Solar Energy 177 (2019) 317–323

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Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Assessment of thermal performance of PCM in latent heat storage system for T

different applications
⁎
Nidal H. Abu-Hamdeh , Khaled A. Alnefaie
Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 40844, Jeddah 21511, Saudi Arabia

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This article demonstrates the feasibility of using a phase change material (PCM) in a solar stove for storing
Parabolic solar heat collector energy. The PCM is a material that is able of absorbing and liberating great amounts of energy upon solidifi-
Phase change material cation and melting due to its superior latent heat storage capability. In this study, small capsules, used as PCM
Solar stove storage units in the solar stove, were constructed from aluminum and tested for solar energy storage during shiny
Thermal performance
days. The capsules were placed in a receiver of a parabolic reflector to absorb heat from the reflected sunlight of
the parabolic reflector, which was stored as latent heat in the PCM. Acetamide of commercial grade was used as
the material for latent heat storage. The solar stove with the PCM storage units had been experimentally tested.
The thermal performance was analyzed during idle condition of the fan and at three rates of air flow. The
temperature of the PCM capsules decreased rapidly during the first few minutes as the temperature of cooking
pan increased at the same rate, and then the two temperatures matched and decreased slowly. The rate of change
was higher with increasing air flow rate. Energy effectiveness between the PCM tubes and air flow increased
with increasing air flow rate. The results supply significant information to design a prototype of solar stove
provided with a good thermal performance material utilized for storing thermal energy.

1. Introduction
Solar energy has many applications and uses including lighting and
air-conditioning of buildings, generating electricity, and supplying hot
water. Solar radiation is progressively becoming respected for its im-
pact on living material and the probability of its application for valu-
able intentions. It is a continuous supply of renewable energy that has a
vast capacity for a widespread range of uses since it is plentiful and
within reach. It is speedily earning base as a complement to the limited
nonrenewable supplies of energy.
Water heating and space conditioning are well known applications
of solar energy. Recently, more applications of solar energy were cre-
ated and developed including solar cooking. Solar stove technology
transforms the sunlight energy into thermal energy, an energy which
does not consume fossil fuels and does not produce any pollution, and
most importantly it lasts for long time with very slight maintenance.
The energy from the sun has many applications nowadays because it is
a reliable source of fuel with no accompanying conveyance complica-
tions or storage problems. Solar cooking among these attractive appli-
cations of the solar energy that can save time, work and fuel and it is
environmentally friendly.
A solar stove is simply an appliance that employs solar energy for
food cooking. The main principle of the solar stove is as follows.
Capsules filled with phase change material (PCM) absorb heat energy
when they are exposed to concentrated sun rays in a receiver. As a
result, their temperature increase and the PCM liquefy as time passes.
Eventually, the PCM will be completely in liquid state. At this point,
energy is stored in the PCM and capsules are ready to be moved to a
solar stove. In the stove, the temperature of the PCM will fall as heat
energy is released back gradually into environment. The heat released
from the PCM in the stove is used for cooking. Solar stoves or solar
cookers are constantly developed by manufacturers and researchers.
For example, Joshi et al. (2012a,b) aimed to increase the solar cooking
efficiency to more than 60% through providing an efficient design to
accomplish that. In their experiments, the cooking vessels obtained
energy by means of natural convection through condensing steam on an
outside surface. Kumar et al. (2011) performed an exergy and energy
efficiencies of a box type solar cooker of trimmed pyramid kind. They
calculated a maximum energy obtained by water of 20.8 kJ and a
minimum energy of 7.5 kJ within the solar cooker. The analysis of ex-
ergy of their cookers was reasonable and an inclusive mean for the
performance assessment of solar cookers. Al-Soud et al. (2010) in-
vestigated a sun tracking technique that operates with two axes para-
bolic cooker. A 90 °C cooker’s water temperature was obtained whereas

