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SOLAR THERMAL SYSTEMS

INTRODUCTION

1. "Drying is an excellent way to preserve food and solar food dryers are an appropriate
food preservation technology for a sustainable world." Actually, solar food drying is one
of the oldest agricultural techniques related to food preservation,
2. Drying of crops can change this trend and is useful in most areas of the world, especially
those without a high humidity during the harvesting season. If drying of produce were
widely implemented, significant savings to farmers would be achieved. These savings
could help strengthen the economic situation of numerous developing governments as
well as change the nutritional condition in these same countries. Unfortunately many of
the areas that could benefit from solar drying technology lack adequate information
related to how to employ this technology and which technology to use under specific
conditions. Many of the latest developments in solar drying technology, as well as
significant achievements through applying this body of knowledge are not available in
libraries or the Universit ies of developing countries. However, modern science has
provided a new resource that helps bridge this information void. The World Wide Web,
commonly know as the INTERNET can provide the solution to rapidly spreading new
information and applications of known information into areas of greatest need.
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Physical principles of the conversion of solar radiation into heat:

1. Green houses are useful for growing and propagating plants because they both allow
sunlight to enter and prevent heat from escaping.
2. The transparent covering of the greenhouse allows visible light to enter unhindered,
where it warms the interior as it is absorbed by the material within. The transparent
covering also prevents the heat from leaving by reflecting the energy back into the
interior and preventing outside winds from carrying it away.
3. Like the greenhouse covering, our atmosphere also serves to retain heat at the surface of
the earth. Much of the sun's energy reaches earth as visible light. Of the visible light that
enters the atmosphere, about 30% is reflected back out into space by clouds, snow and
ice-covered land, sea surfaces, and atmospheric dust. The rest is absorbed by the liquids,
solids, and gases that constitute our planet.
4. The energy absorbed is eventually reemitted, but not as visible light (only very hot
objects such as the sun can emit visible light). Instead, it's emitted as longer-wavelength
light called infrared radiation. This is also called "heat" radiation, because although we
cannot see in infrared, we can feel its presence as heat. This is what you feel when you
put your hand near the surface of a hot skillet.
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5. Certain gases in our atmosphere (known as "trace" gases because they make up only a
tiny fraction of the atmosphere) can absorb this outgoing infrared radiation, in effect
trapping the heat energy. This trapped heat energy makes the earth warmer than it would
be without these trace gases.
6. The ability of certain trace gases to be relatively transparent to incoming visible light
from the sun yet opaque to the energy radiated from earth is one of the best-understood
processes in atmospheric science. This phenomenon has been called the "greenhouse
effect" because the trace gases trap heat similar to the way that a greenhouse's transparent
covering traps heat. Without our atmospheric greenhouse effect, earth's surface
temperature would be far below freezing. On the other hand, an increase in atmospheric
trace gases could result in increased trapped heat and rising global temperatures.

Flat plate Collectors:

1. Made of rectangular panels (1.7 to 2.9 Sq.m)

2. Simple to construct and erect.
3. Can collect and absorb both direct and diffuse radiations
4. Flat plate solar collectors classified into two types based on the type of heat transfer fluid
1. Liquid heating collectors are used for heating water and nonfreezing aqueous
solutions ( rarely Non aqueous solutions)
2. Air or gas heating collectors are employed as solar air heaters.

Basic Components of Flat plate collectors:

1. A transparent cover which may be one or more sheets of glass or radiation transmitting
plastic film or sheets.
2. Tubes, fins, passages or channels are integrate with the collector absorber plate or
connected to it, which carry the water, air or other fluids.
3. The absorber plate, normally metallic or with a black surface although a wide variety of
other materials can be used with air heaters.
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4. Insulation, Which should be provided at the back and sides to minimize the heat losses.
(fiber glass or styro-foam)
5. The casing or container which enclose the other components and protects them from the
weather.

Collectors

Solar Thermal Systems

Typical liquid collector:
Cushion
Solar radiation Supports
seats for
Transparent glass
Cover

Collector

Fl at pl ate & tube type collector Absorber

Insulation
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Advantages of Flat plate collector:

1. Of using both beam and diffuse solar radiations

2. They do not require orientation towards the sun
3. They require little maintenance.
4. Mechanically simpler than the concentrating reflectors, absorbing surfaces and orientation
devices of focusing collectors

Drawbacks of using water as fluid:

1. Freezing in the collector tubes in the cold climates during cold nights. (ethyline glycol is
added to prevent)
2. Corrosion of the metal tubes

Air collector or solar air heaters

Applications:

1. Heating buildings
2. Drying agricultural produce and lumber.
3. Heating green houses
4. Air conditioning (refrigeration process)
5. Heat sources for a heat engine

Concentrating Collector:

1. Focusing Collector is a device to collect solar energy with high intensity of solar
radiation on the energy absorbing surface. Optical system in the form of reflectors or
refractors are used.
2. A focusing collector is a special form of flat plate collector modified by introducing a
reflecting surface between the solar radiators and absorber.
3. Radiation increases from low value of 1.5-2 to high values of the order of 10,000.
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4. Radiation falling on a relatively large area, is focused on to a receiver (or absorber) of

considerably smaller area.
5. Fluid can be heated to temperature of 5000C or more.

