Energy Investigation in Serpentine Heat Exchanger Using Aluminum Oxide Nanofluid on Solar Photovoltaic/Thermal System

A solar photovoltaic thermal system (SPV/T) is a hybrid technology that produces electrical power and thermal energy simultaneously with better overall performance. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of utilizing a nanofluid as one of the coolants in the performance of an SPV/T system. The working fluids considered in this evaluation of the system are pure water and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles of phi = 0.1 % and 0.2 % concentration in (w/v)%, mixed in milli-Q water as the base fluid. The study focuses on the heat transfer characteristics of working fluids through a serpentine flow copper tube heat exchanger in comparison with water. This experimental setup consists of an SPV/T system with 100Wcapacity and a collector area of 0.914622 m(2). For the flow supplied by the pump to the SPV/T system for the nanofluids with f = 0.1 % and 0.2 % and water at mass flow rates of 0.015, 0.0133, and 0.0117 kg/s, the electrical (PV) efficiency for water was between 10.82 % and 11.06 %-for Al2O3 0.1 %, 12.19 %-13.13 %, and for Al2O3 0.2 %, 12.47 %-13.41 %. The thermal efficiency for water was between 53.61 % and 54.07 %; for Al2O3 0.1 %, it was 69.45 %-69.67 %, and for Al2O3 0.2 %, it was 70.76 %-71.02 %, respectively.