Analysis of a Solar Thermal Installation for Medium Temperature Industrial Applications
Abstract
The analysis and optimisation of a medium temperature solar thermal installation for bitumen storage is presented in this article. Coupled with a gas boiler, a solar thermal installation was designed to provide heat to an onsite building, a bitumen tank and two bitumen emulsions tanks The behaviour and performance of this medium–temperature solar system for industrial process have been investigated based on measurements and simulations for subsequent optimisation of the process. A number of anomalies of the system have been identified, corrected and the impact on its performance evaluated. Results show that, on an annual basis, solar energy is mainly delivered to the water storage tanks. Simulations show that there is room for improvement and that the solar production could be roughly doubled if the system operates as designed. The life cycle impact assessment of the solar installation showed that the infrastructure impacts predominate over the entire life cycle. Environmental return on investment periods were found quite interesting in the case of an optimised solar bitumen storage system.
Keywords
Industrial application, Solar thermal collectors, Thermal storage, Bitumen, Simulation, Measurements, Lca