Development of Solar PVT Panels Appropriate for Co-supply of Electricity Grids and District Heating Systems Using Laser-Treated Inserts and Nanofluids

  • Arabkoohsar, Ahmad (PI)
  • Mahian, Omid (Project Participant)
  • Xie, Gongnan (Project Participant)
  • Wei, Jinjia (Project Participant)
  • Christensen, Mette Dember (Project Coordinator)

Project Details

Description

Today, district heating systems work based on the supply and return temperature ranges of 70-80 and 35-45 oC, respectively. This will, however, change in the next generation of district heating systems and these temperature ranges will be extremely lower there, i.e. 50-60 and 25-35 oC, respectively. A solar PVT panel is an efficient device harvesting solar irradiation to cogenerate heat and electricity. The main objective of using PVT panels is a better electricity generation efficiency from the panels, though an optimal utilization of the heat generation capacity of such panels has been a focus recently as well. Today’s most efficient PVT panels can cogenerate heat and electricity at approximately 50% and 20% efficiencies, respectively. The highest temperature output of collectors for this level of efficiency is 40 oC while for every higher 1 oC temperature, the panel will lose 0.4-0.5% electrical efficiency.
This project is on an innovative PVT panel in which, via using nanofluids and various types of inserts including inserts with laser-treated surfaces, the performance of the panel is improved and the heat output increases in terms of both the amount of and temperature. A higher yet uniform outlet temperature, around 60 oC, will make such panels very much interesting for being used in district heating systems. This, of course, must be done without negatively affecting the electrical efficiency of the panels to keep the panels interesting technically. In this way, not only the panels work at higher efficiency and district heating may benefit from this renewable based new component in its supply chain, but also a concrete integration between the heat and electricity sectors is also made, which is a MUST for the future smart energy systems. Based on our best knowledge, there is no study in the literature on the use of inserts by laser-treated surfaces combined by novel nanofluids for this aim. Laser treated surfaces can enhance the rate of heat transfer significantly by increasing the contact surface area between working fluid and inserts. Moreover, using novel nanofluids such as composite based nanofluids can enhance the outlet temperature of the PVT system which makes it more suitable for district heating supply. Some studies have been done on the application of nanofluids in cooling of PVT systems, however, in the present project, we will use novel nanofluids that are made from composite nanoparticles such as the combination of graphene nanoparticles with plasmonic nanoparticles such as silver.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date01/01/202131/12/2022

Collaborative partners

  • Northwestern Polytechnical University Xian
  • Xi'an Jiaotong University

Funding

  • Uddannelses- og forskningsministeriet: DKK288,000.00

Keywords

  • district heating systems
  • PVT
  • electricity generation
  • smart energy systems
  • nanofluids

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