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Performance Evaluation of a Direct Absorption Collector for Solar Thermal Energy Conversion

  • Abdul Sattar
  • , Muhammad Farooq
  • , Muhammad Amjad
  • , Muhammad A. Saeed
  • , Saad Nawaz
  • , M.A. Mujtaba
  • , Saqib Anwar
  • , Ahmed M. El-Sherbeeny
  • , Manzoore Elahi M. Soudagar
  • , Enio P. Bandarra Filho
  • , Qasim Ali
  • , Muhammad Imran
  • , Alberto Pettinau*
    • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, New Campus-KSK 54800, Pakistan
  • Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Faisalabad Campus 54800, Pakistan
  • Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
  • Centre for Energy Science, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • School of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Uberlandia (UFU), Uberlandia 38408-100, Brazil
  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan
  • Sotacarbo S.p.A., Grande Miniera di Serbariu, 09013 Carbonia, Italy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

The solar absorption efficiency of water as a base-fluid can be significantly improved by suspending nanoparticles of various materials in it. This experimental work presents the photo thermal performance of water-based nano-fluids of graphene oxide (GO), zinc oxide (ZnO), copper oxide (CuO), and their hybrids under natural solar flux for the first time. Nanofluid samples were prepared by the two-step method and the photothermal performance of these nanofluid samples was conducted under natural solar flux in a particle concentration range from 0.0004 wt % to 0.0012 wt %. The photothermal efficiency of water-based 0.0012 wt % GO nanofluid was 46.6% greater than that of the other nanofluids used. This increased photothermal performance of GO nanofluid was associated with its good stability, high absorptivity, and high thermal conductivity. Thus, pure graphene oxide (GO) based nanofluid is a potential candidate for direct absorption solar collection to be used in different solar thermal energy conversion applications.
Original languageEnglish
Article number4956
JournalEnergies
Volume13
Issue number18
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Sept 2020

Bibliographical note

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
    SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Keywords

  • Direct solar absorption
  • Hybrid nanofluid
  • Photo thermal performance
  • Solar energy

Access to Document

  • energies-13-04956-v2

    © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

    Final published version, 3.12 MBLicence: CC BY 3.0

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