currently undergone, a typical Modular Air Cooled Condenser (MACC) module 2X2 m has been defined; it uses fans of 1m in diameter and it could be equipped with three different kinds of tube bundle geometries: circular finned, plate finned and continuous finned. This paper describes how the Life Cycle Assessment can be used as an eco-design tool to identify the optimum tube bundle among the above mentioned geometries. The analysis was performed supposing the MACC operating in a reference CSP plant, for 15 years, considering a total of seventeen different tube bundle geometries, eight different MACC sizes and two transportation scenarios.