Advances in Parabolic Trough Solar Power Technology

Price, Henry; Lüpfert, Eckhard; Kearney, D.; Zarza, Eduardo; Cohen, Gilbert; Gee, Randy; Mahoney, R.

doi:10.1115/1.1467922

Cited by 700 publications

(320 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Similar to conventional receivers, the receiver's annulus space was considered evacuated to very low pressures (about 0.013 Pa) (Price et al, 2002), such that natural convection heat loss between the receiver's absorber tube and the receiver's glass cover is suppressed. Additionally, the receiver's absorber tube has an outer wall that is coated with a cermet selective coating giving it low emissivity for infrared radiation and high absorptivity for the incoming solar radiation.…”

Section: Optical and Thermal Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The receiver is made of a metallic absorber tube that is enclosed in a glass envelope. The space between the tube and the glass cover is evacuated to very low vacuum pressures to minimise receiver convection heat loss (Price et al, 2002, Kalogirou, 2004. The absorber tube is also selectively coated to give it a high absorptance for incoming radiation and low emittance for infrared radiation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of optical errors on the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a solar parabolic trough receiver

et al. 2016

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HIGHLIGHTS• Effect of optical errors on performance of a parabolic trough receiver is presented.• Actual heat flux profiles were obtained using Monte Carlo ray tracing and presented.• Thermal and thermodynamic analysis of the receiver is determined numerically.• Effect of optical errors on heat flux and temperature distribution is investigated.• Influence of optical errors on receiver entropy generation rates is presented. ABSTRACTThis paper presents results of an investigation covering the influence of optical errors on the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a solar parabolic trough system. The optical performance was evaluated by using Monte Carlo ray tracing for slope errors and specularity For the range of parameters considered, the intercept factor reduces by up to 21% while the overall thermal efficiency reduces by up to 17% as optical errors increase. Receiver thermodynamic performance is shown to deteriorate as slope errors increase.

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Section: Optical and Thermal Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of optical errors on the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a solar parabolic trough receiver

et al. 2016

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“…Commercial HTFs such as Therminol ® (VP-1), which is a blend of biphenyl and diphenyl oxide, 2 have a significant vapor pressure, especially at elevated temperatures. 1 In order for these volatile compounds to be used in CSP systems, the system either has to be engineered to prevent the phase change (i.e., volatilization and condensation) through pressurization of the system, or operate across the phase change. 3 Over thirty years ago, a class of low-melting organic compounds were developed with negligible vapor pressure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One area of developing research is the use of concentrating solar power (CSP), where the solar energy is concentrated by using mirrors to direct the sunlight towards a collector filled with a heat transfer fluid (HTF). 1 The HTF transfers the collected energy into pressurized steam, which is used to generate energy. The greater the energy collected by the HTF, the more efficent the electrical energy production is, thus the overall efficiency is controlled by the thermal fluid.…”

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confidence: 99%

Potential of Nanoparticle-Enhanced Ionic Liquids (NEILs) as Advanced Heat-Transfer Fluids

2011

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803-507-8560 RECEIVED DATEKEYWORDS. Nanoparticle enhanced ionic liquid, heat transfer fluid, concentrating solar power, 1-Butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, nanofluid INTRODUCTIONInterest in capturing the energy of the sun is rising as demands for renewable energy sources increase. One area of developing research is the use of concentrating solar power (CSP), where the solar energy is concentrated by using mirrors to direct the sunlight towards a collector filled with a heat transfer fluid (HTF). 1 The HTF transfers the collected energy into pressurized steam, which is used to generate energy. The greater the energy collected by the HTF, the more efficent the electrical energy production is, thus the overall efficiency is controlled by the thermal fluid. Commercial HTFs such as Therminol ® (VP-1), which is a blend of biphenyl and diphenyl oxide, 2 have a significant vapor pressure, especially at elevated temperatures. 1 In order for these volatile compounds to be used in CSP systems, the system either has to be engineered to prevent the phase change (i.e., volatilization and condensation) through pressurization of the system, or operate across the phase change. 3 Over thirty years ago, a class of low-melting organic compounds were developed with negligible vapor pressure. 4 These compounds are referred to as ionic liquids (ILs), which are organic-based compounds with discrete charges that cause a significant decrease in their vapor pressure. 5 As a class, ILs are molten salts with a melting point below 100 o C and can have a liquidus range approaching 400 o C, and in several cases freezing points being below 0 o C. 6 Due to the lack of an appreciable vapor 1 pressure, volatilization of an IL is not possible at atmospheric pressure, 5 which would lead to a simplification of the design if used as a thermal fluid and for energy storage materials. 7 Though the lack of a vapor pressure does not make the use of ILs a better HTF, the lack of a vapor pressure is a compliment to their higher heat capacity, higher volummetric density, and thus higher volumetric heat capacity. 8 These favorable physical properties give ILs a pontential advantage over the current commerically used thermal fluids. Also within the past decade nanofluids have gained attention for thermal conductivity enhancment of fluids 9 , but little analysis has been completed on the heat capacity effects of the nanoparticle addition.The idea of ILs or nanofluids as a HTF is not new, as there are several references that have proposed the idea. 8, 10 However, the use of ionic liquid nanofluids containing nanomaterials other than carbon nanotubes has never before been studied. Here, for the first time, nano-particle enhanced ILs (NEILs) have been shown to increase the heat capacity of the IL with no adverse side effects to the ILs' thermal stability and, only at high nanoparticle loading, are the IL physical properties affected. An increase of volumetric heat capacity translates into a better heat transfer fluid as more energy i...

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“…Concentrated solar radiation is used in photovoltaic systems and also in solar thermal designs with turbines or with Stirling generators, for example solar farm in Spain [1] which contains steam turbine as well as in California [2] in the U.S. Also, solar trough systems are built in even smaller vacant lands, such as [3].…”

Section: Residential Use Of Solar Powermentioning

confidence: 99%