Experimental Evaluation of a Photovoltaic/Thermal Air Heater with Metal Mesh-Integrated Thermal Energy Storage System

Azim Doğuş Tuncer, Emine Yağız Gürbüz, Ali Keçebaş and Aleksandar G. Georgiev ()
Additional contact information
Azim Doğuş Tuncer: Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering-Architecture, Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, 15030 Burdur, Turkey
Emine Yağız Gürbüz: Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Technology Faculty, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, 48000 Muğla, Turkey
Ali Keçebaş: Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Technology Faculty, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, 48000 Muğla, Turkey
Aleksandar G. Georgiev: Department of General Engineering, University of Telecommunications and Posts, 1 Akad. Stefan Mladenov Str., 1700 Sofia, Bulgaria

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: The objective of this study is to improve the performance of a hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) air heater incorporating a thermal energy storage system (TESS) that uses paraffin and has metallic mesh layers. In the experimental part of the research, three different pilot-scale PV/Ts have been designed, manufactured, and experimentally investigated. The first system was structured as a conventional PV/T, while the second (PVT/TESS) was modified with a paraffin-based TESS. The efficiency of a hybrid PV/T air heater was improved by integrating a paraffin-based thermal energy storage system (TESS) with metallic mesh layers (PV/T-MTESS). The performance of the modified PV/T-MTESS system was compared to two other PV/T systems under the same weather conditions and air flow rate. The results of the experiment demonstrated that the integration of mesh layers into the TESS led to substantial improvements in the system’s thermal and electrical performance, as well as its overall exergy efficiency. The improvements were 33.17%, 14.82%, and 58.15%, respectively, when compared to the unaltered (conventional) PV/T setup. Moreover, an enviro-economic analysis has been performed on the developed and tested PV/Ts. Using TESS with only paraffin and with mesh layer-added paraffin reduced the payback time of the system by 2.54% and 9.85%, respectively. Moreover, the annual carbon dioxide saving was improved from 0.079 tons/year to 0.103 tons/year using a mesh layer-integrated TESS in the PV/T air heater.

Keywords: photovoltaic/thermal; solar air heater; thermal energy storage; metal meshes (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/8/3449/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/8/3449/ (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:16:y:2023:i:8:p:3449-:d:1123713

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 ().