Effect of Reflecting Material on CPC to Improve the Performance of Hybrid Groundwater Solar Desalination System

Water-energy nexus is a crucial and challenging concern that addressing it is noteworthy for the future of human beings. In addition, freshwater production is a highly energy-intensive procedure. Therefore, developing a suitable solution for this problem is of importance. In the present scenario, solar energy is one of the suitable options for desalination because solar energy is available at a low cost, is clean for the environment, and is widely available. Generally, solar collectors such as flat plate collectors (FPC) and evacuated tube collectors were experimented for desalination applications. This work presents an experimental investigation of a single-stage hybrid (ETC-CPC) groundwater solar desalination system. A compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is placed below the evacuated tube collector (ETC) for collecting solar radiations to transfer heat to evacuated tubes which improves performance in the case of different weather conditions of Pune city in India. Experimental results show that the hybrid solar groundwater desalination system, by maintaining the optimum distance of 20 mm between ETC and CPC with Mylar as the reflecting material, could offer a drinking water production rate of up to 3.4 l/(m2h)/day. However, the proposed single-stage hybrid (ETC+CPC) groundwater solar desalination system with aluminum foil as a reflecting material could generate 1.9 liters of soft water per day. Further, the use of Mylar as a reflecting material could generate 3.5 liters of soft water per day.

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The Comparison of Solar Energy Gaining Effectiveness between Flat Plate Collectors and Evacuated Tube Collectors with Heat Pipe: Case Study

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13071829 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 1829 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Piotr Olczak ◽

Dominika Matuszewska ◽

Jadwiga Zabagło

Keyword(s):

Solar Energy ◽

Flat Plate ◽

Heat Pipe ◽

Hot Water ◽

Energy Productivity ◽

External Conditions ◽

Evacuated Tube Collectors ◽

Evacuated Tube ◽

Family House

In Poland, various solar collector systems are used; among them, the most popular are flat plate collectors (FPCs) and evacuated tube collectors (ETCs). The work presents two installations located at a distance of 80 km apart, working in similar external conditions. One of them contains 120 flat plate collectors and works for the preparation of hot water in a swimming pool building; the second one consists of 32 evacuated tube collectors with a heat pipe and supports the preparation of domestic hot water for a multi-family house. During the comparison of the two quite large solar installations, it was confirmed that the use of evacuated tube solar collectors shows a much better solar energy productivity than flat plate collectors for the absorber area. Higher heat solar gains (by 7.9%) were also observed in the case of the gross collector area. The advantages of evacuated tube collectors are observed mainly during colder periods, which allows for a steadier thermal energy production.

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Harvesting Solar Energy from Asphalt Pavement

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132212807 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (22) ◽

pp. 12807

Author(s):

Md Fahim Tanvir Hossain ◽

Samer Dessouky ◽

Ayetullah B. Biten ◽

Arturo Montoya ◽

Daniel Fernandez

Keyword(s):

Solar Energy ◽

Energy Harvester ◽

Light Transmission ◽

Low Cost ◽

Visible Spectrum ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Element Analysis ◽

Energy Harvesters ◽

Wide Range ◽

Self Powered

This study aims at designing and developing a new technique to harvest solar energy from asphalt pavements. The proposed energy harvester system consists of a pavement solar box with a transparent polycarbonate sample and a thin-film solar panel. This device mechanism can store energy in a battery charged over daytime and later convert it into electric power as per demand. A wide range of polycarbonate samples containing different thicknesses, elastic moduli, and light transmission properties were tested to select the most efficient materials for the energy harvester system. Transmittance Spectroscopy was conducted to determine the percent light transmission property of the polycarbonate samples at different wavelengths in the visible spectrum. Finite Element Analysis modeling of the pavement–tire load system was conducted to design the optimal energy harvester system under static load. It was followed by the collection of data on the generated power under different weather conditions. The energy harvesters were also subjected to vehicular loads in the field. The results suggest that the proposed pavement solar box can generate an average of 23.7 watts per square meter continuously over 6 h a day under sunny conditions for the weather circumstances encountered in South Texas while providing a slightly smaller power output in other weather circumstances. It is a promising self-powered and low-cost installation technique that can be implemented at pedestrian crossings and intersections to alert distracted drivers at the time of pedestrian crossing, which is likely to improve pedestrian safety.

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Development of a solar concentrator with tracking system

Mechanical Sciences ◽

10.5194/ms-7-233-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 233-245 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Flávia V. Barbosa ◽

João L. Afonso ◽

Filipe B. Rodrigues ◽

José C. F. Teixeira

Keyword(s):

Solar Energy ◽

Fossil Fuels ◽

Tracking System ◽

Low Cost ◽

Experimental Tests ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Electrical Energy ◽

