Recycling of industrial waste as applied to thermal energy storage

The PROMES-CNRS laboratory located in south of France proposed a new sustainable approach for Thermal Energy Storage materials to be used in Concentrated Solar Power Plants: the use of industrial waste treated at high temperature for sustainable energy storage. During the 20 ^th century 174 million tons of asbestos were used worldwide, principally for building insulation. In 1993 essentially all countries in the world forbid the use of asbestos because of its health hazards. These Asbestos Containing Wastes can be treated at high temperature (1400°C) by plasma torch to produce a totally inert ceramic called COFALIT®, commercially. This first good candidate is available in huge quantity, is very inexpensive (11 dollars/ton) and stable up to 1000°C. This paper presents the thermo-physical characterization of this material and the comparison with other available materials as molten salts, castable ceramics and high temperature concrete.