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: nabuhamdeh@kau.edu.sa (N.H. Abu-Hamdeh), kalnefaie@kau.edu.sa (K.A. Alnefaie).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2018.11.035
Received 11 August 2018; Received in revised form 25 October 2018; Accepted 14 November 2018
Available online 19 November 2018
0038-092X/ © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
N.H. Abu-Hamdeh, K.A. Alnefaie
a 36 °C average ambient temperature was measured.
There are several possibilities to enhance the solar cooker’s per-
formance. Among these possibilities the solar cookers’ thermal storage
materials were implemented to facilitate late-night cooking.
Application of phase change materials (PCMs) is considered one of the
recent control factors for thermal conductivity and power storage.
Much work has been reported using PCMs for solar thermal applications
(Zalba et al., 2003; Peng et al., 2010; Kenisarin, 2010; Yang and
Garimella, 2010a,b; Flueckiger et al., 2011; Herrmann et al., 2004;
Ferri et al., 2008; Abu-Hamdeh and Alnefaie, 2016; Kumar, 2015;
Kenisarin and Mahkamov, 2011). For example, Zalba et al. (2003) had
conducted a comprehensive study on the PCMs application in the
practices of latent heat storing. They presented the advantages and
effectiveness of this high storage capacity of energy and presented the
isothermal nature of this energy storage method. The study has shown
that there are great quantities of PCMs that became attractive in many
applications because they solidify and melt at a widespread tempera-
tures extent. The authors investigated and analyzed the available sto-
rage methods in different applications that implement PCMs for the
thermal energy storage. Peng et al. (2010) studied molten salts in terms
of their thermal and physical properties of molten salts at high tem-
perature in addition to their thermal stability. The molten salt com-
ponents used in their experiment consisted of sodium nitrite, potassium
nitrate, and sodium nitrate with an additive of 5% chlorides. The
analysis of thermal cycling analysis and thermal stability revealed that
salts with additive of 5% had loss of nitrite content and lower freezing
point with a reduction of molten salt's deterioration time. In addition,
they found a decrease in latent heat, heat capacity, and viscosity range
of salts with additive of 5% compared to water between 0 and 100 °C.
Kenisarin (2010) considered in his review the recent developments and
exploration of phase change high-temperature materials perception for
storage of solar energy. He presented large amounts of compositions
and blends of several salts. In addition, he presented physical and
thermal properties of possible compositions of salts that could be used
for energy storage. Abu-Hamdeh and Alnefaie (2016) built an experi-
mental solar tower prototype (Fig. 1) which uses molten salt as thermal
fluid. The molten salt components used in their solar tower consisted of
60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3.
Several studies that use PCM particularly for cooking have been
reported in literature (for example, (Sharma et al., 2000; Mbodji and
Hajji, 2016; Krishnan and Balusamy, 2015; Geddam et al., 2015;
Mahavar et al., 2015; El Khadraoui et al., 2016). For instance, Geddam
et al. (2015) constructed and tested a solar cooker of box shape and
they concluded that analyzed its thermal performance in a better qua-
litative manner. They stated that to select the proper material for the
construction of the cooker it is essential get the awareness of the coo-
ker’s heat capacity, optical efficiency, and design features. Mahavar
et al. (2015) introduced what is called optimum load range. They stated
