2018 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC)

Effect of Zn-H2O Nanofluid Back-Flow Channels

on the Efficiency and Electrical Power Output of a
Solar PV Panel Used in Standalone PV System
M Saad Bin Arif 1,3, Shahrine M. Ayob*,1, S M Yahya2, Uvais Mustafa3, Muhammad Ado1, Zeeshan A Khan3
1
Power Engineering Department, School of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Z. H. College of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, India
3
Department of Electrical Engineering, Z. H. College of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, India
*Corresponding author: shahrin@fke.utm.my

Abstract— In this paper a solar photovoltaic based power Io Output current of the PV module
generation system with improved panel efficiency using back flow Vo Output voltage of PV module
channel is proposed. Main contribution of this work is to improve Rs Series resistance of PV module
the electrical efficiency of a standalone PV system by reducing
the panel temperature using Zinc-water (Zn-H2O) nanofluid as a VIN Input voltage
back channel fluid. Forcing nanofluid to flow through the tubes Vout Output voltage
attached at the back of the panel reduces panel temperature D Duty ratio
considerably results in efficiency improvement of the panel. To A Area of the PV panel
analyze the performance of the proposed Zn-H2O nanofluid flow
channel based PV Panel used in PV systems, MATLAB Simulink
model is developed and simulation under varying conditions of II. INTRODUCTION
temperature and irradiance for Sub-tropical region (27.8974° N,
78.0880° E) has been carried out. Results obtained with Zn-H2O The oil crisis of 1970s had enforced the scientists looking
nanofluid flow channel are compared with the system with air for some alternate sources of energy. The first and foremost
flow and without air flow channel PV panels. Proposed system solution was seen to be Solar Energy as the hourly solar flux
using nanofluid shows efficiency improvement of 0.4-0.6% and 1- incident on earth’s surface is greater than all the human energy
1.1% to that with air flow channel and without air flow channel consumption of whole year [1]. This led to the exploring and
respectively. It is envisage that the proposed Panel system can be advancement in the Solar PV [2-6]. Solar PV system has a
very useful for design and implementation of an efficient major performance concern due to its low panel efficiency. The
standalone solar PV system in sub-tropical region. efficiency of as high as 40.8 % was achieved in laboratory
environment as far as commercial application is concerned it
Keywords— nanofluids, photovoltaic (PV); Zinc-water was never above 10-15% [7]. To eradicate this problem, PV/T
nanofluid (Zn-H2O); electrical efficiency, overall efficiency co-generation systems were introduced, where the power was
generated by the thermal as well as PV effect. For such system
I. NOMENCLATURE
the overall system efficiency can be improves to 60-80% [8].
PV Photovoltaic In the co-generation a fluid is passed at the back of the panel
AC Alternating Current through the tubes to reduce the temperature of the panel by
DC Direct Current absorbing heat and then this fluid is passed on to the thermal
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracker plant for generation of electricity.
Vmp Voltage at Maximum Power With the increased thermal efficiency of the customised
Imp Current at Maximum Power nano-fluids, trend has set in to use nano-fluid as a medium to
Irr Module Reverse Saturation Current absorb thermal energy at the back of the panel and lower the
Iscr PV module short-circuit current temperature of the panel. This improves the electrical
q Electron charge efficiency of the panel [9]. This heated nano-fluid can be
Voc Open circuit voltage further used for power generation through thermal power plant.
k Boltzmann constant This method of co-generation of power has 60-80% of overall
efficiency. Most of the analysis available in the literature based
Ns Number of cells connected in series
on PV/T system efficiency and performance analysis is mainly
Np Number of cells connected in parallel focuses on the thermal efficiency improvement of the system.
TrK Reference temperature
A Ideality factor The very first work on solar-thermal system was done by
Id PV module saturation current Kert and Russell [10]. Yousefi et. al [11-12] used the water
Al2O3-water based nano-fluid and found and found
TaK Module operating temperature in Kelvin
considerable increment in overall efficiency. Tiwari et. al [13]
Eg Band gap for silicon = 1.1 eV studied the effect of nano-fluid based absorbing medium for
Ipv Light generated current of a PV module solar flat plate collector and found the astonishing increment of
Ki Short-circuit current temperature coefficient 31.64% in efficiency. Tyagi et. al [14] then used Direct
S PV module illumination (W/m2) Absorption solar collector in place of flat plate collector along

978-1-5386-5686-0/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 493

 2018 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC)

with nano-fluid as heat absorber and found efficiency to be

10% more than flat plate collector. Some other methods of
efficiency improvement include Forced Air Flow as done by PV

