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Review of materials for solar thermal collectors

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Review of materials for solar thermal collectors
M.A. Alghoul, M.Y. Sulaiman, B.Z. Azmi and M.Abd. Wahab
Physics Department, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

Abstract
Purpose – To cover the main contributions and developments in solar thermal collectors through focusing on materials, heat transfer characteristics
and manufacturing challenges.
Design/methodology/approach – A range of published papers and internet research including research work on various solar thermal collectors (flat
plate, evacuated tubes, and heat pipe tube) were used. Evaluation of solar collectors performance is critiqued to aid solar technologies make the
transition into a specific dominant solar collector. The sources are sorted into sections: finding an academic job, general advice, teaching, research and
publishing, tenure and organizations.
Findings – Provides information about types of solar thermal collectors, indicating what can be added by using evacuated tube collectors instead of
flat plate collectors and what can be added by using heat pipe collectors instead of evacuated tubes.
Research limitations/implications – Focusing only on three types of solar thermal collectors (flat plate, evacuated tubes, and heat pipe tube).
Practical implications – Useful source of information for consultancy and impartial advice for graduate students planning to do research in solar
thermal technologies.
Originality/value – This paper fulfils identified information about materials and heat transfer properties of materials and manufacturing challenges of
these three solar thermal collectors.

Keywords Physical properties of materials, Polymers, Heat transfer, Solar collectors

Paper type Literature review

1. Introduction of covers, type and thickness of glazing (Whillier, 1963), anti-

The most common use of solar collectors is water heating for
domestic needs. This type of solar water heater has been
designed, developed and investigated in detail by Close (1962),
Yellot and Sobotka (1964), Gupta and Garg (1968), Ong
(1974), Nahar (1984), Morrison and Tran (1984), Morrison
and Braun (1985), Vaxman and Sokolov (1986), Nahar and
Gupta (1987), Norton et al. (1987), Nahar (1988), Nahar
(1992), Joudi (1999) and Kalogivou and Dentsoras (1999).
The basic unit in this system is solar collector. Solar energy
can be trapped more efficiently dependent upon the type of
solar collectors used. Each type of solar collector is designed
to absorb the shorter wavelengths of light which are received
from the sun (0.3-2 mm in length) but prevent heat
wavelengths (2-10 mm in length) from escaping by utilizing
the greenhouse effect then delivers radiant energy either
directly or indirectly to a hot water storage tank.
Flat plate collectors have been extensively studied by Hottel
and Woertz (1942), Bliss (1959), Nahar and Garg (1980),
Francken (1984) and others. Flat plate collectors are either
corrugated (Mathur et al., 1959), bond duct (Patil, 1975) or
tube-in-plate type (CSIRO, 1964) with different clamping
arrangements (Yellot and Sobotka, 1964; Gupta and Garg,
1968; Bliss, 1959). The performance of the flat plate collector
depends upon various design parameters, such as the number
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0003-5599.htm
Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials
52/4 (2005) 199– 206
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0003-5599]
[DOI 10.1108/00035590510603210]
reflecting coating on cover glass (Hsieh and Coldeway, 1974),
heat mirror coating on the inner glass (Winegarner, 1976),
the type of coating on the collector plate (Nahar and Garg,
1981), spacing between the collector and the inner glass
(Nahar and Garg, 1980), an evacuated space between the
collector and the inner glass (Simon, 1975), the arresting of
convective movement between the collector plate and the
inner glass by using transparent insulation material (TIM)
(Hollands, 1965; Nahar et al., 1995), and the type of
insulation used (Whillier and Saluja, 1965), etc. all of which
are responsible for the performance of a flat plate collector.
There are several other operational parameters, such as the
mass flow rate of fluid, solar radiation, inlet temperature,
ambient temperature, wind speed, sky conditions, dust
deposition on glass cover (Nahar and Gupta, 1990), etc.
which also affect the collector performance (Figures 1 and 2).
The heat loss is indicated by the thermal loss factor or k-value.
This is given in watt per square meter of collector surface and
the particular temperature difference (in 8C) between the
absorber and its surroundings. The higher the temperature
difference, then the more heat is lost. Above a specific
temperature difference, the amount of heat loss equals the
energy yield of the collector, so that no energy at all is delivered
to the solar circulation system. A good collector will have a high
conversion factor and a low k-value as shown in Table I (www.
solarserver.de/wissen/sonnenkollektoren-e.html#hoc).
2. Desirable features of solar thermal collector
materials
2.1 Transparent cover
Transparent cover acts as a heat trap for infrared (thermal)
radiation. Therefore, it reduces radiation losses and
convection to the atmosphere. Together with the frame, the
cover protects the absorber from adverse weather conditions.

