Low Concentrating Solar Collectors for Economical Generation of Low-Medium Temperature Industrial Process Heat
Abstract
A large fraction of the total energy consumption in the industrial sector (approximately 60%) is for direct heat/thermal applications known as Industrial Process Heat (IPH). About half of that energy is used to generate IPH, below the temperature of 300 0C. To supply this heat energy alternatively, various solar thermal technologies are being utilized. For generating heat at temp below 120 0C flat plats and evacuated tube collectors are used and for temperature above 150 0C, high concentrating technologies such as PTC, dish concentrators are used. Flat plats solar water heaters are economical and efficient in generating heat at lower temperatures. But to generate heat at temperature above 150 0C, more expensive and high concentrating solar collectors are being used. Alternative, less concentrating solar collector with zero or minimum solar tracking, can be used to generate the low-medium temperature industrial process heat. Various, more efficient low concentrating collectors are being developed and tested by researcher which can be used for such applications. These kinds of collector provide more economical solution than high concentrating collectors. In this paper we will look at some of the recently developed low concentrating solar collectors and how they can be utilized to produce low-medium temperature industrial process heat in more economical way compare to high concentrating solar collectors.
Keywords
Industrial process heat (iph), Solar concentrators, Compound parabolic collector