Study of Concentrated Solar Power Collectors with Organic Rankine Cycle and Magnetized Nanofluids 

Abstract

The performance of “magnetized nanofluids in a Parabolic Trough Concentrating Solar Collector (CSP)-integrated Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems are studied. The characteristics of magnetized nanofluids AI2O3, CuO, Fe3O4 and SiO2 as heat transport fluid circulating in integrated Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) with ORC and TES under different solar radiations, angles of incidence and different nanofluid concentrations have been presented. An environmentally refrigerant quaternary was used in the ORC loop to enhance the ORC efficiency composed of R1234ze, R245fa, R125, R236fa was used. The results showed that the power absorbed and collected by the CSP collector and thermal energy stored is enhanced with the increase of solar radiation. It was also observed that the CSP hybrid system efficiency has been enhanced mainly by the increase of solar radiations, higher magnetized nanofluid concentrations and the magnetic fields over the thermal oil as base fluid. Also, the study concluded that the nanofluid CuO outperformed the other nanofluids-Al2O3, Fe3O4 and SiO2-at similar conditions. Finally, it was found that the model’s prediction compared fairly with data reported in the literature; however, some discrepancies existed between the model’s prediction and the experimental data”.