199
 Review of materials for solar thermal collectors Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials
M.A. Alghoul, M.Y. Sulaiman, B.Z. Azmi and M.Abd. Wahab Volume 52 · Number 4 · 2005 · 199 –206

Figure 1 Sketch of a conventional flat plate collector 2.2 Insulation

Solar collectors are insulated with selective grade of CFC free
polyurethane foam (PUF) as insulation material. The use of a
PUF-insulated collector and tank ensures superior
performance with minimum heat loss.
A comparison table of properties of different insulation
materials is shown in Table II.
As an overall conclusion, rigid PU foam emerges as a
material with extremely effective thermal insulation qualities
and high strength to weight ratio at low temperatures. These
inherent physical characteristics enable it to perform
extremely well compared to alternative products.
Insulation must be kept dry or it loses all or most of its
insulating value. When the collector is assembled, the air
Figure 2 Efficiency graph of solar collector performance (www. trapped inside will contain moisture, which eventually will
solarserver.de/wissen/sonnenkollektoren-e.html#hoc) condense and soak into the insulation. To prevent this, quality
collectors contain:
.
Desiccants (ASHRAE Handbook-Fundamental, n.d.).
Porous bags of silica gel desiccant to absorb the
moisture. If the collector is properly sealed, it is not
necessary to have access to the desiccant, as it does not
require renewal. Desiccant is also required for the space
between the glazings when two covers are used. Typically,
the desiccant is contained in the hollow spacers separating
the two glazing panes, and small holes on the surface of
the spacers facing the space between the panes permit the
trapped air to contact the desiccant. If desiccant is not
used in either single-glazed or double-glazed collectors, it
will become apparent through condensation of drops of
water on the inner surface of the glass.
.
Enclosure. The enclosure is used to contain insulation,
provide support for the absorber and glazing, and to
protect the collector from heat loss due to wind, plus the
Table I Types of collector with its conversion factor and thermal loss important function of keeping moisture out of the
insulation from rain and dew. Enclosures are made of an
factor around a specific temperature difference
almost endless variety of materials and designs, including
Thermal wood cases, aluminum extrusions with sheet aluminum
Conversion loss factor Temperature back, galvanized steel (GS), welded or formed, and even
Type of collector factor (kW/m28C) (8C) collectors without back covers.
Flat plate collector 0.66-0.83 2.9-5.3 20-80 Whatever the case material and construction, it must be
Evacuated-plate collector 0.81-0.83 2.6-4.3 20-120 weather resistant, fireproof, durable, dimensionally stable,
Reservoir collector about 0.55 about 2.4 20-70 strong and completely and permanently sealed against
Evacuated-tube collector 0.62-0.84 0.7-2.0 50-120 moisture intrusion. As a general rule, the number of joints
and seams should be minimized and completely sealed. Steel
should be both galvanized and primed before painting and
.
Glazing materials properties (Zulovich, n.d.): low iron
baking and paint should be tough and scratch-resistant.
content glass, ultraviolet-resistant plastic sheeting,
Aluminum should be used with caution in areas exposed to
fiberglass, and reinforced plastic with “TEDLAR” salt air or industrial pollution and smog in the air. Most top-
coating. Of the various grades of tempered plate glass, quality collectors use enclosures of architectural anodized
low-iron glass has the highest transmission and lowest aluminum similar to those used for exterior windows. Typical
reflection of sunlight. The cost premium for low-iron glass is frame materials include aluminum and GS, though
smaller than the increase in efficiency, so it is worthwhile. sometimes fiberglass-reinforced plastic can be used.
. Plastic glazing of various types is still used on some solar
collectors to reduce weight and cost, but may reduce 2.3 Phase change materials for solar heat storage
performance and lifetime. Plastics inside a well-sealed Phase change materials (PCMs) are “latent” thermal storage
collector may deteriorate rapidly and will outgas, materials. They use chemical bonds to store and release heat.
depositing a haze of condensed oily liquid on the inside The thermal energy transfer occurs when a material changes
surface of the glazing. Such haze will seriously reduce the from a solid to a liquid or from a liquid to a solid. This is
collector efficiency. Plastic used in a collector also may called a change in state, or “phase”. Initially, these solid-
result in limitations or restrictions of collector use in high liquid PCMs perform like conventional storage materials;
fire-risk residential zones by local building and safety their temperature rises as they absorb solar heat (Hamdan
departments. and Elwerr, 1996).