that optimum load range (OLR) provides values of the load which
Fig. 1. Actual picture of the solar tower from Abu-Hamdeh and Alnefaie (2016) showing the thermal storage tanks, receiver/tower, and heat exchanger.
318
Solar Energy 177 (2019) 317–323
cooker presents cooking and good thermal efficiency. It might be re-
garded as solar cookers’ critical factor. An investigative study to im-
prove the effectiveness of an ease designed solar air heater through
applying the process of thermal heat storage, had been conducted (El
Khadraoui et al., 2016). In their study, a binary comparable set of solar
air collectors, without and with PCM, were conducted to assess the
significance of PCM unit. Their findings revealed that in the in the night
the temperature of the exit air from the solar heater was improved with
PCM application. Koca et al. (2008) observed average net energy and
exergy efficiencies of 45% and 2.2%, respectively, as a result of their
energy and exergy analysis of a latent heat storage system with phase
change material for a flat-plate solar collector. Varol et al. (2010) found
that the solar collector system with PCM is more effective than con-
vectional systems. Gürtürk et al. (2017) performed energy and exergy
analysis on a heat storage tank in a domestic solar water heating
system. They showed that the heat storage tank with the PCM is more
efficient than without the PCM and the maximum exergy efficiency was
obtained as 22% with the heat storage tank with the PCM. Oztop et al.
(2013) conducted a review study on the energetic and exergetic per-
formance of solar air heaters. They reviewed the previously conducted
studies and applications in terms of design, performance assessment,
heat transfer enhancement techniques, experimental and numerical
works, thermal heat storage, effectiveness compassion and recent ad-
vances. They concluded that energy analysis method had been used in a
number of studies while exergy analysis method had been applied to the
relatively low numbers of systems. Nasrallah and khedher (2011) and
khedher and Nasrallah (2014) developed a three-dimensional model to
analyze the behavior of an energy storage system which is made of a
horizontal channel crossed by a fluid and whose walls contain a porous
medium saturated with phase change material. Their model enables to
study the two processes: thermal energy charging (during PCM melting)
and thermal energy discharging (during PCM solidification).
Very few studies have been performed on forced circulation solar
cooker which involved PCM as storage of thermal energy. With the
advent of phase change material (PCM), storage of thermal energy
could be present as component of the solar cooker structure. The
principal target of the current study is to explore the possibility of de-
veloping and manufacturing a solar stove that uses the PCM as its heat
storage media. The feasibility of thermal energy storage of latent heat in
forced circulation solar stove has been investigated. A PCM capsules
were built and made-up comparable to a heat exchanger of type shell
and tube. The fabricated capsules were placed in a solar stove and
studies were conducted with idle fan conditions and with forced con-
vection conditions. The upcoming sections of this article as follows:
Section 2 discusses why certain type of phase change material was
chosen, Section 3 discusses the design of the solar cooker, Section 4
presents the mathematical formulation to calculate the effectiveness of
the solar cooker, Section 5 presents the economic analysis of the system,
Section 6 is a discussion of the results obtained, and Section 7 is the
N.H. Abu-Hamdeh, K.A. Alnefaie Solar Energy 177 (2019) 317–323

