Full Spectrum Collection of Concentrated Solar Energy Using PV Coupled with Selective Filtration Utilizing Nanoparticles

MRS Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (43) ◽  
pp. 2935-2940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Otanicar ◽  
Drew DeJarnette ◽  
Nick Brekke ◽  
Ebrima Tunkara ◽  
Ken Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Temperature ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Industrial Process ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Total System ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Concentrated Solar Energy ◽  
Pass Through

ABSTRACTHybrid solar receivers utilizing both photovoltaic cells and thermal collectors are capable of collecting the entire solar spectrum for use in energy systems. Such systems provide efficient solar energy conversion using PV in addition to dispatchability through thermal storage by incorporating a thermal collector in conjunction with the PV. Proposed hybrid systems typically invoke spectrum splitting so to redirect photons optimized for PV electric conversion to a cell while non-PV efficient photons are directed to a thermal absorber. This work discusses a hybrid system with a selective solar filter using a suspended nanoparticle fluid to directly absorb non-PV photons. Non-absorbed photons pass through the filter and impact the PV. Choice of nanoparticles in the fluid allow absorption and transmission of specific wavelengths. Nanoparticles were chosen based on optimization simulations for a bandpass filter to a cSi solar cell. The synthesized fluid has been experimentally characterized to show the effects of high temperature on nanoparticle stability and optical properties. Thermodynamic modeling of the system suggests solar to electric efficiency of the total system is 23.2% if all thermal energy is converted to electricity through an organic Rankine cycle (ORC). However, high temperature generation could be used for industrial process heat at a specific temperature by changing parameters such as absorbed energy and flow rates. Furthermore, a prototype is being developed with 14x concentration to demonstrate the technology on-sun with initial testing targeted for the 2nd quarter of 2016. Overall, the hybrid nanoparticle filter concentrating solar collector can be modified to fit a variety of applications through easily changeable parameters in the system.

Calculation and Optimization of Heat Transfer between the Low Exergy Heat Source and Organic Rankine Cycle Applied to Heat Recovery Systems

2013 ◽  
Vol 597 ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Sławomir Smoleń ◽  
Hendrik Boertz
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Source ◽  
Heat Recovery ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Optimization Procedure ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Total System

One of the key challenges on the area of energy engineering is the system development for increasing the efficiency of primary energy conversion and use. An effective and important measure suitable for improving efficiencies of existing applications and allowing the extraction of energy from previously unsuitable sources is the Organic Rankine Cycle. Applications based on this cycle allow the use of low temperature energy sources such as waste heat from industrial applications, geothermal sources, biomass, fired power plants and micro combined heat and power systems.Working fluid selection is a major step in designing heat recovery systems based on the Organic Rankine Cycle. Within the framework of the previous original study a special tool has been elaborated in order to compare the influence of different working fluids on performance of an ORC heat recovery power plant installation. A database of a number of organic fluids has been developed. The elaborated tool should create a support by choosing an optimal working fluid for special applications and become a part of a bigger optimization procedure by different frame conditions. The main sorting criterion for the fluids is the system efficiency (resulting from the thermo-physical characteristics) and beyond that the date base contains additional information and criteria, which have to be taken into account, like environmental characteristics for safety and practical considerations.The presented work focuses on the calculation and optimization procedure related to the coupling heat source – ORC cycle. This interface is (or can be) a big source of energy but especially exergy losses. That is why the optimization of the heat transfer between the heat source and the process is (besides the ORC efficiency) of essential importance for the total system efficiency.Within the presented work the general calculation approach and some representative calculation results have been given. This procedure is a part of a complex procedure and program for Working Fluid Selection for Organic Rankine Cycle Applied to Heat Recovery Systems.

scholarly journals Silicomanganese and Ferromanganese Slags Treated with Concentrated Solar Energy

Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (23) ◽  
pp. 1450
Author(s):  
Daniel Fernández-González ◽  
Juan Piñuela-Noval ◽  
Luis Felipe Verdeja
Keyword(s):  
High Temperature ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Concentrated Solar Energy ◽  
Metallurgical Processes ◽  
By Products ◽  
Temperature Applications

Solar energy when properly concentrated offers a great potential in high temperature applications as those required in metallurgical processes. Even when concentrated solar energy cannot compete with conventional metallurgical processes, it could find application in the treatment of wastes from these processes. These by-products are characterized by their high metallic contents, which make them interesting as they could be a raw material available in the own factory. Slags are one of these by-products. Slags are most of them disposed in controlled landfill with environmental impact, but also with economic impact associated to the storing costs and the metallic losses. Here we propose the treatment of ferromanganese and silicomanganese slags with concentrated solar energy with the purpose of evaluating the recovery of manganese from these slags.

scholarly journals Comparative Analysis of Small-Scale Organic Rankine Cycle Systems for Solar Energy Utilisation

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruiqi Wang ◽  
Long Jiang ◽  
Zhiwei Ma ◽  
Abigail Gonzalez-Diaz ◽  
Yaodong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Power Output ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycle ◽  
Rankine Cycle ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Water Storage Tank ◽  
Solar Thermal Collector ◽  
Cycle Systems

Small-scale organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems driven by solar energy are compared in this paper, which aims to explore the potential of power generation for domestic utilisation. A solar thermal collector was used as the heat source for a hot water storage tank. Thermal performance was then evaluated in terms of both the conventional ORC and an ORC using thermal driven pump (TDP). It is established that the solar ORC using TDP has a superior performance to the conventional ORC under most working conditions. Results demonstrate that power output of the ORC using TDP ranges from 72 W to 82 W with the increase of evaporating temperature, which shows an improvement of up to 3.3% at a 100 °C evaporating temperature when compared with the power output of the conventional ORC. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the ORC using TDP increase from 11.3% to 12.6% and from 45.8% to 51.3% when the evaporating temperature increases from 75 °C to 100 °C. The efficiency of the ORC using TDP is improved by up to 3.27%. Additionally, the exergy destruction using TDP can be reduced in the evaporator and condenser. The highest exergy efficiency in the evaporator is 96.9%, an improvement of 62% in comparison with that of the conventional ORC, i.e., 59.9%. Thus, the small-scale solar ORC system using TDP is more promising for household application.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document