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 Review of materials for solar thermal collectors
M.A. Alghoul, M.Y. Sulaiman, B.Z. Azmi and M.Abd. Wahab
Table II Properties of common insulation materials (Kehrer and Kunzel, 2003)
Thermal conductivity
Insulating material Density (kgm2 3) (W/mK) at 108C
Expanded polystyrene 15 15 0.04
Expanded polystyrene 30 30 0.037
Extruded polystyrene 32 0.27
Polyurethane foam 36 0.018
Phenolic foam 32 0.027
Cellular foam 125 0.41
Mineral wool 24 0.045
When PCMs reach the temperature at which they change
phase (their melting point) they absorb large amounts of heat
without getting hotter. When the ambient temperature in the
space around the PCM material drops, the PCM solidifies,
releasing its stored latent heat. PCMs absorb and emit heat
while maintaining a nearly constant temperature. Within the
human comfort range of 68-868F (20-308C), latent thermal
storage materials are very effective. They store 5-14 times
more heat per unit volume than sensible storage materials
such as water, masonry, or rock. It is clear that the PCM
exhibits the optimum qualities; it provides a minimal amount
of volume for its heat of fusion, as well as having a low melting
point, and hence, PCM can be used as a good heat storage
medium.
Glauber’s salt (sodium sulfate decahydrate), calcium
chloride hexahydrate, and paraffin wax are the most
commonly used PCMs in solar heating systems. Although
these compounds are fairly inexpensive, the packaging and
processing necessary to get consistent and reliable
performance from them is complicated and costly. Steel and
polyethylene are common packaging materials.
The use of latent heat storage is especially suited to the
storage of solar energy where it can result in high solar
collection efficiency, which can mean that solar collector area
can be reduced by 30 percent (Lane, 1983).
Research on solid-liquid PCMs has concentrated on the
following materials: linear crystalline alkyl hydrocarbons, fatty
acids and esters, polyethylene glycols, long alkyl side chain
polymers, the solid state series of pentaerythritol,
pentaglycerine, and neopentyl glycol, low melting metals
and alloys, quaternary ammonium clathrates and semi-
clathrates, and salt hydrides.
Additional research has led the development of PCM
materials that may be designed for applications in the
temperature range from just above 32 to 2578F (0-1258C). By
blending adjacent alkyl hydrocarbon chains, a mixture having
a desired single melting temperature may be produced
without significant decrease in thermal energy storage
(Farid et al., 2004).
2.4 Evacuated-tube collectors
An innovative, advanced technology in solar collectors’
design, which uses the advantages provided by vacuum
insulation, is known as the evacuated tube collector (Lee,
2001; Zhiqiang, 2004). This type of unit is the other form of
solar collector that is typically more efficient at higher
temperatures than flat plate collectors. Once the evacuated
tube absorbs the heat from the sun, we do not want to loose it.
The vacuum helps to achieve this as an excellent insulation
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Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials
Volume 52 · Number 4 · 2005 · 199 –206
Compressive strength
(Kpa) Relative moisture absorption
35 Medium
110 Medium
300 Medium
200 Low
170 Low
700 Low
Negligible Very high
property. While the inside of the tube may be 1508C, the
outer tube is cold to touch. This means that evacuated tube
solar collectors can perform even in cold weather when flat
plate collectors perform poorly due to heat loss (Figure 3).
In an evacuated-tube collector, sunlight enters through the
outer glass tube and strikes the absorber, where the energy is
converted to heat. The heat is transferred to the liquid flowing
through the absorber. The collector consists of rows of
parallel transparent glass tubes, each of which contains an
absorber covered with a selective coating. The absorber
typically is of tin-tube design, although cylindrical absorbers
also are used (Figure 4).
Evacuated-tube collectors are generally more efficient on an
all year round basis as they can still operate under cloudy
conditions, however, they are considerably more expensive
than flat plate collectors – around 80 percent – and if the
vacuum seal fails then they become inefficient.
Glass evacuated tubes are the key component of solar
collectors. Evacuated tubes have already been used for years
in Germany, Canada, China and the UK. There are several
types of evacuated tube in use in the solar industry. The most
widely used “twin-glass tube”; this type of tube is chosen for
its reliability, performance and low manufacturing cost.
A twin-glass evacuated tube made by Focus Technology Co.
Ltd (www.apricus-solar.com/index.htm) consists of:
.
the outer tube is made of extremely strong transparent
borosilicate glass that is able to resist impact from
hailstones of up to 25 mm diameter; and
.
the inner tube is also made of borosilicate glass but coated
with a special selective coating (Al-N/Al), which features
excellent solar heat absorption and minimal heat reflection
properties.
The top of the two tubes is fused together and the air is
withdrawn (evacuated) from the space between the two
glass tubes to form a vacuum. In order to maintain the
vacuum between the two glass layers, a barium getter is
used (the same as in television tubes). During manufacture
this getter is exposed to high temperatures that cause the
bottom of the evacuated tube to be coated with a pure layer
of barium. The barium layer actively absorbs any CO, CO2,
N2, O2, H2O and H2 out-gassed from the tube during
storage and operation, thus helping to maintain the vacuum.
The barium layer also provides a clear visual indicator of
the vacuum status. The silver colored barium layer will turn
white if the vacuum is ever lost. This makes it easy
to determine whether or not a tube is in good condition
(Table III).
 Review of materials for solar thermal collectors Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials
M.A. Alghoul, M.Y. Sulaiman, B.Z. Azmi and M.Abd. Wahab Volume 52 · Number 4 · 2005 · 199 –206

