Development of Coconut Oil Based Bio-heat Transfer Fluid for Concentrated Solar Plant

Abstract

Vegetable oils are proven to be potential heat transfer fluids (HTF) in concentrated solar power plant (CSP) and their thermophysical and rheological properties are comparable to the contemporarily used synthetic HTF. The present study aims to investigate the use of coconut oil as potential HTF and to improve some of its properties for better performance. Natural additives are used to alleviate certain limitations of coconut oil in performing as an HTF. Primarily, the oxidative stability and cold flow property are improved by adding essential oils of garlic to coconut oil at different concentrations. The optimum mixture is chosen and the thermophysical properties which include density, specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity are looked into. These properties as well as the dynamic viscosity are correlated individually to temperature using polynomial equations. Further, the biodegradability of the mixture is checked to ensure the eco-friendliness of the mixture. Thus, an attempt is made to produce a bio-heat transfer fluid (BHTF) with improved thermophysical properties, dynamic viscosity, cold flow property and oxidative stability for performing as an effective substitute for synthetic HTF.