Development of a Thermal Storage System for Solar PV Based Injera Baking Application
Abstract
This study aims to address energy and energy-related issues in urban and rural communities, as well as institutions that still use biomass for Injera baking, in Ethiopia, by developing an efficient and suitable thermal storage that could serve as a base model for the development of solar PV-based injera baking systems. To achieve this, a three-dimensional model of three storage concepts, each using a solar salt mixture of 60% NaNO3 - 40% KNO3, was developed and compared using COMSOL Multiphysics software to investigate their performance during charging and discharging. The first two concepts comprise phase change material (PCM) filled aluminum cylinders with air or oil as heat transfer fluid. The third concept contains packed PCM in between cylindrical fins, which act as both a containing and conducting wall. The temperature, the percentage of PCM that melted, and the energy stored while charging and discharging were all documented. The performance of the packed PCM (conduction-based) system is 58% higher than that of the oil-based system and 62% higher than that of the air-based system. The result obtained from this simulation will be used to develop a prototype of a PV-based injera baking system. The numerical investigation's results were consistent with the findings of experiments documented in previous literature.
Keywords
Injera, Charging and discharging, Pv, Pcm