Figure 3 Sketch of an evacuated-tube collector

2.5 Absorber Unfortunately, there is nothing like copper for corrosion

Until about 20 years ago the absorber sheet was almost always
made entirely of copper, which is one of the best thermal
conductors known. However, price increases in copper began
to make such collectors too expensive and the attention of
designers turned to ways of achieving good collection
efficiencies with cheaper materials.
Figure 4 Cross-section of water-in-glass solar water heater
resistance in the actual waterways and, even now, most solar
water heaters still have copper water pipes. The next best readily
available conductor for the sheet is aluminum whose
conductivity not as good as that of copper, is still quite good
(Table IV).
To reduce the cost by replacing copper tubes with GS tube
and copper plate with aluminum (Al) plate, the aluminum
plate is wrapped over the GS tube by a special wire wound
technique so that good contact of plate with risers and
headers is maintained. Performance and testing of solar
collectors having GS-Al fin; Cu-Al fin and Cu-Cu fin in flat
plate collectors have been compared (Nahar, 2002).
.
The cost of the heater with GS-Al collector is only Indian
Rs 8,000 while it is Indian Rs 10,250 for solar water
heaters with Cu-Cu collectors.
To offset the lower conductivity of aluminum, one of the
following methods must be applied.
A thicker sheet
The tubes on the collector closer together
Both of these measures tend to offset the initial savings
achieved by changing from a copper sheet.
Selective coatings
A selectively coated absorber exposed to sunlight will get
hotter than a simple matt black one, which enables the