Table 1
Thermophysical properties of different PCMs.
PCMs Heat of Specific heat Melting Density
fusion (kJ/ solid/liquid point (°C) solid/liquid
kg) (kJ/kg°C) (kg/m3)

Acetanilide 222 2.0/2.0 118.9 1210/1020

Capric acid 150–158 1.9/1.6–1.7 30.1 –
Lauric acid 212 1.8/2.3 41.0–43.0 1007/862 (a)
Acetamide 263 1.9/1.9 82.0 1159/998
Pentadecane acid 159 – 52.5 –
Palmitic acid 198 1.9/2.8 59.9 –
10 cm
Myristic acid 192 1.7/2.4 53.8 –
Stearic acid 160 1.6/2.2 55.1 965/848
Erythritol 340 1.4/2.8 118.0 1480/1300
Magnesium nitrate 163 1.8/2.5 89.0 1636/1550

3 cm
hexa-hydrate

conclusions obtained from this study. Cap Aluminum tube with threaded ends Cap

2. Phase change materials (PCMs) (b)

Literature reported different PCMs appropriate for energy storage in
the range of temperature of 50–100 °C. Table 1 displays the thermos-
physical features of most common PCMs used in literature. Chen et al.
(2008) tested several PCMs namely acetamide, stearic acid, magnesium
nitrate hexahydrate, acetanilide, and erythritol by conducting numer-
ical simulation of heat transfer in these PCMs. They reported that it is
best for latent heat storage solar cooker to use acetamide. Based on
their study and due to its low cost and because of its high availability in
the market, acetamide of commercial grade (CH3CONH2) was chosen as
the PCM in this study. Acetamide of commercial grade was utilized as a
material that stores latent heat with a melting point of 82 °C which is
appropriate for the application in this study. Table 2 shows the heat loss
coefficient and the thermos-physical features acetamide used.
3. Design and fabrication of solar cooker with storage
To predict the desired mass/volume of a phase change material, few
assumptions were made:
(i) Mean ambient temperature in the experimental site = 32 °C
(ii) The temperature of the PCM at loading = 110 °C
(iii) Food temperature before loading = 32 °C
(iv) The specific heat of food as well as that of water are equal.
Considering the above assumptions, the energy balance can be
formulated for the cooking process. To make the temperature of food, at
the end of the cooking process, at the PCM’s solidifying point, the food
and PCM released energy had to be equal to that lost by the cooker
(Sharma et al., 2000), as in the following Eq. (1):
Mf C w (Tf − Tm) + MPCM CPCM (TPCM − Tm) + MPCM L= UL A(Tf − Ta )Δt
(1)
where Mf = mass of food (300 g of rice for each 500 g of water) (kg),
Cw = water specific heat (kJ/kg °C), Tf = temperature of food
Table 2
Thermophysical properties of commercial grade acetamide and heat loss coef-
ficient used in this study.
Melting temperature of acetamide (commercial grade) 82 °C
Latent heat of fusion of acetamide (commercial grade) 263 kJ/kg
Density of solid acetamide 1.159 g/cm3
Density of liquid acetamide 0.998 g/cm3
Specific heat of the acetamide 1.94 kJ/kg °C
Heat loss coefficient from top, bottom and side of solar cooker 1.00 W/m2 K
(when solar stove is closed) (Koca et al., 2008)
Fig. 2. Aluminum capsule filled with phase change material, (a) actual capsule,
(b) schematic diagram of capsule with dimensions.
throughout cooking process (°C), Tm = melting temperature of PCM
(°C), MPCM = PCM’s mass (kg), CPCM = PCM’s specific heat (kJ/kg °C),
TPCM = PCM temperature (°C), L = PCM’s latent heat (kJ/kg),
UL = heat loss coefficient of stove (W/m2 °C), A = solar stove’s external
surface area stove (m2), Ta = mean ambient temperature during time
interval Δt (°C), and Δt = time interval.
The acetamide thermophysical properties as well as many other
cooker parameters are shown in Table 2. The essential PCM storage
mass, using Eq. (1), is equal to 1.5 kg. The heat amount necessary for
PCM melting is equal to 800 kJ and portion of the existing solar ra-
diation (26,000 kJ per m2) will be applied for this purpose. The ne-
cessary volume needed for 2.0 kg of acetamide is equal to 1294 cm3
which was calculated using the data in Table 2. This amount of PCM
will be filled in capsules. Aluminum capsules were designed and man-
ufactured and filled with solid PCM as shown in Fig. 2. The diameter
and the height of the tube are 3 and 10 cm, respectively. Both ends of
capsules are small caps fitted to fill the PCM into the capsule. The tubes
are sized to be positioned in a receiver of a parabolic reflector to absorb
heat from the reflected sunlight of the parabolic reflector, which was
stored as latent heat in the PCM. When the PCM is completely melted in
the tubes, the tubes are taken out of the receiver and located at equal
distance between one another with a 3 cm distance among the tubes in
the midpoint of an insulated container polished inside. This container
with the hot tubes inside is the heat source for cooking in the stove. To
hold the tubes’ container inside and cooking vessel on the top, the solar
stove was designed and made-up as presented in Fig. 3. The stove has
three sections; the upper two sections are detachable for placement of
capsules and cleaning. The cooking pan can be placed on the top of the
stove.
A fan (20 W) was provided to admit fresh air into the stove to im-
prove the heat transfer rate between the phase change material (PCM)
tubes as well as the cooking vessel. Position of the fan was at the side of
the stove. The fan pushes ambient air through the capsules. Flow rate of
the fan was controlled at three values; 60, 90, and 120 m3/h, in addi-
tion to the idle fan condition for comparison. The melted PCM stored in
the capsules transfer heat convectively to the air passing through them.
Airflow passage in the solar stove is depicted in Fig. 3.
A parabolic solar reflector was fabricated and built, to undertake the
cooking processes by the PCM container and cooking vessel, to hoist the
tubes filled with PCM in its receiver (Fig. 4) (Abu-Hamdeh et al., 2013).
The receiver, made of stainless tube, is used to host the capsules and it
is sheltered by a glass case to minimize heat losses via radiation and

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N.H. Abu-Hamdeh, K.A. Alnefaie Solar Energy 177 (2019) 317–323

Fig. 3. Stove operation using PCM capsules, (a) schematic diagram, (b) actual stove.

