Performance study on evacuated tube solar collector using therminol D-12 as heat transfer fluid coupled with parabolic trough

•Instant hot water at temperatures between 40°C and 68°C in the low solar radiation range of 240–540W/m2.•Usage of therminol D-12 and parabolic trough in low temperature application.•Stability of thermal and flow properties of therminol D-12 are studied. Fossil fuels and electrical energy are widely...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy conversion and management 2014-09, Vol.85, p.505-510
Main Authors: Selvakumar, P., Somasundaram, P., Thangavel, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Energy
Evacuated tube
Exact sciences and technology
Fluid dynamics
Fluid flow
Fluids
Heat transfer
Heating
Hot water
Instant hot water
Joining
Natural energy
Parabolic trough
Solar collectors
Solar energy
Solar thermal conversion
Synthetic oil
Tubes
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Summary:•Instant hot water at temperatures between 40°C and 68°C in the low solar radiation range of 240–540W/m2.•Usage of therminol D-12 and parabolic trough in low temperature application.•Stability of thermal and flow properties of therminol D-12 are studied. Fossil fuels and electrical energy are widely used for instant hot water generation in rural and urban areas. Also, conventional solar water heaters do not support instant hot water generation because of various problems. A new system with evacuated tube collector using synthetic oil as heat transfer fluid coupled with parabolic trough is developed and studied experimentally for instant hot water generation in the presence of low solar irradiance. Among the different grades of therminol, therminol D-12 is chosen for the study because of its thermal stability. Parabolic trough is coupled to evacuated tube to enhance the flow as well as heating characteristics of therminol. Heating efficiency and temperature characteristics are determined for the newly developed system under low solar irradiance conditions. Instant hot water can be produced by the new system at a temperature of 60°C in the presence of low solar radiation. This newly developed system has the ability to check the fossil fuel consumption and electrical energy consumption for instant hot water generation in household applications. The stability of the heat transfer fluid is also ensured by repeated experiments.
ISSN:0196-8904
1879-2227
DOI:10.1016/j.enconman.2014.05.069