Table III Basic specifications of twin-glass evacuated tube made by Table IV Physical properties of conductors
Focus Technology Co. Ltd (www.apricus-solar.com/index.htm) Thermal conductivity Specific heat capacity – Cp
Thermal expansion 3:3 3 1026 8C Material (W/m8C) at 258C (kJ/kg K)
Material Borosilicate glass 3.3 Silver 429 0.23
Absorptive coating Graded Al-N/Al Copper 401 0.39
Absorptance .92 percent (AM1.5) Gold 310 0.13
Emittance ,8 percent (808C) Aluminum 250 0.91
Vacuum P , 5 £ 1023 Pa Brass 109 N/A
Stagnation temperature .2008C Iron 80 0.46
Heat loss ,0.8 W/(m28C) Steel 46 0.5
Maximum strength 0.8 MPa Stainless steel 16 N/A

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 Review of materials for solar thermal collectors
M.A. Alghoul, M.Y. Sulaiman, B.Z. Azmi and M.Abd. Wahab
conversion of a higher proportion of the solar radiation into
heat.
.
It reduces radiation losses through heat emission
significantly, this in turn means that the lower
conductivity of aluminum sheet can be compensated by
having it run hotter; so that the copper tubes do not have
to be put closer together and the sheet does not have to be
made thicker.
.
Another advantage of selective coatings is that they enable
the collector to work better in poor conditions (weak
sunshine).
The most effective selective coating available to date is black
chrome, applied by a complex electroplating process over a
nickel base (Koltun et al., 1994). If applied on a material
other than copper, the plating must be applied to both sides to
avoid corrosion. Shortcuts in the process to save materials or
plating time have not been successful. Good black chrome
plating on a nickel base coat has proven stable and not
susceptible to high stagnation temperatures or aging. Selective
collectors are particularly cost-effective for large installations
for water heating.
A relatively new is the use of a titanium-nitride-oxide layer,
which is applied via a steam-in-vacuum process. This type of
coating stands out not only because of its quite low emission
rates, but also because its production is emission free and
energy efficient (Zhang, 2000).
Heat pipes
Another way of compensating for the poor conductivity of the
cheaper materials of construction is to use the so-called heat
pipe effect (Vasiliev, 2005; Riffat and Zhao, 2004; Mathioulakis
and Belessiotis, 2002). In a heat pipe, high thermal conductivity
is achieved by using the evaporation and condensation of a
volatile fluid to carry the heat along an evacuated tube. Such a
device has a thermal conductivity many hundreds of times that
of the same cross-section of pure copper.
In its simplest form, a heat pipe is a sealed tube containing a
small quantity of a volatile liquid (such as water) with no air
or other “permanent” gas present. If such a pipe is placed
vertically and the lower end is heated, liquid will evaporate
and the vapor so formed will travel to the cooler parts of the
pipe where it will condense and give up its latent heat of
vaporization. The condensate will then run back to the heated
end where it can re-evaporate. This is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 Sketch of a heat pipe collector
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Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials
Volume 52 · Number 4 · 2005 · 199 –206
Because the heat transfer within the pipe comes from boiling
liquid and condensing vapor, both of which processes have
inherently very high heat transfer coefficients, and because the
amount of material which has to move from one end of the
pipe to the other is small, the effective thermal conductivity of
the heat pipe is very large. In more sophisticated versions, the
pipe contains a capillary wick to assist the return of the liquid
from the condenser end to the evaporator end. Such pipes will
work without the aid of gravity, for example in spacecraft.
However, for terrestrial applications the far cheaper and
simpler two-phase thermosyphon, as the gravity return heat
pipe is usually known, is often adequate. The main useful
characteristics of the two-phase thermosyphon are:
1 thermal conductivity is extremely high: about a thousand
or more times that of copper;
2 thermal conductivity is almost independent of the metal
that the heat pipe is made from; and
3 device acts as a thermal diode. That is, the conduction is
very high in one direction (upwards) and very low in the
other (downwards).
