A phase I analytical- effort to identify and rank candidate fused salt systems for high temperature thermal energy storage and to model the thermal energy release process is proposed. The work is broken into three tasks, involving:(a) the identification of suitable low molecular weight fused salts or fused salt eutectics having a fusion temperature of approximately 800 c and a latent heat of fusion of 200 cal/gram,(b) the analytic modeling of thermal energy release to a (dynamic power) working fluid - such as might be pertinent in an interface with a closed cycle brayton power module, and(c) the preliminary design of phase IIexperimental hardware for the demonstration testing of a pilot scale test module, and - if required to enable a selection between two leading candidate fused salt media - laboratory apparatus for measuring various thermal properties of the salts and salt eutectics. The component proposed for consideration appears to ham: the capacity for storing approximately 300, 000 joules of thermal energy per LB of system mass.
