This paper illustrates the design and fabrication of a 76°rim angle solar parabolic dish concentrator with low cost based on fiberglass-reinforced for heating of heat transfer fluid using the hand layup process. Numerous advantages of fiberglass material include corrosion resistance, lightweight, design flexibility, quick installation time, and low cost makes it suitable for fabrication. The concave surface on which the reflective sheets are mounted is made to a high degree of perfection. The design process, as well as the complete fabrication process, are elaborately discussed in this article. The thermal efficiency of the newly constructed fiberglass-reinforced solar parabolic dish concentrator was assessed by heating the heat transfer fluid in the conical cavity receiver, which was cycled from the sump via a gear pump and flexible stainless steel connecting pipes. The maximum value of heat transfer fluid temperature achieved was 194°C at the sump. The average thermal efficiency achieved for indoor heating at the sump was 17.42%, 17.16%, and 17.21%, respectively, during Experiments 1, 2, and 3. The results indicate that this system is acceptable for indoor cooking in the kitchen, as the system achieves temperatures between 150°C and 194°C.
Steam cooking is beneficial over other cooking techniques like boiling since it preserves more vitamins lost during other methods. In this study, a novel solar food steamer (SFS) based on a parabolic dish concentrator (PDC) is designed and constructed for domestic food preparation. A straightforward fabrication process of a 2.626 m2 PDC with design calculations is also presented. The system's instantaneous energy and exergy efficiency evaluation has been examined from different tests over three consecutive days. The system's high energetic and exergetic efficiency was achieved in the case of sweet potato, that is, 72.83% and 15.14%, respectively. In the case of dried chickpeas, the maximum steaming duration of 70 min was attained, along with an energy efficiency of 47.74% and an exergy efficiency of 10.07%. In addition, an economic analysis was performed to determine the payback time in terms of cost and utility. The payback time for the proposed method is 2.4 years. The SFS may save 43 kg/month of carbon dioxide from escaping into the atmosphere; it can be considered an environmentally valuable device.
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