Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4991963 | Applied Thermal Engineering | 2017 | 31 Pages |
Abstract
Solar energy is a promising energy source for covering a great variety of applications from low up to high temperature levels. In this study, the most mature concentrating technology, a commercial parabolic trough collector (Eurotrough ET-150), is investigated energetically and exergetically for a great temperature range from 300Â K to 1300Â K. Pressurized water, Therminol VP-1, nitrate molten salt, sodium liquid, air, carbon dioxide and helium are the examined working fluids; each one to be studied in the proper temperature range. In the first part of this study, the optimum mass flow rate is determined to every working fluid separately. After this point, the exergetic and the energetic performance of the collector operating with all these working fluids is examined. The final results prove that the liquid sodium leads to the global exergetic maximum efficiency (47.48%) for inlet temperature equal to 800Â K, while the maximum exergetic performance of helium, carbon dioxide and air to be 42.21%, 42.06% and 40.12% respectively. Moreover, pressurized water is the best working medium for temperature levels up to 550Â K, while carbon dioxide and helium are the only solutions for temperatures greater than 1100Â K. The thermal analysis is performed with the EES tool.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes
Authors
Evangelos Bellos, Christos Tzivanidis, Kimon A. Antonopoulos,