HERCULES at the 31st SolarPACES Conference, September 2025, Almería, Spain

The UT team presented recent advances from HERCULES project at the 31st SolarPACES Conference held on September 22-26 in Almería, Spain. SolarPACES is widely recognized as a premier international platform in concentrated solar power (CSP) and thermal energy storage, bringing together researchers and industry stakeholders to advance the state of the art and support sector development.

The presentation reported on numerical simulations of small-scale high-temperature thermochemical energy storage reactors and introduced preliminary optimization strategies for a laboratory-scale reactor. In subsequent technical exchanges, participants discussed reaction-rate control, operating-parameter optimization, approaches to accelerate simulations, and turbulence-modelling methods for reactive flows.

In addition to the scientific sessions, the connection with engineers, project managers, and academic leaders from the CSP and storage communities to consider broader issues such as cost control, system-level design, and technology development pathways was established. 

HERCULES will continue to strengthen the integration of modelling, optimization, and experimental validation to support the engineering deployment of thermochemical storage technologies and contribute to industrial decarbonisation.