These characteristics make heat pipes useful wherever a large
amount of heat needs to be conducted through a small cross-
section.
Some features:
1 combine glass vacuum tube and copper heat pipe as one
unit;
2 with super-conducting working liquid in copper heat pipe;
3 with high degree of vacuum;
4 without water flow in glass vacuum tube (in this way it
can; and bear cold weather of 2308C); and
5 widely used for pressurized solar water heater and solar
projects.
Heat sheets
“Heat sheets” take advantage of a heat pipe effect to construct
solar collectors of carbon steel in which the collector sheet itself
is a flat plate version. This “heat sheet” conducts the heat to the
top of the panel where it is transferred in the heat exchanger
section to a length of copper tube carrying the water.
In addition to its very high thermal conductivity the heat
sheet has the further advantage that its conductivity is only in
one direction, so energy can be transported from the collector
sheet to the water tubes but not vice versa.
The commercial manufacturer Thermocell Co. Ltd (www.
thermocell.co.nz) has developed a flat plate version of the heat
pipe that extends the range of application. The lightweight flat
plate heat pipe, which named a “heat sheet”, consists of two
sheets of metal seam welded together at the edges and
carrying a pattern of indentations. The indentations create a
vapor space within the heat sheet that is evacuated and into
which the working fluid is introduced. The form in which
used the heat sheet to date has been as a two-phase
thermosyphon. The first commercial application of the heat
sheet is a solar water heating collector.
The heat sheet, made of sheet steel, takes the place of the
copper or aluminum absorber sheet of a conventional flat
plate collector. The thermal conductivity is sufficiently high
that only a small heat exchanger of copper tube along the
upper region of the collector is required in order to transfer
the collected heat to the water. The collector is the same as a
conventional flat plate solar collector but is significantly less
expensive to manufacture for a given area of collector. The
advantages of this construction are lower cost per unit area of
 Review of materials for solar thermal collectors
M.A. Alghoul, M.Y. Sulaiman, B.Z. Azmi and M.Abd. Wahab
collector, much less copper used, lightweight, and significant
savings during frost protection.
This last feature is a result of the fact that the waterway is at
the top of the panel. When water is circulated through the
system to protect the waterway from freezing in frost
conditions the thermal diode effect means that there is very
little conduction from the waterways to the rest of the panel.
The remainder of the panel does not require protection since
the working fluid has a very low freezing point.
3. Polymer materials in solar thermal collectors
The cost of energy produced by solar thermal collectors
depends on costs of various materials which make up the
system, maintenance costs and obviously the amount of solar
energy collected. Serious efforts are currently devoted towards
making solar collector technology economically more
competitive (Tsilingiris, 2002). From the early steps of
evolution of both solar and polymer science and technology,
an appreciable amount of attention of solar system designers
was concentrated on polymers, owing to their favorable
properties for solar design. They are widely available low-cost
materials, which lend themselves to a volume production of
lightweight low-cost collectors tolerant to corrosion and
freezing temperatures; however, their reliability, durability
and long-term performance have not been fully demonstrated
yet. The use of polymer materials reduces the collector weight
by 50 percent in comparison with a traditional metal
collector; which allows much easier installation (Cristofari
et al., 2002).
3.1 Polymer material considerations
Polymeric glazing (Tsilingiris, 2000) offers significant
potential for cost savings, both as:
.
direct substitutes for glass cover plates in traditional
collector systems; and
.
integral part of all polymeric systems.
Polymer glazing is subject to degradation under the combined
effect of elevated temperatures and exposure to UV radiation
unless UV absorption additives in the outer cover or special
inhibitors are used. Although these additives will certainly
appreciably extend the life cycle of collectors, they will also
contribute to a proportional increase in cost.
