IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v159y2020icp652-662.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Highly-efficient nanofluid-based direct absorption solar collector enhanced by reverse-irradiation for medium temperature applications

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Kongxiang
  • He, Yan
  • Liu, Pengyu
  • Kan, Ankang
  • Zheng, Zhiheng
  • Wang, Lingling
  • Xie, Huaqing
  • Yu, Wei

Abstract

The direct absorption solar collector (DASC) with nanofluids is a promising solar energy collection technology. However, various studies have focused on low-temperature applications of nanofluids, and the medium-temperature collection system that involves high-grade energy is always neglected. This study examines the photo-thermal properties of titanium nitride nanofluids with thermal transfer oil as the base fluids under different solar irradiation intensities. The irradiation surface layer reaches ∼160 °C under 5 suns, and a high-temperature gradient develops within the working fluid, producing a low collector photo-thermal efficiency that is below expectation. To overcome these disadvantages, the heat transfer change from thermal conduction to free convection within the fluid is achieved via reverse irradiation direct absorption solar collector (RI-DASC). The performance parameters of this RI-DASC, including the optical properties of nanofluids, steady-state equilibrium temperature, photo-thermal conversion efficiency, and energy utilization distribution are investigated in detail. The experimental results demonstrate that the temperature difference between the irradiation and non-irradiation surfaces for ∼0.005 wt% under 5000 kW/m2 are ∼50 °C and ∼10 °C in DASC and RI-DASC, respectively. The collector photothermal conversion efficiency of DASC (∼40%) is improved to ∼50% for RI-DASC, and the steady-state temperature is enhanced to 165 °C in RI-DASC.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Kongxiang & He, Yan & Liu, Pengyu & Kan, Ankang & Zheng, Zhiheng & Wang, Lingling & Xie, Huaqing & Yu, Wei, 2020. "Highly-efficient nanofluid-based direct absorption solar collector enhanced by reverse-irradiation for medium temperature applications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 652-662.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:159:y:2020:i:c:p:652-662
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.05.167
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120308727
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2020.05.167?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nourafkan, E. & Asachi, M. & Jin, H. & Wen, D. & Ahmed, W., 2019. "Stability and photo-thermal conversion performance of binary nanofluids for solar absorption refrigeration systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 264-273.
    2. Goel, Nipun & Taylor, Robert A. & Otanicar, Todd, 2020. "A review of nanofluid-based direct absorption solar collectors: Design considerations and experiments with hybrid PV/Thermal and direct steam generation collectors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 903-913.
    3. Abd Elbar, Ayman Refat & Hassan, Hamdy, 2020. "An experimental work on the performance of new integration of photovoltaic panel with solar still in semi-arid climate conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1429-1443.
    4. Garcia-Saez, Irene & Méndez, Juan & Ortiz, Carlos & Loncar, Drazen & Becerra, José A. & Chacartegui, Ricardo, 2019. "Energy and economic assessment of solar Organic Rankine Cycle for combined heat and power generation in residential applications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 461-476.
    5. Choudhary, Suraj & Sachdeva, Anish & Kumar, Pramod, 2020. "Investigation of the stability of MgO nanofluid and its effect on the thermal performance of flat plate solar collector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 1801-1814.
    6. Bhalla, Vishal & Khullar, Vikrant & Tyagi, Himanshu, 2018. "Experimental investigation of photo-thermal analysis of blended nanoparticles (Al2O3/Co3O4) for direct absorption solar thermal collector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 616-626.
    7. Allouhi, A. & Kousksou, T. & Jamil, A. & Bruel, P. & Mourad, Y. & Zeraouli, Y., 2015. "Solar driven cooling systems: An updated review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 159-181.
    8. Fuqiang, Wang & Lanxin, Ma & Ziming, Cheng & Jianyu, Tan & Xing, Huang & Linhua, Liu, 2017. "Radiative heat transfer in solar thermochemical particle reactor: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 935-949.
