Design, development and performance investigation of solar Parabolic Trough Collector for large-scale solar power plants

K.S. Reddy and C. Ananthsornaraj

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 146, issue C, 1943-1957

Abstract: Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) system for process heat application with medium temperature range is decisive for the tremendous availability of solar energy. In the present work, the prototype of 5.77 m aperture and 80.2 ̊ rim angle of PTC system with Evacuated Receiver (ER) and Non-Evacuated Receiver (NER) were designed, fabricated, installed and evaluated for the performances in the IIT Madras, Chennai, India. Experiments were carried out to analyze the optical and thermal performances of the receiver based on the ASHRAE standards 93–2010. The performance parameters such as peak optical efficiency, incident angle modifier, time constant (both heating and cooling), heat loss and thermal efficiency for ER and NER were measured. This article also present the methods for measuring the heat losses of both receivers under laboratory test conditions and on-field experiments based on energy balance of the receiver. The peak optical efficiency of ER and NER is close to 72% and 68% respectively at minimum heat loss condition. The maximum thermal efficiency of the ER and NER of PTC systems are 66% and 64% for the mass flow rate of 0.12 kg/s and 64.3% and 62.1% for the mass flow rate of 0.06 kg/s. Performance studies of receivers were carried out to analyze the effects of the inlet and outlet temperature of HTF, instantaneous thermal efficiency and weather parameters (DNI and ambient temperature) on both sunny and cloudy day. The maximum temperature achieved by the HTF in ER and NER is 155 ̊ C and 137 ̊ C for the corresponding solar incident radiation 756 W/m2 and 691 W/m2 respectively.

Keywords: Parabolic trough collector; Evacuated and non-evacuated receiver; Peak optical efficiency; Heat loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:146:y:2020:i:c:p:1943-1957

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.07.158

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