Susanna Aletta Carolina Hockaday¹, Reiner Buck², Martina Neiseis-van Puttkamer², Willie Smit³; ¹MINTEK, ²DLR, ³Stellenbosch University

The proposed paper evaluates an alternative ferromanganese production flowsheet seeking to preheat manganese ores with concentrating solar thermal energy to 600 °C with heated air being the heat transfer medium. The benefits of solar thermal preheating will be evaluated based on a cost discounted economic model taking into account the variability of the solar resource, capital costs and operating costs of a solar thermal plant as well as the preheater over the lifetime of the project. Solar variability will be discussed based on possible implementation sites for such technologies and the cost and benefits of thermal storage in the flowsheet will also be evaluated.This work is part of the PRéMA project, aiming to advance novel energy systems in the drying and preheating of furnace materials. The PRéMA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 820561.