    9. Zeng, Jia & Xuan, Yimin, 2018. "Enhanced solar thermal conversion and thermal conduction of MWCNT-SiO2/Ag binary nanofluids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 809-819.
    10. Sharaf, Omar Z. & Al-Khateeb, Ashraf N. & Kyritsis, Dimitrios C. & Abu-Nada, Eiyad, 2019. "Energy and exergy analysis and optimization of low-flux direct absorption solar collectors (DASCs): Balancing power- and temperature-gain," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 861-872.
    11. Vignarooban, K. & Xu, Xinhai & Arvay, A. & Hsu, K. & Kannan, A.M., 2015. "Heat transfer fluids for concentrating solar power systems – A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 383-396.
    12. Yousefi, Tooraj & Veysi, Farzad & Shojaeizadeh, Ehsan & Zinadini, Sirus, 2012. "An experimental investigation on the effect of Al2O3–H2O nanofluid on the efficiency of flat-plate solar collectors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 293-298.
    13. Wang, Kongxiang & He, Yan & Kan, Ankang & Yu, Wei & Wang, Debing & Zhang, Liyie & Zhu, Guihua & Xie, Huaqing & She, Xiaohui, 2019. "Significant photothermal conversion enhancement of nanofluids induced by Rayleigh-Bénard convection for direct absorption solar collectors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    14. Tian, Y. & Zhao, C.Y., 2013. "A review of solar collectors and thermal energy storage in solar thermal applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 538-553.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tembhare, Saurabh P. & Barai, Divya P. & Bhanvase, Bharat A., 2022. "Performance evaluation of nanofluids in solar thermal and solar photovoltaic systems: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    2. Chen, Yanjun & Zhang, Yalei & Lan, Huiyong & Li, Changzheng & Liu, Xiuliang & He, Deqiang, 2023. "Electric field combined nanofluid to enhance photothermal efficiency of the direct absorption solar collector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    3. Shang-Pang Yu & Tun-Ping Teng & Chia-Cing Huang & Hsiang-Kai Hsieh & Yi-Jia Wei, 2023. "Performance Evaluation of Carbon-Based Nanofluids for Direct Absorption Solar Collector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Joseph, Albin & Sreekumar, Sreehari & Thomas, Shijo, 2020. "Energy and exergy analysis of SiO2/Ag-CuO plasmonic nanofluid on direct absorption parabolic solar collector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1655-1664.
    5. Qu, Jian & Shang, Lu & Sun, Qin & Han, Xinyue & Zhou, Guoqing, 2022. "Photo-thermal characteristics of water-based graphene oxide (GO) nanofluids at reverse-irradiation conditions with different irradiation angles for high-efficiency solar thermal energy harvesting," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 516-527.
    6. Zeng, Jia & Xuan, Yimin, 2022. "Direct solar-thermal conversion features of flowing photonic nanofluids," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 588-602.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Kongxiang & He, Yan & Kan, Ankang & Yu, Wei & Wang, Debing & Zhang, Liyie & Zhu, Guihua & Xie, Huaqing & She, Xiaohui, 2019. "Significant photothermal conversion enhancement of nanofluids induced by Rayleigh-Bénard convection for direct absorption solar collectors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    2. Rostami, Sara & Afrand, Masoud & Shahsavar, Amin & Sheikholeslami, M. & Kalbasi, Rasool & Aghakhani, Saeed & Shadloo, Mostafa Safdari & Oztop, Hakan F., 2020. "A review of melting and freezing processes of PCM/nano-PCM and their application in energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    3. Muzamil Hussain & Syed Khawar Hussain Shah & Uzair Sajjad & Naseem Abbas & Ahsan Ali, 2022. "Recent Developments in Optical and Thermal Performance of Direct Absorption Solar Collectors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-23, September.
    4. Qin, Caiyan & Kim, Joong Bae & Lee, Bong Jae, 2019. "Performance analysis of a direct-absorption parabolic-trough solar collector using plasmonic nanofluids," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 24-33.
