Vast Energy

Sector: Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) – High-Temperature Sodium Systems

Overview

Vast Energy engaged ATLM-Global to provide detailed technical analysis and recommendations across several critical engineering workstreams. These efforts focused on identifying and mitigating performance risks in high-temperature sodium containment systems, with an emphasis on pressure drop and potential erosion issues, dissimilar metal welds, feasibility of alternate sodium-wetted materials, and containment safety.

Challenge

Vast Energy engaged ATLM-Global to provide detailed technical analysis and recommendations across several critical engineering workstreams. These efforts focused on identifying and mitigating performance risks in high-temperature sodium containment systems, with an emphasis on pressure drop and potential erosion issues, dissimilar metal welds, feasibility of alternate sodium-wetted materials, and containment safety.

• Recommend appropriate filler wire materials for dissimilar material weld joints
  
• Assess the feasibility of alternate piping material in CSP design variations
  
• Define sodium impurity thresholds for future material purchases
  
• Provide guidance on loss of containment risk mitigation
  

Our Role

ATLM-Global conducted a thorough analysis of the thermal, mechanical, and material behavior within one of Vast’s systems, delivering data-backed recommendations to:

Resolve the pressure drop issue through targeted testing under ATLM-Global recommended conditions, eliminating all but the root cause issue
Recommend a preferred filler wire, backed by thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) data showing excellent compatibility with the dissimilar alloy pairs across severe temperature ranges
Deliver design guidance on:

• Required extinguishment volumes and containment features
  
• Acceptable impurity levels in future sodium procurement
  
• Feasibility of low-cost materials for certain applications

Deliverables included targeted written reports based on peer-reviewed technical papers, sketches, and a suite of supporting data.

Results & Impact

Material Clarity: Provided a clear, data-driven case for minimizing thermal mismatch and improving long-term weld performance under cyclic thermal loads
System Reliability: Identified and described system upgrades to avoid costly long-term failures
Design Assurance: Supplied actionable guidance on containment, safety, and material choices, directly informing Vast Energy’s procurement and design decisions

Conclusion

By combining deep expertise in liquid metal systems and thermal-material behavior, ATLM-Global delivered precise, impactful insights at a critical stage of system development. Our partnership with Vast Energy underscores how early expert input can uncover hidden failure modes, improve materials selection, and drive CSP innovation forward.

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