Many surveys and reports have been carried out on
polymers as solar collector materials (Best, 1982; Waksman
and Dawson, 1980). Thin-walled cellular polycarbonate
materials in the form of transparent capillary structures or
square honeycombs are being employed extensively as
collector glazing materials (Platzer, 1992). Advanced
microencapsulated liquid crystal epoxy and polycarbonate
polymer films were investigated and are being developed as
potential transmission switching glazing materials, suitable for
the design of building construction elements (Wilson, 1992).
Among the most suitable polymer materials for absorber
design are those of the polyolefin group, like polyethylene and
polypropylene and of the ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer
(EPDM) group, known as synthetic rubbers. Among them,
polyolefins are mainly suitable for the manufacturing of
thermally extruded flat rigid absorbers, while EPDM
materials are suitable for the production of flexible tubes or
tube strips interconnected by flexible webs, mainly suitable as
low temperature swimming pool heating collectors.
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Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials
Volume 52 · Number 4 · 2005 · 199 –206
A review of literature on the thermo physical properties of
polymer materials confirmed a relatively low thermal
conductivity of acrylics and derivatives, ranging between
0.17 and 0.23 Wm2 1 K 2 1 (Kirk and Othmer, 1982;
Baumaister and Avallone, 1978; Materials Reference Issue,
1979; Platzer, 1992; Tsilingiris, 1997). The corresponding
values of high density (HD) and ultra high density (UHD)
polyolefin and EPDM which may be suitable low-cost, widely
available collector absorber materials for low and medium
temperature applications, are around 0.35 and
0.15 Wm2 1 K2 1, respectively (Gartman, 1970; Kirk and
Othmer, 1982; Baumaister and Avallone, 1978; Materials
Reference Issue, 1979; Tsilingiris, 1997). From this
comparative review it became clear that the thermal
conductivity of polymers is substantially (almost three
orders of magnitude) lower than that of ordinary metallic
absorber materials, something which is very crucial for their
use in solar energy applications and makes the redesign of
conventional tube and fin metal absorber absolutely
necessary.
The primary challenge (Wu et al., 2004) to design a
polymer heat exchanger is selecting a polymer that is:
.
compatible with potable water; and
.
capable of withstanding the high pressure and temperature
requirements of domestic hot water systems for up to 10
years without sacrificing thermal performance.
Polymer heat exchangers offer the potential advantages of:
1 reduced cost of materials and manufacture;
2 resistance to corrosion and mineral build-up, if mineral
build-up is reduced, maintenance costs should be lower
than those for metal heat exchangers;
3 lower friction coefficients;
4 reduced weight and easy installation; and
5 use of polymers may permit better integration with other
components.
Polymers certified for tube components and used in heat
exchangers and exhibit good high temperature characteristics
are: high temperature nylon (HTN), polypropylene (PP) and
cross linked polypropylene (PEX) are recommended.
4. Conclusion
To reduce the cost of materials to the minimum and improve
efficiency, the recommended materials to build solar collector
are:
.
low-iron glass as transparent cover – which is relatively
inexpensive;
.
vacuum insulation – a no-cost material;
.
elective coating material – which is relatively cheap, as
compared to high output of energy of solar collector; and
.
super conducting working fluid – water (very low cost).
Finally, much effort must be invested on improved
manufacturing techniques in order to reduce the challenge
of high manufacture cost.
References
ASHRAE Handbook-Fundamentals (n.d.), Sorbents and
Desiccants, Chapter 22.
Baumaister, Th. and Avallone, E. (Eds) (1978), Mark’s
Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, McGraw-Hill,
New York, NY.
 Review of materials for solar thermal collectors
M.A. Alghoul, M.Y. Sulaiman, B.Z. Azmi and M.Abd. Wahab
Best, D. (1982), “New plastics head for higher temperatures”,
Solar Age, pp. 51-2, February.
Bliss, R.W. (1959), “The derivations of several ‘plate-
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energy manufacturing facilities”, CEC Directorate General
for Energy, contract No. 4.104/91-44.