Application of solar thermal energy to metallurgical processes

Concentrated solar thermal (CST) processing of minerals to produce metals has been shown to be technically feasible but has not yet been commercialized. Significant developments have been made in improving the concentration of solar flux into different reactor designs. Large research groups, such as the Paul Sherrer Institute (PSI) have moved beyond the proof-of-concept studies that dominated many of the studies in the late 20th century by …