Types of Concentrating Collectors:

1. Depending on concentrating, collectors may classified as

1. Line focusing and
2. Point focusing

As per the no. of concentrating collector geometries, the main types of concentrating collector
are

1. Parabolic through collector

2. Mirror strip reflector
3. Fresnel lens collector
4. Flat plate collector with adjustable mirrors
5. Compound parabolic concentrator (C.P.C)
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Line focusing collectors (Parabolic through reflector)

1. Solar radiation coming from the particular direction is colleted over the area of the
reflecting surface and is concentrated at the focus of the parabola, if the reflector is in the
form of a through with parabolic cross-section, the solar radiation is focused along a line.
2. Mostly cylindrical parabolic concentrators are used, in which absorber is placed along
focus axis.
Parabolic through reflectors have been made of highly polished aluminum, of silvered glass or of
a thin film of aluminized plastic on firm base

Mirror strip Reflector:

1. Slightly curved mirror strips are mounted on a flat base.

2. The angles of the individual mirrors are such that they reflect solar radiation from a
specific direction on to the same focal line.
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3. Angles of the mirrors must be adjusted to allow for changes in the sun’s elevation, while
the focal line remains in a fixed position.

Pointed Focusing collector (Paraboloidal type)

1. Absorber located at the focus is a cavity made of zirconium-copper alloy with black
chrome selective coating.
2. The heat transport fluid flows into and out of the absorber cavity through pipe bonded to
the interior.

Advantages and Disadvantages of concentrating collectors over flat Plate type collectors:

Advantages:

1. Reflecting surfaces require less material and are structurally simpler than flat plate
collectors. (less cost )
2. The absorber area of a concentrating system is smaller than that of a flat plate system for
same solar energy collection.
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3. Loss of energy after collecting is less than FPC, because of large absorber area in FPC,
working fluid can attain higher temperature.
4. Owing to the small area of absorber per unit of solar energy collecting area, selective
surface treatment and/or vacuum insulation to reduce heat losses and improve collector
efficiency are economically feasible.
5. Can be used for electricity power generation.
6. Heat storage costs are less
7. Little or no anti freeze is required to protect the absorber.
8. It is possible to get higher efficiencies.

Disadvantages:

1. Only beam component is collected.

2. Costly oriented systems
3. Additional requirements of maintenance is required.
4. Non uniform flux on the absorber.
5. Additional optical losses such as reflectance loss and the intercept loss, so they introduce
additional factors in energy balances.
6. High Initial cost.

Solar furnace cookers:

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Solar Thermal Systems

Solar cooking:
Basically there are three designs of solar cooker
1. Flat plate box type
2. Multi reflector type solar oven and
3. Parabolic disc concentrator type solar cooker

Multi reflector type

Flat plate box type
concentrator type

Solar Thermal Systems

Box type Cooker:

Sun rays

Rubber Packing
Glass cover

Insulation Cooking Utensils metal tray

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Solar Cooker:

1. The solar rays penetrate through the glass covers and absorbed by a blackened metal tray
kept inside the solar box.
2. The solar radiation entering the box are of short wave length.
3. The higher wave length radiation is not able to pass through the glass cover i.e reradiation
from absorber plate to outside the box is minimized to gain minimize the heat loss.
4. Rubber strips are used to reduce the loss.
5. Insulation material like glass wool, paddy husk, saw dust are used.
6. A solar box cooks because the interior of the box is heated by the energy of the sun.
7. Sunlight, both direct and reflected, enters the solar box through the glass or plastic top. It
turns to heat energy when it is absorbed by the dark absorber plate and cooking pots. This
heat input causes the temperature inside of the solar box cooker to rise until the heat lo ss
of the cooker is equal to the solar heat gain.
8. Temperatures sufficient for cooking food and pasteurizing water are easily achieved.
Merits of Solar cooker:

1. No attention is needed during cooking

2. No fuel is required.
3. Negligible maintenance cost
4. No pollution
5. Vitamins of the food are not destroyed
6. No problem of charring of food and no over flowing
Limitations:

1. One has to cook according to the sun shine, menu has to be preplanned.
2. One cannot cook at short notice and food cannot be cooked in the night or during cloudy
days.
3. It takes comparatively more time.
4. Chapaties are not cooked because high temperature is required and also needs
manipulation at the time of baking