A novel passive solar vertical-finned-thermocatalytic-Trombe wall system for air purification and heating

Abstract

In this study, the combination of thermocatalytic oxidation technology with finned heat transfer technology was proposed to produce a novel passive solar vertical-finned- thermocatalytic-Trombe wall (VFTC-Trombe wall) system. The numerical model coupled with flow and heat transfer, convective-diffusion and catalytic reaction kinetic processes was established. The influences of fins geometry and environmental parameters on thermal and air purification performance were evaluated. The main findings are as follow: Both the purification efficiency and total efficiency increase with fins height. As the fins spacing rises, thermal, purification and total efficiencies all show maximum values. By adding the vertical fins in the channel, the purification performance improvement of the TC-Trombe wall system can be realized without sacrificing thermal performance. The optimum purification efficiency improves more than 1.5 times compared to that without vertical fins. The vertical fins have more significant effect on the purification performance than the thermal performance. At fins height h = 40 mm, fins spacing s = 16.67 mm, and solar radiation intensity I = 400 W/m2, the maximum total efficiency of VFTC-Trombe wall system reaches 65.11%, which is relatively improved by 31.9% compared to the TC-Trombe wall system without vertical fins. In addition, the impact of ambient temperature on thermal performance is more significant than that on purification performance.