Experimental and Theoretical Performance Investigation of Parabolic Trough Collector for Industrial Sector in the Region of Taxila

Abstract

Concentrating solar collectors are currently being used for industrial process requiring heat applications. This research aims to investigate the thermal performance of parabolic trough collector (PTC) in Taxila for industrial applications. For this purpose, PTC was designed and developed. Thermal performance parameters including exit temperature of heat transfer fluid (HTF), useful heat gain and thermal efficiency of developed system have been evaluated at different mass flow rates of HTF, optical efficiencies and concentration ratio using ethylene glycol as HTF. Investigations of performance measures were carried out theoretically as well as experimentally. Experimental results showed that the obtained exit temperatures, useful heat gain and thermal efficiencies were in ranges of 357.0-374.9K, 2.02-2.71kW and 21.2-22.7% respectively. The deviation between experimental and theoretical results was found to be less than 8.3 %. Theoretical investigation also showed that thermal performance changes insignificantly when mass flow rate exceeds 0.092kg/s. The PTC achieved higher values of exit temperature of 413.6K, useful heat gain of 4.46kW and thermal efficiency of 37.5%during summer solstice as compared to exit temperature of 338.1K, useful heat gain of 1.15kW and thermal efficiency of 9.6% during winter solstice. Higher values of performances measures were obtained at higher concentration ratio of 33.8as compared to lower concentration ratios of 24.1. The findings of this research are useful for industries requiring process heating during food processing, dairy, beverage and paper manufacturing.