Receiver Table 3
Characteristics of the solar reflector.
Item Value

Collector aperture area 3.7 m2

Collector aperture 1.26 m
Aperture-to-length ratio 0.68
Rim angle 90°
Inner diameter of the absorber 35.5 mm
Outer diameter of the absorber 40 mm
Concentration ratio 31.2
Optical efficiency of the collector (%) 76.5
Parabolic rib thickness 20 mm

Concentrator reflective surface
Tracking mechanism
Fig. 4. Parabolic reflector fabricated to hoist the tubes filled with PCM.
convection. To attain the maximum collection of energy, the collector
was set with a tracking system axis placed on the south–northern line
for tracking sun from east to west. Table 3 shows the characteristics of
the solar reflector.
4. Analysis and mathematical modeling
The solar stove was modeled as a heat exchanger of shell and tube
type for the purpose of analyzing its performance. Calculating heat
exchanger effectiveness allows predicting how a given heat exchanger
will perform its job and helps in sizing the solar stove. If the fabricated
solar stove is undersized, the design conditions of heat transfer will not
be attained, leading to a lesser amount of heat transfer, which leads to
off-quality production. Air is the heat transfer fluid in the system. To
examine the impact of different air flow rates from the fan on the ef-
ficiency of the process of heat exchange of solar stove, a setting of a
tube and shell type of heat exchanger was assumed for the analysis. The
PCM is in the tube part of the heat exchanger. Air from the fan is placed
on the heat exchanger’s shell side. The method of effectiveness-NTU
was followed to perform the analysis. The heat exchanger energy ef-
fectiveness (ε ) of both fluids unmixed and a single pass is calculated by
Eq. (2) (Bergman et al., 2011; Duffie and Beckman, 2006):

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N.H. Abu-Hamdeh, K.A. Alnefaie Solar Energy 177 (2019) 317–323

1 ALCC = TPV /pwf

ε = 1 − exp ⎡ ⎛ ⎞ (NTU )0.22 {exp[−Cr (NTU )0.78] − 1} ⎤
⎜ ⎟
⎢ ⎝ Cr ⎠ ⎥ (2)
⎣ ⎦ Life cycle cost analysis has a common study period of 20 years.
Typically renewable energy projects have a cost inflation rate of zero in
where Cr is the ratio of heat capacity which is calculated by the fol-
most countries in the world. A 10% was taken as the market value of
lowing Eq. (3):
interest rate in this analysis.
Cmin The life expectancy of all the parts was two decades with expecta-
Cr = ,
Cmax (3) tion to the fan which was taken as a 10 years. The P value of the re-
placements cost comprises of the second fan’s present value that should
where Cmin is the tube side rate of heat capacity (J/s·K), Cmax is the shell
be bought after 10 years. The current worth of upcoming single cost can
side rate of heat capacity (J/s·K), NTU is defined as the number of heat
be calculated using the following equation (Duffie and Beckman, 2006):
transfer units which is calculated by Eq. (4):
A
Uo Ao PV = ,
NTU = , (1 + i) N (12)
Cmin (4)

where Ao is the tube pass side area (m2), Uo is the total coefficient of where PV is the current worth, A is the single payment at a time N, i is
heat transfer (W/m2·K) which is calculated by the following Eq. (5): yearly rate of interest, and N is the number of years the component in
service.

1
=
1
+
do ln do
i ( )+
d
1 do
, 6. Experimental measurements
Uo ha 2Kw hPCM di (5)

where Kw is the aluminum wall’s thermal conductivity (W/m·K), do and
di are the tube outer and inner diameters, respectively, ha is the air
coefficient of heat transfer, and hPCM is the PCM coefficient of heat
transfer.
The air’s heat transfer coefficient ha is calculated by Eq. (6):
0.36K a 0.55
ha = (Re )a (Pr0.33 )a ,
De
where Ka is the air thermal conductivity (W/m·K), Re is the Reynolds
number (Bergman et al., 2011; Duffie and Beckman, 2006; Abu-
Hamdeh and Almitani, 2016); Pr is the Prandtl number, and De is the
equivalent diameter (m).
The PCM heat transfer coefficient, hPCM, is calculated by Eq. (7):
NuPCM KPCM
hPCM = , accuracy of ± 1 °C. A data acquisition system (model: Doric 205) was
di
where KPCM is the PCM’s thermal conductivity in W/m·K, NuPCM is the
Nusselt number which is calculated by Eq. (8):
NuPCM = 0.024(Re0.8 )(Pr0.4 ),
To investigate the probability of PCM utilization as a medium of
energy storage to cook food, experiments had been performed under
three values of air flow rate (60, 90, and 120 m3/h) from the fan in
addition to the idle fan condition. The PCM capsules were placed in the
receiver of the parabolic solar reflector at 9:00 am to absorb heat from
the reflected sunlight of the reflector. Initially, the temperature of the
PCM increased until it reached the melting point. After the PCM melted
(6)
completely, the capsules were removed from the receiver and trans-
ferred to the solar stove. The cooking pan was filled with rice (that is,
300 g of rice in 500 g of water). Measurements were taken for 1 h at an
interval of 10 min for each of the three air flow rates. For each flow
rate, the temperatures of the capsules (TPCM), food (Tfood), and ambient
(Ta) were noted down through application of standardized copper-
constantan thermocouples. They have a repeatability of 0.1 °C and an
(7)
used to link these thermocouples via laptop computer. The air flow rate
and velocity were measured using a digital meter. Experiments were
sustained till steady state condition. For safety, proper material hand-
ling devices were provided. Experimental results and simulation were
(8)
assessed as presented in the next section.

