article · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
An experimental solar air heating system was designed and fabricated using five linked panels of evacuated glass tubes connected in series. Each panel contained two concentric aluminium pipes with a nano-enhanced phase change material positioned between the inlet and outlet air paths. This thermal storage medium combined copper oxide nanoparticles with paraffin wax to improve heat transfer. Performance was tested with and without the phase change material across five air mass flow rates from 0.006 to 0.05 kg/s. Without the material, peak outlet temperatures reached up to 116 degrees Celsius at the lowest flow rate. Adding the nano-enhanced material reduced outlet temperatures by 6 to 15 degrees Celsius across flow rates, but improved overall thermal efficiency by 29.62 percent at 0.05 kg/s, reaching a peak efficiency of 62.66 percent.
Solar air heating offers a renewable alternative to fossil fuels for thermal processes. Adding phase change materials enhanced with nanoparticles addresses intermittent solar output and improves heat transfer efficiency. Understanding how these materials alter temperature and fluid flow helps in developing more effective solar thermal systems for heating and dehydration tasks.
The abstract highlights applications in space heating, solar cooking, food processing, and the drying of fruit, vegetables, and dairy. Relevant users include agricultural processors and equipment manufacturers. Because the findings are based on a five-panel experimental prototype, the technology sits at an applied and tested stage, requiring further engineering and scale-up before practical deployment.
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The investment of solar energy in life applications has become mandatory to maintain a clean environment and reduce the use of fossil fuels. This work aimed to improve the performance of solar air heater (SAH) by using evacuated tube solar collectors ETSC integrated with nano-enhancer phase change material (NE-PCM). To achieve this purpose, a system consisting of 5 linked collecting panels was designed, fabricated, and experimentally investigated. Each panel included a glass-evacuated tube with two concentric aluminum pipes installed inside. NE-PCM was placed between the inlet and outlet air paths inside the evacuated tube to enhance the heat transfer rate. The performance was investigated with and without NE-PCM at five mass flow rates (0.006, 0.008, 0.01, 0.03, and 0.05 kg/s). Experimental results revealed that the highest temperature was 116, 108, 102, 95, and 93 °C, respectively, for the above mass flow rates without adding NE-PCM. The outlet temperature was decreased by 6-15 °C when using NE-PCM. The SAH efficiency was increased by 29.62% compared to the system without NE-PCM at 0.05 kg/s. The maximum thermal efficiency for the system with NE-PCM was 62.66% at 0.05 kg/s, and the pressure drop was 6.79 kPa under the same conditions. As well known, the hot air is used for a variety of purposes including space heating, food processing, drying of fruit, vegetables, dairy, and solar cooking.
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DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-22462-6
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