Solar Thermal Applications in Industrial Process Heat

Solar thermal technology harnesses the sun’s radiation to generate high-grade heat for a wide range of industrial processes, from pre-heating fluids to steam generation. Systems typically employ solar collectors—such as flat-plate, evacuated tube or concentrating designs—to capture and convert solar irradiance into thermal energy. Heat transfer fluids circulate through these collectors, delivering energy to process operations that demand temperatures spanning from ambient up to 400 °C. Thermal energy storage units, often based on molten salts, phase-change materials or pressurised media, enable continuous operation irrespective of solar availability. By integrating solar thermal modules with existing boilers or heat networks, industries can substantially reduce fossil fuel consumption, lower carbon emissions and stabilise energy costs. Recent advances have focused on optimising collector configurations, enhancing storage performance and developing flexible control strategies to align thermal supply with variable process demands. This integration supports decarbonisation goals in sectors such as food and beverage, chemical manufacturing and materials processing, delivering both environmental and economic benefits.

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Solar Thermal Applications in Industrial Process Heat publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in solar thermal applications in industrial process heat across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Solar collector: A device that absorbs solar radiation and transfers the resulting heat to a working fluid.

Parabolic trough collector: A concentrating solar collector that uses parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight onto a linear receiver tube.

Linear Fresnel reflector: A solar concentrator employing long, flat mirror strips to focus sunlight onto a stationary receiver.

Thermal energy storage: Systems that store collected heat, often using molten salts or phase-change materials, for later use.

Solar fraction: The proportion of an industrial process heat demand met by solar thermal energy.

References

1. An investigation of the recent advances of the integration of solar thermal energy systems to the dairy processes. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2023).
2. Techno-economic assessment of a novel hybrid system of solar thermal and photovoltaic driven sand storage for sustainable industrial steam production. Energy Conversion and Management (2023).
3. Analysis of the thermal inertia of pipelines in SHIP. Results in Engineering (2023).
4. Incorporating the Concept of Flexible Operation in the Design of Solar Collector Fields for Industrial Applications. Energies (2019).