Exergetic, enviroeconomic and exergoeconomic (3E) assessment of a stationary parabolic trough solar collector with thermal storage

Eloiny Guimarães Barbosa, Marcos Eduardo Viana de Araujo, Yuanhui Zhang, Marcio Arêdes Martins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A solar heating system operating in thermosyphon regime was experimentally evaluated in this study. The system consisted of a stationary parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) with thermal storage. The effect of three collector inclination angles (0°, +5°, and +10°) and two thermal fluids (water and thermal oil, denoted as WPTC and OPTC) were evaluated on the exergetic, enviroeconomic, and exergoeconomic (3E) performance of PTC. The average exergetic efficiencies for the evaluated cases were 10.84, 11.75, 12.97, and 19.73% for WPTC+10°, WPTC+5°, WPTC, and OPTC, respectively. It was observed that about 50% of the input exergy is lost in all cases evaluated, indicating that some improvements could be incorporated to recover part of this loss. WPTC had the lowest average destroyed exergy among the inclinations (35%). For the case using thermal oil, the average exergy destroyed was 28%. OPTC showed the best results in exergetic terms. OPTC also presented the highest values of the exergoeconomic parameter among all the evaluated cases, and WPTC presented the highest values among the evaluated inclinations. The energy and carbon payback times obtained were 0.848 and 0.569 for the WPTC and 0.923 and 0.608 for the OPTC, respectively.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)487-496
Number of pages10
JournalSolar Energy
Volume255
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2023

Keywords

  • Environmental impact
  • Exergy destruction
  • Non-tracking PTC
  • Sustainability analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • General Materials Science

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