Design and fabrication of solar thermal energy storage system

Historically man has been dependent of fossil fuels, i.e. coal and petroleum derivatives to mitigate need for energy. The global energy demand has increased since industrial revolution which lead to transitional phase of fossil fuels, because fossil fuels are finite in quantity. It has been widely r

Project Title

Design and fabrication of solar thermal energy storage system

Project Area of Specialization

Mechanical Engineering

Project Summary

Historically man has been dependent of fossil fuels, i.e. coal and petroleum derivatives to mitigate need for energy. The global energy demand has increased since industrial revolution which lead to transitional phase of fossil fuels, because fossil fuels are finite in quantity. It has been widely realized that for sustainable development fossil fuels must be replaced by renewable energy sources. To achieve this goal, man will have to substantially increase the market penetration of all types of renewable energy technologies, and especially of solar technologies. Since last few decades Solar energy is been harnessed by two methods: Photovoltaic Cells and Solar thermal power plants. The difficulty with renewable source like sun is its intermittency we cannot harness sun’s energy when it’s cloudy or night. One of the solutions to this limitation is Solar thermal energy storage (STES) systems.

Thermal energy storage (TES) can be considered into two categories: (i) sensible heat storage (ii) latent heat storage. In sensiable heat storage materials heat is stored via their heat capacities. In latent heat storage system energy is stored by the virtue of phase transition. For latent heat storage Phase change materials are used, when a phase change material (PCM) is heated to it’s transition temperature it is converted to one phase another. For a pure substance this transition occur isothermally and requires input energy which is called latent heat. If the phase transition process is reversible then the absorbed input energy can be recoverd through cooling the phase change material.. The absorbed energy can be ulilized for domestic and indrustial water heating systems. Apart from this, it can be aslo utilized from space heating.

Project Objectives

This project aims to design a solar thermal energy storage (STES) system for low and medium temperature applications. The objectives of project are stated below:

1)Design and fabrication of a suitable STES system with minimal energy losses

2) Selection of suitable phase change material

3)Obtain experimental data

Project Implementation Method

Firstly, Solar thermal energy is collected through evaccuated tubes. Evaccuated tubes are makeup of a glass tubes surrounding an absorber with vacuum. The vacuum that surrounds the absorber greatly                                                                            reduces convection and conduction heat loss, therefore achieving greater energy conversion efficiency. One of benefit of selecting evacuated tube collector is that it covers a wide range of angle of irradiance of solar radiation at a fix tilt angle due to its cylindrical shape.

Then, Solar thermal energy is stored in a phase change material in the form of latent heat. When a PCM is heated to its transition temperature, it changes its phase. Furthermore, any addition energy is input to raise the temperature of material after phase transition, is stored as sensible heat.

Benefits of the Project

There are numerous applications of solar energy where it can be utilized directly by exploiting its thermal properties. Such technologies are comparatively economical to use, have low operational cost and environment friendly. These applications mainly includes solar energy for cooking, space heating/cooling, low temperature industrial fluid heating, heating of water for households/commercial applications.

This project is one it’s kind. There two major application this project, that are space heating and domestic water heating. Pakistan has favourable climate conditions for the applications of solar energy. One option is to opt

solar thermal energy utilization for water heating for domestic usage that can help in energy savings derived from other resources such as natural gas and electricity. But unfortunatly due to lack of public awareness majority of population is using conventional energy sources for water heating, probabily that is why the household sector has been the largest consumer of electricity in Pakistan, accounting for 45.10% of total electricity consumption.

On the other hand, if Solar water heater replaces electric power and natural gas for water heating, it can save 430.95 Euro and 67.81 Euro of energy cost per annum per household, respectively. Similarly, it can save 14.21 MMBtu ofnatural gas and an electric power of 4163.98 kWh annually which in turn reduces the emission of 2206.9 Kg CO2, 2.08 Kg SO2 and 3.75 Kg NOx per year.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Solar energy  has been considered as one the major sources of renewable energy.Earth daily recieves significat amount of solar radiation which is more the global energy needs. But the difficulty with Solar energy is it’s intermittency, solar energy can not be harvested at night or on cloudy days. This problem can be overcome by storing Solar energy physically or chemically

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Manufacturing

Core Technology

Clean Tech

Other Technologies

Clean Tech

Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy

Required Resources

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