TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental analysis of Shape-Stabilized PCM applied to a Direct-Absorption evacuated tube solar collector exploiting sodium acetate trihydrate and graphite
AU - Sadeghi, Gholamabbas
AU - Mehrali, Mohammad
AU - Shahi, Mina
AU - Brem, Gerrit
AU - Mahmoudi, Amirhoushang
N1 - Funding Information:
This research work has been supported and funded by the Netherlands’ TKI Urban Energy, Project Inno-DSS with project number 1621202.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/10/1
Y1 - 2022/10/1
N2 - A problematic issue with the solar water heaters is the storage tank requirement, which takes considerable space and makes the piping and installation more difficult. This study is the first report on experimentally applying a shape-stabilized PCM to a tankless direct-absorption evacuated tube solar collector to address this challenge and directly store solar energy. The proposed salt hydrate PCM was synthesized at various concentrations of related components and after detecting the optimum compound, it was tested under several cycles to ensure its sustainable heat storage capability. Furthermore, after charging the solar system in the stagnation mode (without water flow), it was discharged at 10, 27, and 40 L per hour (LPH) flow rates. It was revealed that the thermal efficiency in the stagnation mode was improved from 66 % to 82 % using this collector-storage system. In addition, it was concluded that changing the flow rate from 10 to 27 LPH does not considerably reduce the heat gain of collector; however, using the flow rate of 40 LPH plunges the discharge efficiency. Ultimately, cost and carbon footprint analyses of the proposed system were conducted and a payback period of 6 years and annual reduction of 5.4 tons of CO2 emissions were reported.
AB - A problematic issue with the solar water heaters is the storage tank requirement, which takes considerable space and makes the piping and installation more difficult. This study is the first report on experimentally applying a shape-stabilized PCM to a tankless direct-absorption evacuated tube solar collector to address this challenge and directly store solar energy. The proposed salt hydrate PCM was synthesized at various concentrations of related components and after detecting the optimum compound, it was tested under several cycles to ensure its sustainable heat storage capability. Furthermore, after charging the solar system in the stagnation mode (without water flow), it was discharged at 10, 27, and 40 L per hour (LPH) flow rates. It was revealed that the thermal efficiency in the stagnation mode was improved from 66 % to 82 % using this collector-storage system. In addition, it was concluded that changing the flow rate from 10 to 27 LPH does not considerably reduce the heat gain of collector; however, using the flow rate of 40 LPH plunges the discharge efficiency. Ultimately, cost and carbon footprint analyses of the proposed system were conducted and a payback period of 6 years and annual reduction of 5.4 tons of CO2 emissions were reported.
KW - Direct-absorption solar collectors
KW - Energy efficiency
KW - Heat storage
KW - Shape-stabilized phase change materials
KW - Solar energy
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137293608&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.enconman.2022.116176
DO - 10.1016/j.enconman.2022.116176
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85137293608
SN - 0196-8904
VL - 269
JO - Energy conversion and management
JF - Energy conversion and management
M1 - 116176
ER -