Heat recovery of nano-fluid based concentrating Photovoltaic Thermal (CPV/T) Collector with Organic Rankine Cycle

This study proposed a novel configuration of solar concentrating receivers that utilize Nano-fluids for spectral splitting and coupled with Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) for heat recovery. 1-D modelling of a conventional Parabolic Trough Collector was performed for validation and results were in the range of +/- 5% of experimental data. Model was further advanced for 1-D thermal modelling of Concentrating Photovoltaic Thermal (CPV/T) and Nano-fluid Filter based CPV/T (NFCPV/T) Collectors that were coupled with ORC. Highly efficient triple junction InGaP/InGaAs/Ge was selected as PV cells for concentrating solar system while R1233zd was chosen as working fluid for ORC. Optical modelling of water/Ag solution as Nano-fluid was integrated with overall system and performance results of CPV/T and NFCPV/T combined with ORC were compared. Comparative study of electrical (eta(electrical)), thermal (eta(thermal)) and overall (eta(overall)) efficiencies demonstrated that NFCPV/T outperformed CPV/T especially at concentration ratios greater than 7 with values of 1.8%, 3.3% and 5.1% respectively. Parametric study of input variables were conducted to identify those inputs that have most considerable influence on key outputs. DIRECT optimization of system performance (eta(system)) demonstrated that NFCPV/T coupled with ORC has markedly higher eta(system) of about 2.71% compared to CPV/T. These results highlight effectiveness of proposed NFCPV/T configuration.