CONTEXT

Volumetric heating in
nowadays industrial processes is done either with plasma reactors or by combustion of fossil fuels. Concentrated solar energy can also be an innovative option. Solar receptors/reactors are of two types:

* Direct heating: particle suspensions are irradiated. During the volumetric heating process the system may
include a transparent window to separate the high temperature zone from the atmosphere. This is a real limitation of the technology due to thermomechanical constraints

* Indirect heating: an exchanger (tubes, printed circuit heat exchanger) is required to absorb the incident solar energy and so the energy is transferred through a surface (and not in the volume)

Existing solar systems do not allow a direct volumetric heat input