Experimental investigation to evaluate thermal performance of a solar cooker with evacuated tube solar collector using different heat transfer fluids

Year 2024, Volume: 10 Issue: 5, 1335 - 1346, 10.09.2024

Yunis Khan , Abhishek Tevatia , D. Apparao Nagendra Singh , Subhash Mishra

Abstract

In present research the impact of insulation on the discharge process of phase change material (PCM) and a comparison of the thermal performance of a solar cooker using two distinct types of heat transfer fluid (HTF) were experimentally investigated. The aim of this study is to select best performing HTF at the thermal performance point of view. In this experiment a solar cooker with an integrated PCM thermal storage unit was connected through connecting pipes to an evacuated tube solar collector. Separately, water and SigmaTherm–K were used as HTF to evaluate the thermal performance of a solar cooker. Acetanilide of commercial grade was utilized as thermal storage material in the solar cooker. Both charging and discharging of PCM were studied with insulation and without insulation. It was discovered that the temperature attained with PCM in an insulated cooker is 16.5°C and 19.3°C higher than without PCM using water and SigmaTherm–K as HTF respectively. It was concluded that using PCM with the SigmaTherm–K increased the amount of average energy by 29.11% compared to water. The temperature attained by water as cooking load increased from 22°C to 77°C and from 20.1°C to 86.2°C using water and SigmaTherm–K as a HTF respectively.

Keywords

Evacuated Tube Solar Collector, Heat Transfer Fluid, Phase Change Material, Solar Cooker, Thermal Performance