5. Economic analysis 7. Results and discussion

Solar cooker usage associated with cost effectiveness. Total cost of
solar cooker involves cost of its components. Costs of annualized life
cycle and life cycle of the solar stove were evaluated and presented. The
initial cost of a system is considered when computing the life cycle,
replacement, operating and maintenance costs. The following equation
was used to compute the total life cycle cost (Duffie and Beckman,
2006):
(9)
TPV = I + O&M + P
where I is the system’s components initial capital and installation cost,
TPV is the total current value of life cycle cost of a given system, P is the
replacements’ current cost value, and O&M is the maintenance and
operation current costs. The current value of future maintenance and
operation costs can be computed by multiplying the present worth
factor (pwf) by the yearly cost of maintenance and operation. As for the
present worth factor, it is calculated by the following equation (Duffie
and Beckman, 2006):
(1 + i) N − 1
pwf = , Furthermore, comparing the three figures illustrate that as the air flow
i (1 + i) N (10)
where i is the percentage yearly rate of interest, and N is the life ex-
pectancy in years. The yearly life cycle cost (ALCC) was computed from
the following equation:
Several experiments were conducted to investigate the probability
of PCM utilization as a medium of energy storage to cook food. Four
values of air flow rate from the fan were tested including the idle fan
condition. The PCM capsules were placed in the receiver of the para-
bolic solar reflector at 9:00 am in order to absorb heat for the melting of
PMC inside the capsules. The PCM temperature rose until it was dis-
solved inside the capsules and then transferred to the stove. The tem-
peratures of the capsules, food, and ambient with time were recorded at
the beginning when the fan was in idle condition. Fig. 5 reveals the
results. The capsules temperature reduced gradually while the food
temperature increased gradually, as well. It was attributed to the idle
condition of the fan such that the heat transfer by convection from the
surface of the capsule to air was very low. The food, capsules, and
ambient temperatures, by time, for fan flow rates of 90, 60, 120 m3/h
are respectively presented in Figs. 6, 7 and 8. These figures show that
the temperature of the capsules decreased and the temperature of the
food raised at a rapid rate all through the initial 20 min, and then the
two temperatures became nearly the same and then decreased slowly.
rate increased the capsules temperature decreased while the food
temperature increased at quicker rates. The rice was removed at the end
of the experiment and found to be well cooked.
Fig. 9 depicts the percentage improvement in the energy

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120 45

100

Enhancement % of energy effectiveness (ε)

40
Temperature (oC)

80 35

60 TPCM 30
Tfood
40 25
Ta
20 20

0 15
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time elapsed (min) 10

Fig. 5. Variation of temperature with time at idle fan condition. 5

120 0
0 60 90 120
100 Air flow rate (m3/h)
Temperature (oC)

80 Fig. 9. Enhancement percentage (%) of energy effectiveness (ε) with air flow
rate (m3/h).
60 TPCM
Tfood effectiveness (ε) attributable to the air flow rate increase. The analysis
40
Ta of the energy effectiveness showed that enhancements from 28% to
20 43% were obtained for air flow range from 60 to 120 m3/h compared
with its value at the idle condition of the fan. The increase in the energy
0 effectiveness with increasing air flow rate shows that to increase the
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 temperature of the same amount of food less energy was required. For
Time elapsed (min) this PCM whose melting point is 82 °C, it is noticed that its temperature
at the time of loading should be around 110 °C. The food cooking time,
Fig. 6. Variation of temperature with time at airflow rate of 60 m3/h.
in these particular experiments, was approximately an hour.
Fig. 10 illustrates the food temperature variations with the air flow
120 rate (0 m3/s is the fan idle condition-natural convection) during the
cooking process. When the air flow rises, throughout the cooking pro-
100
cess, the food temperature rises sharply to a certain level of air flow rate
Temperature (oC)

