Abstract
This paper presents an environmental impact assessment of the entire cycle of existence of the tube-vacuum solar collector prototype. The innovativeness of the solution involved using a phase change material as a heat-storing material, which was placed inside the collector’s tubes-vacuum. The PCM used in this study was paraffin. The system boundaries contained three phases: production, operation (use phase), and disposal. An ecological life cycle assessment was carried out using the SimaPro software. To compare the environmental impact of heat storage, the amount of heat generated for 15 years, starting from the beginning of a solar installation for preparing domestic hot water for a single-family residential building, was considered the functional unit. Assuming comparable production methods for individual elements of the ETC and waste management scenarios, the reduction in harmful effects on the environment by introducing a PCM that stores heat inside the ETC ranges from 17 to 24%. The performed analyses have also shown that the method itself of manufacturing the materials used for the construction of the solar collector and the choice of the scenario of the disposal of waste during decommissioning the solar collector all play an important role in its environmental assessment. With an increase in the application of the advanced technologies of materials manufacturing and an increase in the amount of waste subjected to recycling, the degree of the solar collector’s environmental impact decreased by 82% compared to its standard manufacture and disposal.
Highlights
The building sector, with the highest demand for heat, is one of the largest energy consumers
A reduction in the harmful environmental impacts of evacuated tube collector (ETC) installation resulting from its production and use can be achieved by applying a higher technological level in the production process and increasing the degree of material recovery in the waste management process
In the case of the evacuated tube collector with a phase change materials (PCMs) and ETC/S-PCM, this reduction was 72 and 82%, respectively, for variant 2 and variant 3
Summary
The building sector, with the highest demand for heat, is one of the largest energy consumers. Solar energy is considered ecological, throughout the life cycle of systems using it, there are significant interactions with the environment resulting from the source, production, transportation, assembly, and use of materials These interactions may lead to the depletion of natural resources, greenhouse gas effects, acidification, and eutrophication [1,2,3,4,5]. The boundaries of the system for the established environmental analyses were strongly divergent They either focused on only one phase of the life cycle (e.g., use) [42] or included all phases [33] (i.e., raw material extraction and material production, construction and operation/maintenance, or demolition and disposal of materials). In addition to determining the environmental impact of flat collectors, there are indications regarding their optimization at the production stage [1,2,3]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