References

• [1] Khan Y, Mishra RS. Parametric (exergy-energy) analysis of parabolic trough solar collector-driven combined partial heating supercritical CO2 cycle and organic Rankine cycle. Energy Sources 2020;1–27. [CrossRef]
• [2] Khan Y, Raman R, Rashidi MM, Caliskan H, Chauhan MK, Chauhan AK. Thermodynamic analysis and experimental investigation of the water spray cooling of photovoltaic solar panels. J Therm Anal Calorim 2023;12:5591–5602. [CrossRef]
• [3] Kaushik SC, Verma A, Tyagi SK. Advances in solar absorption cooling systems: An overview. J Therm Engineer 2024;10:1044–1067. [CrossRef]
• [4] Sheikholeslami M, Farshad SA, Gerdroodbary MB, Alavi AH. Impact of new multiple twisted tapes on treatment of solar heat exchanger. Eur Phys J Plus 2022;137:s13360-021-02157-6. [CrossRef]
• [5] Patel PM, Rathod VP, Patel D. Drying Solanum lycopersicum (Tomatoes) in greenhouse solar dryer: An eco-environmental study. J Therm Engineer 2024;10:811–825. [CrossRef]
• [6] Gerdroodbary MB. Application of neural network on heat transfer enhancement of magnetohydrodynamic nanofluid. Heat Transf 2020;49:197–212. [CrossRef]
• [7] Amaresh M, Shabani B. On the integration of phase change materials with evacuated tube solar thermal collectors. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2020;132:110135. [CrossRef]
• [8] Olfian H, Ajarostaghi SSM, Ebrahimnataj M, Farhadi M, Arıcı M. On the thermal performance of evacuated tube solar collector integrated with phase change material. Sustain Energy Technol Assess 2022;53:102437. [CrossRef]
• [9] Yang X, Lin Q, Singh P, Riaz F, Agrawal MK, Alsenani TR, et al. Evaluating the proficiency of a novel solar evacuated tube collector. Appl Therm Engineer 2023;226:12031. [CrossRef]
• [10] Kuang R, Du B, Lund PD, Wang J. Improving performance prediction of evacuated tube solar collector through convolutional neural network method. Therm Sci Engineer Prog 2023;39:101717. [CrossRef]
• [11] Hussein HMS, El-Ghetany HH, Nada SA. Experimental investigation of the novel indirect solar cooker with indoor PCM thermal storage and cooking unit. Energy Conver Manage 2008;49:2237–2246. [CrossRef]
• [12] Lentswe K, Mawire A, Owusu P. A review of parabolic solar cookers with thermal energy storage. Heliyon 2021;7:e08226. [CrossRef]
• [13] Kumaresan G, Sridhar R, Velraj R. Performance studies of a solar parabolic trough collector with a thermal energy storage system. Energy 2012;47:395–402. [CrossRef]
• [14] Pandiaraj S, Ayyasamy T, Govindasamy K. Heat transfer augmentation using water-in-glass evacuated tube coupled with parabolic trough in rack dryer in the drying of capsicum frutescens. Int J Heat Technol 2020;28:895–902. [CrossRef]
• [15] Hebbar G, Hegde S, Sanketh B, L. R. S, Udupa R. Design of solar cooker using evacuated tube solar collector with phase change material. Mater Today Proc 2021;46:2888–2893. [CrossRef]
• [16] Palanikumar G, Shanmugan S, Chithambaram V, Gorjian S, Pruncu CI, Essa FA, et al. Thermal investigation of a solar box-type cooker with nanocomposite phase change materials using flexible thermography. Renew Energy 2021;178:260–282. [CrossRef]
• [17] Coccia G, Aquilantia A, Tomassettia S, Comodi G, Di Nicola G. Design, realization, and tests of a portable solar box cooker coupled with an erythritol-based PCM thermal energy storage. Solar Energy 2020;201:530–540. [CrossRef]
• [18] Vishwakarma A, Sinha S. Box type solar cooker with thermal storage: An overview. Energy Sys 2022;15:1289–1315. [CrossRef]
• [19] Lecuona A, Nogueira JI, Ruben V, Rodriguez-Hidalgo MdC, Legrand M. Solar cooker of the portable parabolic type incorporating heat storage based on PCM. Appl Energy 2013;111:1136–1146. [CrossRef]
• [20] Dhiman A, Sachdeva G. Experimental investigation of an indirect-type solar cooker for indoor cooking based on a parabolic dish collector. Heat Transf 2023;52:378–394. [CrossRef]
• [21] Uniyal A, Prajapati YK, Suman S. Heat transfer and melting characteristics of the phase change material inside U-tube based evacuated tube solar collector. J Energy Stor 2023;62:106918. [CrossRef]
• [22] Sagade AA, Mawire A, Palma-Behnke R. Low-cost solar concentrating collector-receiver system as an effective enabler for clean cooking and heating in urban areas. Solar Energy 2023;263:111813. [CrossRef]
• [23] Singh H, Gagandeep, Saini K, Yadav A. Experimental comparison of different heat transfer fluid for thermal performance of a solar cooker based on evacuated tube collector. Environ Dev Sustain 2015;17:497–511. [CrossRef]
• [24] Esen M. Thermal performance of a solar cooker integrated vacuum-tube collector with heat pipes containing different refrigerants. Solar Energy 2003;76:751–757. [CrossRef]
• [25] Harikrishnan SS, Kotebavi V. Performance study of solar heat pipe with different working fluids and fill ratios. Mater Sci Engineer 2016;149:1–7. [CrossRef]
• [26] SigmaTHERM. SigmaTHERM – k. Available at: https://sigma-therm.com/sigma-k.html. Accessed Aug 03, 2023.
• [27] Chibani A, Mecheri G, Merouani S, Dehane A. Hydrogen charging in AX21 activated carbon-PCM-metal foam-based industrial-scale reactor: Numerical analysis. Int J Hydrogen Energy 2023;48:32025–32038. [CrossRef]
• [28] Raval P, Ramani B. Heat transfer enhancement techniques using different inserts in absorber tube of parabolic trough solar collector: A review. J Therm Engineer 2024;10:1068–1091. [CrossRef]
• [29] Mousavi SV, Gerdroodbary MB, Sheikholeslami M, Ganji DD. The influence of a magnetic field on the heat transfer of a magnetic nanofluid in a sinusoidal channel. Eur Phys J Plus 2016;131:347. [CrossRef]
• [30] Khan Y, Mishra RS. Performance comparison of basic and parallel double evaporator Organic Rankine Cycle integrated with solar based supercritical CO2 cycle. J Therm Engineer 2023;9:565–579. [CrossRef]
• [31] Khan Y, Mishra RS, Raman R, Hashmi AW. Parametric evaluation of solar integrated combined partial cooling supercritical CO2 cycle and Organic Rankine Cycle using low global warming potential fluids. J Therm Engineer 2023;9:1128–1140. [CrossRef]