The influence of integrated Micro-ZnO and Nano-CuO particles/paraffin wax as a thermal booster on the performance of heat pipe evacuated solar tube collector

Abstract

The research aims to investigate the possibility of enhancing the functionality of a heat pipe evacuated tube collector (HPETC) with a new method of, one or both an evacuated tube (ET) and two separate storage tanks, incorporating nano or micro-enhanced phase change materials as a thermal energy storage system (TESS). In the proposed systems, the (ET) was filled with enhanced medical paraffin wax, while the two separated tanks were filled with enhanced paraffin wax (grade-A). These two types of paraffin wax were enhanced with 5wt% CuO nanoparticle (NP-CuO) or ZnO microparticles (MP-ZnO). In this study, Six tests were carried out to do the investigation. Three tests were done to investigate the effect of the integration of enhanced-PCM in the only (ET) of HPETC. While the other three tests performed to investigate the effect of enhanced-PCM integrated into both (ET) of HPETC and two additional storage tanks. The main advantage of this new system is that it improved solar water heater efficiency by minimizing hot water temperature fluctuations. Thereby, the efficiently thermal isolation of the (ET) and storage tanks and the efficient energy accumulation in PCM which enables the system to supply hot water even when there is no solar radiation at night or in overcast weather. The results showed that the integration of enhanced-paraffin wax with NP-CuO and MP-ZnO in both the (ET) and the separated tanks gives an efficiency improvement range of (36.8-50%) and (25.43-41.4%) respectively, While the integration of enhanced-paraffin wax with NP-CuO and MP-ZnO in the only (ET) led to an increase in the efficiency with a range of (33.8-45.7%) and (23.8-26.7%) respectively, compared with a typical reference collector without PCM. Also, the NP-CuO enhanced paraffin wax integrated with the ET gave a better improvement in the evaporation & condensation coefficients in the evaporator and condenser sections where their values were (401 and 2366.4 W/m2·°C) respectively at a flow rate of 1L/h.