Real Problem ◽

Stored Energy ◽

Geometrical Properties

Abstract. Solar Energy has been, since the beginning of human civilization, a source of energy that raised considerable interest, and the technology used for their exploitation has developed constantly. Due to the energetic problems which society has been facing, the development of technologies to increase the efficiency of solar systems is of paramount importance. The solar concentration is a technology that has been used for many years by the scientist, because this system enables the concentration of solar energy in a focus, which allows a significant increase in energy intensity. The receiver, placed at the focus of the concentrator, can use the stored energy to produce electrical energy through Stirling engine, for example, or to produce thermal energy by heating a fluid that can be used in a thermal cycle. The efficiency of solar concentrators can be improved with the addition of a dual axis solar tracker system which allows a significant increase in the amount of stored energy. In response to the aforementioned, this paper presents the design and construction of a solar dish concentrator with tracking system at low cost, the optical and thermal modelling of this system and a performance analysis through experimental tests. The experimental validation allows to conclude that the application of a tracking system to the concentrator is very important since a minimum delay of the solar radiation leads to important losses of system efficiency. On the other hand, it is found that the external factors can affect the final results which include the optical and geometrical properties of the collector, the absorptivity and the position of the receiver as well as the weather conditions (essentially the wind speed and clouds). Thus, the paper aims to present the benefits of this technology in a world whose the consumption of energy by fossil fuels is a real problem that society needs to face.

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Performance Evaluation of an Evacuated Tube Collector with a Low-Cost Diffuse Reflector

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14248209 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (24) ◽

pp. 8209

Author(s):

Julian Schumann ◽

Bert Schiebler ◽

Federico Giovannetti

Keyword(s):

Ray Tracing ◽

Incident Angle ◽

Low Cost ◽

Water System ◽

Incident Radiation ◽

Hot Water ◽

Rear Side ◽

Collector Efficiency ◽

Evacuated Tube Collectors ◽

Evacuated Tube

In order to increase the overall solar energy gain of evacuated tube collectors, rear-side reflectors are used. In this way, the otherwise unused incident radiation between the tubes can be reflected back to the absorber, and the performance of the collector can be improved. In this paper, the use of a low-cost, diffusely reflecting, trapezoidal roof covering made from a galvanized metal sheet is investigated and compared to a high-quality, specularly reflecting plane reflector made of aluminum. For this purpose, ray-tracing analysis and TRNSYS simulations were carried out. In the ray-tracing analysis, the experimentally determined zero-loss collector efficiency η0 as well as the incident angle modifiers for each reflector can be reproduced with an error lower than 7.5%. Thermal system simulations show that the performance of both reflectors is comparable. The use of the low-cost reflector leads to an increase in annual collector output of around 30% compared to an increase with the specular reflector of around 33%. Considering a typical domestic hot water system, both reflectors enable an increase in the solar annual yield of approx. 11%.

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An Efficient Grid-tied Flyback Micro-inverter with DCM Control Strategy

Journal of Techniques ◽

10.51173/jt.v3i1.289 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 74-84

Author(s):

Salam Jabr Yaqoob ◽

Adel A. Obed

Keyword(s):

Control Strategy ◽

Pulse Width Modulation ◽

High Reliability ◽

Low Cost ◽

Harmonic Distortion ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Single Stage ◽

Point Tracking ◽

Pv Module ◽

Micro Inverter

In two-stage micro-inverter photovoltaic (PV) applications, DC/DC converter is used to obtain the highest DC power from the PV module. In this type of inverter, the rising of voltage from the PV module to a grid voltage level is limited to a certain value. Moreover, the absence of the isolation between the input and output makes it is less efficient. For these reasons, an efficient single-stage grid-tied flyback PV micro-inverter with discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) control strategy is proposed to feed an alternating current (AC) to the main grid with a lower value of the total harmonic distortion (THD). The control strategy is based on a sine sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) technique to control the main switch of flyback inverter. Also, a simple perturb and observe (P&O) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique has been presented to obtain the MPP point from the PV module for any environmental conditions. The proposed control was verified using PSIM software and simulation results is obtained. The proposed control is tested under different weather conditions for solar irradiance and temperature, as a result, a pure sin wave current has been injected into the grid with a lower harmonics value. Finally, the small size, low cost and high reliability of single stage flyback micro-inverter is presented without the need for DC/DC converter.

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Examination of a solar desalination system equipped with an air bubble column humidifier, evacuated tube collectors and thermosyphon heat pipes

Desalination ◽

10.1016/j.desal.2016.06.016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 397 ◽

pp. 30-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Pooria Behnam ◽

Mohammad Behshad Shafii

Keyword(s):

Bubble Column ◽

Heat Pipes ◽

Air Bubble ◽

Solar Desalination ◽

Evacuated Tube Collectors ◽

Evacuated Tube

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Application of Solar Energy to Continuous Belt Dehydration

Volume 2: Solar Energy ◽

10.1115/79-sol-27 ◽

1979 ◽

Author(s):

B. J. Graham

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Natural Gas ◽

Solar Energy ◽

Department Of Energy ◽

Dehydration Process ◽

Evacuated Tubes ◽

Evacuated Tube Collectors ◽

Evacuated Tube

A solar system utilizing a 553-m2 (5950-ft2) array of evacuated tube collectors has been designed to augment the heat supplied by natural gas to a Proctor & Schwartz continuous belt dryer used for processing onions and garlic at the Gilroy Foods plant in Gilroy, California. It has been calculated that the array, which contains 3216 evacuated tubes, will contribute 2.47 × 1012 J/yr (2340 MBtu/yr) to the dehydration process. The system is currently being installed and will be operational for drying in May 1979. This project was sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. E-(40-1)-5119.

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