LOAD
MPPT
Tonui [15] or air flow through duct as done by Tiwari [16] Panel DC-DC DC-AC
were also incorporated but were found to yield unsatisfactory
results.
Battery
There is plenty of analysis available on the overall
efficiency increment of solar PV-thermal system due to thermal
efficiency improvement of the system but very few work has Fig. 1. Block diagram of solar panel
been reported focusing the contribution of PV panel electrical
output in overall system efficiency improvement. Although the Model of PV module has been developed in Simulink
major increment by introducing the nano-fluid is in the thermal environment. The equivalent circuit of PV cell used to develop
efficiency but there is also a noticeable increment in electrical PV panel is shown below-
efficiency too, which is due to reduction in temperature of the
panel. The focus of this paper is to quantify the improvement in
the electrical efficiency of the panel and to present a
comparative study on the efficiency of different systems with
and without fluid flow channels.
In this work, PV panel with Nano fluid based back flow
channels used for a standalone solar PV system is designed and
modelled for Indian condition. Proposed panel system is
modelled using MATLAB/Simulink software. Developed Fig. 2. Solar cell equivalent circuit
panel modeled can further be integrated with MPPT to get
By series and parallel combination of photovoltaic cells a
controlled DC output which can be fed to the dc load/battery
Photovoltaic module can be designed. The photovoltaic module
storage or ac load after get converted into an ac using inverter.
can be mathematically modeled by following equations (1)-(4)
The performance analysis of the proposed panel configuration
[20].
for PV system has been carried out under varying condition of
temperature and irradiance for sub-tropical region (27.8974° N, A. Expression for Module Reverse saturation current
78.0880° E). Zn-H2O Nano-fluid is taken as channel fluid due
to its good thermal conductivity. Results obtained are Irr = ISCR / [e(q.Voc/K.Ns.A.Trk)-1] (1)
compared with the panel system having air flow channel and
without having air flow channels. Organization of the paper is B. Expression for PV module saturation current
such that the panel modeling starting from modeling of a PV
cell incorporating various parameters is discussed in section II.
Section III presents the performance analysis of the designed Id= Irr*(TaK/TrK)3*e[(Eg*q/K*A)*{1/TrK-1/TaK}] (2)
system along with comparative study with other system under
varying condition of temperature and irradiance. Results and C. Expression for Light generated current of PV module
discussion is presented in section IV followed with conclusion.
Ipv=[Iscr+(Ki*(TaK-TrK))]*S/1000 (3)
III. MODELLING AND DESIGN
Main components of a standalone solar PV system are solar D. Expression for Output current of the PV module
panels, DC-DC converter, MPPT, charge controller, battery for
storage, inverter and load to be fed. Fig. 1 shown block Io=Np*Ipv-Np*Id*{e[(q/Ns*A*K*Tak)*(V0+I0*Rs)] -1} (4)
diagram representation of a solar PV system. Efficiency
improvement in the system is mainly depends on the panel A mathematical model is developed by simulating above
efficiency and the efficiency of the converters/Inverters used in equations using Simulink blocks available in the MATLAB
it. In past decade, lots of work has been reporter regarding the library. The electrical characteristics chosen for the PV module
improvement of the power inverter efficiency [17-19]. This are given in the following table.
work focuses on the panel efficiency improvement of the
considered system. In this system, a flat plat PV panel with TABLE I. THE ELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONS ARE UNDER TEST CONDITIONS
attached tubes at the back for air flow or nano-fluid flow is OF IRRADIANCE OF 1 K W/M2 AND OPERATING TEMPERATURE OF 25OC
employed. Modeling of the proposed PV panel is discussed in
detail although the modeling of different components of the S.No. Attribute Value
PV-system is also discussed in brief. 1. Voc(Open circuit voltage) 21.8 V
2. Isc(Short circuit current) 3.11 A
3. VMP(Voltage at MPP) 17.44 V
4. IMP(Current at MPP) 2.86 A
5. PMP(Power at MPP) 50 W

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 2018 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC)