80 and after that declines gradually and then decreases sharply again at
120 m3/h. For the air flow rate close to 0 m3/h (i.e., natural convec-
60 TPCM tion), the existing air is inadequate to transfer the entire heat stored in
Tfood the phase change material (PCM) to the food in the food vessel. For the
40 case of 120 m3/h, food temperature reduced sharply; this attributed to
Ta
20 the reduction in response time between cooking vessel and the air.
The following costs are the initial cost value of all elements that
0 comprise the solar stove system (I): solar collector ($600), first fan
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 ($100), PCM capsules ($200), insulated cover and air flow control valve
Time elapsed (min) ($50), capsules container and frame ($50), cooking pan ($30), aux-
iliaries, and installation. For the stove system, the installation cost was
Fig. 7. Variation of temperature with time at air flow rate of 90 m3/h.
calculated and found $186 (approximated at 20% of the initial system
cost (Al-Smairan et al., 2012). The supplements cost was taken as 5% of
120 the evaluated initial system cost (Al-Smairan et al., 2012) which yielded

100 90
Temperature (oC)

80
85
Temperature (oC)

60 TPCM
80
Tfood
40
Ta 75
20
70
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 65
Time elapsed (min) 60
Fig. 8. Variation of temperature with time at air flow rate of 120 m /h. 3 0 60 90 120
Air flow rate (m3/h)
Fig. 10. Effect of air flow rate on food temperature during the cooking process.

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N.H. Abu-Hamdeh, K.A. Alnefaie
a value of $47. Summing all previous costs yielded a total of $1263 as
the overall value of the system’s cost (I).
All future costs of operation and maintenance (O&M) have a current
worth that can obtained by multiplying the pwf (Eq. (10)) by the yearly
operation and maintenance cost, which was 2% of the total initial value
cost I (Al-Smairan et al., 2012). The pwf was calculated and yielded
8.51 while the annualized cost of O&M was calculated as $23. The two
values when multiplied together yielded a total of $198 for O&M costs.
In addition, the calculated PV value for the fan was found to be $15.
Eq. (9) was applied to evaluate the overall cost of the life cycle
(TPV) of the solar stove system which brought forth a sum of $1376. Eq.
(11) was applied for this system to evaluate the annual life cycle cost
(ALCC) which was calculated to be 162 $/year.
It had better be distinguished that inventions in the applications of
solar energy, as well as developments in design of solar cookers, have
drawn the fascination to the technology of solar cookers. Accordingly,
the solar stove size and cost is expected to continue decreasing and
therefore finding a market place. Solar stoves are particularly suited to
providing cooking solutions in remote regions where conventional
cooking methods would be energy intensive and too costly. In this
study, the authors present a new usage of the PCMs by presenting a new
method to storage solar heat energy in capsules that they behave si-
milar to “solar coal”, just like coals of burning-wood can be transported
from one stove to another. This paper presents results of some tests of
this “solar coal”.
8. Conclusion
Cylindrical capsules applied for storage of latent heat in a solar
stove system was modeled and invented to collect and capture solar
energy during shiny days. The captured energy was used for rice
cooking. Its performance was analyzed during the idle condition of the
fan and at three air flow rates. During the first 20 min of the experi-
ment, the temperature of the capsules decreased and the temperature of
food increased at a fast rate, and then the two temperatures become
nearly the same and then decreased slowly. The rate of change was
higher with increasing air flow rate. Also, energy effectiveness in-
creased with increasing air flow rate. The experimental outcomes re-
vealed the cost effective of applying phase change material as storage
substrate in the solar stove. It was also established that acetamide is a
promising PCM in solar cooker applications. The researchers, through
this study, presented a new method for storing solar energy in capsules
which behave comparable to “solar coal”, just resembling coals of
burning-wood and can be transported from one stove to another.
Acknowledgement
This project was funded by the National Plan for Science,
Technology and Innovation (MAARIFAH)–King Abdulaziz City for
Science and Technology-the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia–award number
(12-ENE2253-03). The authors also, acknowledge with thanks Science
and Technology Unit, King Abdulaziz University for technical support.
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