Effect of the phase change material in a solar receiver on thermal performance of parabolic dish collector

Abstract

In this work, the use of phase change material in the circular tank solar receiver is proposed for a 16 m2 Scheffler parabolic dish solar concentrator to improve the heat transfer in the receiver. Magnesium chloride hexahydrate with melting temperature of 117 ° C is selected as the phase change material in the annular space of the receiver with rectangular fins inside the phase change material. Ex-perimental work is carried out to analyze heat transfer from the receiver to heat transfer fluid with and without phase change material in the inner periphery. En-ergy and exergy efficiency are determined from the measurements of solar radia-tion intensity, receiver temperature, surroundings temperature, heat transfer fluid inlet and outlet temperatures, storage tank temperature, and wind speed. The ex-periments were conducted in SRM University, Chennai, India (latitude: 13° 5' N, longitude: 80°16' E) in April 2014. Use of phase change material in receiver pe-riphery increased energy efficiency by 5.62%, exergy efficiency by 12.8% and decreased time to reach the boiling point of water by 20% when compared with the receiver without phase change material.