Industrial Oven Powered with a Pair of Scheffler Solar Reflectors
Abstract
Direct utilization of solar energy is the most promising option to deal with climate change and fossil fuel depletion. Innovating new technologies and exploring new applications for existing renewable technologies is the key to resolve this problem. Scheffler solar concentrators based steam generation systems are successfully deployed for community cooking applications in India. There is need to look beyond cooking and develop different commercial and industrial applications using Scheffler solar concentrator as a primary heat source. An Industrial Oven is developed by authors for catering mid temperature applications in Industries, which utilizes two Scheffler solar reflectors of 16 m2 as a prime source, focusing concentrated solar radiation inside an oven. This innovation delivers 9 kWth, which is good enough heat for many industrial applications, in 100°c to 200°c range, replacing electricity or fossil fuels like LPG or LDO. The trials show excellent technical and financial viability of the new design of industrial oven. Depending on fuel to be replaced, payback period varies from 2 to 6 years. Paper discusses development process of the new oven and financial analysis for the same.