6. No. of cells in series 36 power) and dV (change in voltage). If dP and dV is positive,

7. No. of cells in parallel
As the efficiency of a solar cell is very low , some methods
to keep the balance between source and load is required. For
this purpose MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker) is
employed. The MPPT essentially contains a DC-DC converter
whose duty cycle is manipulated using some algorithm. In this
system, a dc-dc boost converter can be employed and its duty
cycle is varied by perturb and observe algorithm.
A boost converter steps up the level of the input dc voltage.
The main components of boost converter include an inductor, a
high frequency switch and a diode. The control mechanism is
based on the manipulation of duty cycle of the switch which
causes change in voltage. The relationship between input
voltage and duty cycle is given by (5).
then the algorithm increases the voltage value towards the
01
Maximum Power Point until dP and dV is negative, then it
jumps back to the previous value of voltage. This iteration goes
on until the algorithm finally reaches the Maximum Power
Point.
IV. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Mathematical model of the proposed nano-fluid channel
based PV panel developed above is used to obtain and analyze
the electrical efficiency at different conditions. Analysis is
carried out for three different cases i.e; for panel without air
channel, with force air flow channel as well as with nano-fluid
flow channel, the corresponding drop in the temperature of the
panel in different cases is noted and then utilized for their
efficiency calculations. The formula used to obtain electrical
efficiency is given by (6).

Vout = Vin /(1-D) (5) η = (Vmp . Imp)/S.a (6)

The boost converter model consist of a 0.45 ohm resistor, 1 The area of the panel is taken as 0.38 m2. At 1000 wb/m2
mH inductor and a 2 mF capacitor can be used. The boost and 25 0C temperature the efficiency is 13.15%. The PV panel
converter is utilized to step up the voltage to the required value. was combined with an air channel with forced air flow, using a
The gating signal to the boost converter is generated by fan, to lower the temperature of back surface of panel and then
comparing the signal generated by the MPPT algorithm to a output power and efficiency was analyzed.
repeating sequence operating at a high frequency of 10 kHz Zn-H2O nano fluid is used at optimum concentration ratio
which is also the switching frequency of the boost converter. of 0.3% and a flow rate of 2L/min through the back channels.
Perturb and observe MPPT algorithm can be employed for The temperature dropped upto 18 oC [21]. P-V curves depicting
the design. This is a very common algorithm. The operating the performance of the three considered cases at different
voltage is sampled and the algorithm changes the operating isolation values are shown from Fig.3 to Fig. 5.
voltage in the required direction and samples dP (change in
30 30
o 2 o 2
For 46.0 C & 569 w/m For 37.9 C & 569 w/m
25 o 2 25 o 2
For 47.8 C & 565 w/m For 41.8 C & 565 w/m
o 2 o 2
For 49.4 C & 542 w/m For 43.1 C & 542 w/m
Power (W)

20 o 2 20 o 2
Power (W)

For 47.9 C & 502 w/m For 33.8 C & 501 w/m

15 15

10 10

5 5

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Voltage (V) Voltage (V)
Fig. 3. P-V curve for the panel without air channel Fig. 4. P-V curve with forced air flow

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 2018 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC)

30
o 2
For 28.0 C & 569 w/m
25 For 29.8 oC & 565 w/m2
For 31.4 oC & 542 w/m2
20 o
For 29.9 C & 501 w/m
2

Power (W)
15

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Voltage (V)
Fig. 5. P-V curve of the panel with nanofluid back flow channel

30 30
Without channel at 569w/m2 Without channel at 565w/m2
2
25 With Air flow channel at 569w/m With Air flow channel at 565w/m2
25
Nano-fluid channel at 569w/m2 Nano-fluid channel at 565w/m2
20 20
Power (W)

15
Power (W) 15

10 10

5
5

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Voltage (V)
Voltage (V)
(a) (b)
30 30
Without channel at 542w/m2 Without channel at 501w/m2
2
25 With Air flow channel at 542w/m 25 With Air flow channel at 501w/m2
Nano-fluid channel at 542w/m2 Nano-fluid channel at 501w/m2
20 20
Power (W)

Power (W)

15 15

10 10

5 5

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Voltage (V) Voltage (V)
(c) (d)

Fig. 6. P-V curve of the panel at different Isolation depicting improvement in electrical power output.

In order to compare the performance of the considered V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

systems P-V curves, at particular isolation level, for panels
with air flow channel, with nano-fluid flow channel and
without channel panel are obtained and are shown in Fig. 6.
Observation shows that the panel with nanofluid has highest
power out then obtained by the other two systems.
From the above analysis it is observed that using forced air
flow channel based PV panel results in decreased in the
temperature of the panel by 4 oC to 9 oC depending upon
insolation and the efficiency increases by 0.4-0.6% whereas by
using Zn.H2O nanofluid flow instead of air flow in the channel
the panel temperature drops upto 18 oC and the efficiency

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 2018 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC)

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