Efficiency Improvement of a Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) System Using Nanofluids

Joo Hee Lee, Seong Geon Hwang and Gwi Hyun Lee
Additional contact information
Joo Hee Lee: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Korea
Seong Geon Hwang: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Korea
Gwi Hyun Lee: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Korea

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: Many studies and considerable international efforts have gone into reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This study was carried out to improve the efficiency of flat-plate photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems, which use solar energy to produce heat and electricity simultaneously. An efficiency analysis was performed with various flow rates of water as the working fluid. The flow rate, which affects the performance of the PVT system, showed the highest efficiency at 3 L/min compared with 1, 2, and 4 L/min. Additionally, the effects of nanofluids (CuO/water, Al 2 O 3 /water) and water as working fluids on the efficiency of the PVT system were investigated. The results showed that the thermal and electrical efficiencies of the PVT system using CuO/water as a nanofluid were increased by 21.30% and 0.07% compared to the water-based system, respectively. However, the increase in electrical efficiency was not significant because this increase may be due to measurement errors. The PVT system using Al 2 O 3 /water as a nanofluid improved the thermal efficiency by 15.14%, but there was no difference in the electrical efficiency between water and Al 2 O 3 /water-based systems.

Keywords: PVT system; flow rate; nanofluids; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/16/3063/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/16/3063/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:16:p:3063-:d:256066

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().