Abstract
A parabolic solar dish concentrator, as the heat source of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC), can be used for power generation. Different types of tubular cavity receivers with different nanofluids can be considered for use in the solar dish collector to improve its efficiency. In the current research, an ORC with three different cavity receivers including hemispherical, cubical, and cylindrical are investigated using three nanofluids: Al2O3/oil, CuO/oil, and SiO2/oil. A numerical model is validated using experimental data. The ORC analysis is done for a constant evaporator pressure of 2.5 MPa, and condenser temperature of 38 °C. Methanol is employed as the ORC’s working fluid and a non-regenerative, ideal ORC system with different turbine inlet temperatures is considered. Furthermore, a fixed solar heat transfer fluid flow rate of 60 mL/s and dish diameter of 1.9 m is investigated. Results show that, compared to pure oil, the thermal efficiency of the cavity receivers increases slightly, and the pressure drop increases with the application of nanofluids. Furthermore, results show that the cubical cavity receiver, using oil/Al2O3 nanofluid, is the most efficient choice for application as the investigated solar ORC’s heat source.
Highlights
The importance of renewable energy increases as the world’s energy demand increases together with increasing environmental pollution and reduction of fossil fuel resources
The aim of this study is to consider the effects of turbine inlet temperature (TIT) of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) working fluid, different shapes of the cavity receiver and different nanofluids as the solar working fluid of the ideal solar ORC system
The calculated results can be compared with the results reported in Ref. [43], where the effect of alumina/oil nanofluid, with different size and volume fractions, was investigated as solar working fluid for a solar ORC
Summary
The importance of renewable energy increases as the world’s energy demand increases together with increasing environmental pollution and reduction of fossil fuel resources. Alternative and renewable energy resources should, be investigated. Solar energy is regarded as a favorable and clean renewable energy resource. The sun’s surface temperature is estimated as 5800 K. Solar collectors can be considered as an efficient way to absorb solar energy. A solar collector, such as a dish collector, can be considered as a heat exchanger for converting solar irradiance to thermal power. The sun’s rays can be absorbed very efficiently using concentrating solar collectors
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