Modeling self-sustainable fully-covered photovoltaic thermal-compound parabolic concentrators connected to double slope solar distiller

• Published in: Desalination and water treatment 2020-06, Vol.190, p.12-27
• Main Authors: Gupta, Vidya Sagar, Singh, Desh Bandhu, Sharma, Sanjeev Kumar, Kumar, Navneet, Bhatti, T.S., Tiwari, G.N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Characteristic equation; Double slope solar distiller unit; Photovoltaic thermal (fully covered) – compound parabolic concentrator
• ISSN: 1944-3986
• DOI: 10.5004/dwt.2020.25696

The present study discusses the development of the characteristic equation of a PVT (photovoltaic thermal)-CPC (compound parabolic concentrator collector) for N = 6 similar fully covered incorporated with solar distiller unit in a very scientific manner similar to the equation of Hottel–Whillier– Bliss equation for FPC (flat plate collector). There are certain drawbacks in partially covered PVT collectors like (a) low thermal behavior because of the high top loss coefficient, (b) higher maintenance of the system, and (c) costly manufacturing. Due to these problems, N = 6 similar fully covered PVT-CPC incorporated with solar distiller system have been considered in the present study. The analytical expression for the proposed system has been established by means of scripting equations for balancing energy for its different elements (present study, case (i)). The instantaneous efficiency of the proposed system has been computed using a computational program in MATLAB. The system performance of proposed N = 6 same fully covered PVT-CPC incorporated with solar distiller unit (double slope-active) is being matched with (case (ii)) N identical Fully covered PVT-FPCs incorporated with solar distiller system (double slope-active), (case (iii)) conventional N = 6 same FPC incorporated with solar still (double slope-passive), and (case (iv)) passive solar still with a double slope. During the comparison, it has been observed that instantaneous efficacy is higher in case (i) when compared with case (ii), and case (iv), but lower than case (iii).