Binary salt phase change material for concentrated solar cooker: storage and usages

Abstract

ABSTRACT As per earlier research work, the traditional solar cooker works only during the day time having less cooking capacity after sunset. The developed system works during the day as well as at night time. During Day time, it works under the impact of solar radiation, using the parabolic collector which supplies the heat energy for cooking, and during nighttime, the PCM supplies the stored thermal energy which is used for cooking with a huge backup of up to 4 h after sunset. The main advantage of this system is it cooks two food material same time, which not yet employed by using parabolic solar collector. From the observations made, it is found that the use of binary salts as a PCM improves the overall cooking performance. The results show that during daytime, cooking required 19 to 21 minutes with a temperature drop of 49 to 60°C. Further, the results obtained during nighttime observations show that cooking the same food items takes approximately 22 to 25 minutes with temperature drop of 53 to 70°C. Hence, the currently used PCM proves the best choice as a thermal storing medium in food preparing industries and domestics.