Experimental investigation on flat plate solar air heater integrated with sensible heat storage using thermic fluid

Abstract

Energy is one of the key factors in deciding the development of human civilization. In the modern world, almost all the major sectors are dependent on some form of energy for their sustainable operation. Especially, most of the applications are observed to consume electrical and thermal nergy, predominantly, for their operation. It is noted that the energy spent on the production of heat accounts for more than 50% of the global final energy consumption. In which, 40-50% of heat energy is consumed by low and medium temperature thermal applications. Indeed, most of these thermal energy demands are supplied with the help of conventional fossil fuels, which are already being over-utilized and also leading to environmental hazards. Hence, alternative energy resources that is an alternative to fossil fuel should be preferred. These alternatives are intended to address concerns about fossil fuels, such as its high carbon dioxide emissions, an important factor in global warming. Marine energy, hydroelectric, wind, geothermal and solar power are some of the alternative sources of energy. Among the various renewable energy technologies, Solar thermal could be a principle choice, which meets the above said characteristics effectively. Flat plate solar air heaters (FP-SAH) are the primary methods for harvesting solar thermal energy. Various applications, including agricultural crop driers, building space heating, industrial process heating and so on can be operated with the help of FP-SAH. Besides, a conventional FP-SAH has many benefits: simple in design, easy to maintain and cheaper in operation and so on. However, the efficiency of conventional solar air heater is low compared to liquid solar collectors and their output is sensitive to the fluctuations in solar irradiation. newline