    5. Hossain, Farzad & Karim, Md. Rezwanul & Bhuiyan, Arafat A., 2022. "A review on recent advancements of the usage of nano fluid in hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 114-131.
    6. Xu, Yanyan & Xue, Yanqin & Qi, Hong & Cai, Weihua, 2021. "An updated review on working fluids, operation mechanisms, and applications of pulsating heat pipes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    7. Zhou, Dan & Wu, Shaowen & Wu, Zhigen & Yu, Xingjuan, 2021. "Thermal performance analysis of multi-slab phase change thermal energy storage unit with heat transfer enhancement approaches," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 46-56.
    8. Turrini, Sebastiano & Bettonte, Marco & Eccher, Massimo & Grigiante, Maurizio & Miotello, Antonio & Brusa, Roberto S., 2018. "An innovative small-scale prototype plant integrating a solar dish concentrator with a molten salt storage system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 150-161.
    9. Xu, H.J. & Zhao, C.Y., 2016. "Thermal efficiency analysis of the cascaded latent heat/cold storage with multi-stage heat engine model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 228-237.
    10. Huang, Zhen & Li, Zeng-Yao & Tao, Wen-Quan, 2017. "Numerical study on combined natural and forced convection in the fully-developed turbulent region for a horizontal circular tube heated by non-uniform heat flux," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 2194-2208.
    11. Chen, Xingyu & Chen, Meijie & Zhou, Ping, 2022. "Solar-thermal conversion performance of heterogeneous nanofluids," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 1307-1317.
    12. Minjung Lee & Yunchan Shin & Honghyun Cho, 2020. "Performance Evaluation of Flat Plate and Vacuum Tube Solar Collectors by Applying a MWCNT/Fe 3 O 4 Binary Nanofluid," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, April.
    13. Tembhare, Saurabh P. & Barai, Divya P. & Bhanvase, Bharat A., 2022. "Performance evaluation of nanofluids in solar thermal and solar photovoltaic systems: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    14. Joseph, Albin & Sreekumar, Sreehari & Thomas, Shijo, 2020. "Energy and exergy analysis of SiO2/Ag-CuO plasmonic nanofluid on direct absorption parabolic solar collector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1655-1664.
    15. Mallah, Abdul Rahman & Zubir, M.N.M. & Alawi, Omer A. & Kazi, S.N. & Ahmed, W. & Sadri, R. & Kasaeian, Alibakhsh, 2022. "Experimental study on the effects of multi-resonance plasmonic nanoparticles for improving the solar collector efficiency," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 1204-1223.
    16. Amjad, Muhammad & Raza, Ghulam & Xin, Yan & Pervaiz, Shahid & Xu, Jinliang & Du, Xiaoze & Wen, Dongsheng, 2017. "Volumetric solar heating and steam generation via gold nanofluids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 393-400.
    17. Sharaf, Omar Z. & Al-Khateeb, Ashraf N. & Kyritsis, Dimitrios C. & Abu-Nada, Eiyad, 2018. "Direct absorption solar collector (DASC) modeling and simulation using a novel Eulerian-Lagrangian hybrid approach: Optical, thermal, and hydrodynamic interactions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 1132-1145.
    18. Tsogtbilegt Boldoo & Jeonggyun Ham & Eui Kim & Honghyun Cho, 2020. "Review of the Photothermal Energy Conversion Performance of Nanofluids, Their Applications, and Recent Advances," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-33, November.
    19. Hussien, Ahmed A. & Abdullah, Mohd Z. & Al-Nimr, Moh’d A., 2016. "Single-phase heat transfer enhancement in micro/minichannels using nanofluids: Theory and applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 733-755.
    20. Elsheikh, A.H. & Sharshir, S.W. & Mostafa, Mohamed E. & Essa, F.A. & Ahmed Ali, Mohamed Kamal, 2018. "Applications of nanofluids in solar energy: A review of recent advances," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3483-3502.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:159:y:2020:i:c:p:652-662. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.