STAGE II PROJECT PRESENTATION ON

Comparative Study of
Various Solar Thermal
Systems
Submitted By

ASHNA AGNIHOTRI (111505004)

SAURABH CHOUDHARY (111505050)
UTKARSHA SAWANT(111505051)

Under the Guidance of

Prof.Dr. ARCHANA THOSAR

 Solar Collectors Solar Concentrators
1. It is used in low temperature 1. It is used in high temperature
application. applications.
2. Maximum Temperature of 2. Fluid temperatures up to
fluid that can be reached is around 5000oC can be
300oC. achieved.

3. Absorber area is large but 3. Absorber area is small but

concentration ration is small. concentration ratio is high.

4. It is less efficient. 4. It is the most powerful type

of collector.
 Solar Collectors Solar Concentrators
5. It can be used in water 5. It can be used in solar
heating systems in households furnaces and solar power
and residential buildings. plants.

6. Solar tracking device is

6. Solar tracking device is not
needed to get maximum
needed.
efficiency.

7. Simple structure hence 7. Complex structure hence

simple in maintenance. difficult in maintenance.

8. Examples: Parabolic dish

8. Examples: Flat plate
concentrator, Parabolic trough,
collectors, Evacuated tube
Solar tower, Linear Fresnel
collectors
mirror
 Why can’t we alter collectors and
concentrators?
• Temperature attained by collectors is merely 300
degree which is sufficient enough to use in
household water heating systems.

• Whereas temperature of fluid (generally dry steam is

generated) attained by concentrators can go up to
3000 degree which is sufficient for commercial use.

• In Households, solar water heating system uses

insulated tank to store hot water but storing high
temperature dry steam is very difficult.
• Since volume of steam is greater than that of hot
water, storage space required is very large for steam.

• Further, handling such high pressure and high

temperature steam is a challenging task. Any leakage
in the system can prove to be hazardous.

• Hence we can not altar collectors and concentrators.

They are installed as per the end point applications.
 Concentrated Solar Thermal
India has a very good potential for solar energy, with average
solar irradiation around 4-7 kWh/m2/day .

This abundant solar radiation can be used to meet the

demand of low to medium process heat as required by
various industries and institutions.

Concentration of solar radiation to produce temperature in

the range of 100 to 450˚C or more is called concentrated
solar thermal (CST) technology.

This technology offers sizeable deployment potential across

a diverse range of industries and commercial establishments
in India.
There are six CST technologies commercially available in India,
namely:

• Fixed focus automatically tracked elliptical dish (Scheffler)

• Dual axis tracked paraboloid dish
• Fresnel reflector based dish (ARUN dish)
• Single axis tracked parabolic trough concentrator
• Non-imaging concentrators
• Linear Fresnel reflector

About the ARUN Dish Technology

The ARUN dish is a Fresnel paraboloid solar concentrator
with a point focus. It has been developed by Clique Solar
with research support from IIT-Bombay.
 ARUN DISH : GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Heat from sun’s rays can be harnessed to provide
heat to a variety of applications such as cooking,
cooling, industrial process heating, desalination and
generating electricity. But in general, Sun’s rays are
too diffuse to be of direct use in these applications.
So solar concentrators are used to collect and
concentrate sun’s rays to heat up a working fluid to
the required temperature the make Sun’s heat
suitable for these applications

ARUN Dishes are a class of Fresnel Paraboloid solar

reflecting concentrators as shown in Figure 1,
capable of delivering very high temperature at
output.
Figure 1: Arun Dish
 Underlying Principle
 The ARUN dish is made up of multiple mirrors mounted on
specially designed frames.
 These emulate the contours of a parabola. The mirrors are
arranged in a fresnelized manner so as to reflect the incident
solar radiation to the focal point of a collector.
 A receiver placed at the focus captures the solar radiation and
transfers it to the thermal medium used in the system.
 The dish is provided with a two-axis tracking mechanism
enabling it to be continually focused towards the sun in a
manner similar to a sunflower.
 Of the CST options, the dish has the advantage that its full
aperture area is always capturing the maximum possible
radiation and so it is highly efficient with respect to available
Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) at any point of time.
 ARUN Dish Components:

Arun Dish Systems comprise of following components

• Collector
• Receiver
• Electro-Mechanical Tracking System

Arun Dish comprises dual axis tracking mechanism in

order to optimize efficiency of solar energy collection
which depends on solar in solation and location.
Figure 2: Solar Paraboloid Dish Block Diagram
The receiving subsystem collects solar radiation in the solar field
from paraboloid reflecting collectors and transfers it to working fluid
such as water or oil.

The tracking subsystem acts as a support to the receiving

subsystem. It maximizes the solar energy captured by moving solar
collectors towards the sun throughout the day and throughout the
seasons.

The circulation subsystem carries fluid and transfers the heat

received by it to the end use application. Fluid circulates in the
system at a certain desired rate to quickly and efficiently transfer the
received heat from solar field to end use application. Circulation
subsystem has a number of components such as pipes, pumps and
valves to control fluid flow and temperature.

Finally, the control mechanism is the brain behind tracking and

circulation system. It sends signals to these systems to control the
tracking of the receiver based on pressure and temperature of the
circulating fluid.
 APPLICATIONS
Some of the typical application areas of the ARUN dish are:
• Steam generation
• Water heating
• Oil heating
• Milk pasteurization
• Food processing
• Community cooking
• Solar-assisted comfort cooling
• Laundry
• Effluent Evaporation
The role of each module is explained in more detail below:

ARUN Dish
• Fresnel Paraboloid reflecting concentrator, which concentrates sunlight at
a focus point which moves with the Sun
• Works on dual-axis tracking mechanism, concentrate sunlight at a point
focus

Receiver
• Inverted cavity type MS receiver
• Collects concentrated sunlight and transmits the energy to fluid through it

Expansion Tank
• Maintains the pressure of circulating fluid in a closed system, allowing
water to expand with rising temperature
• Pressure is maintained by adding nitrogen, which also eliminates
corrosion by inhibiting exposure of water vapor to oxygen
• Minimizes pressure surge(to reduce water hammering effect)to save
pipeline from damage
Hot Water Pump
• Pumps water to the solar field, and maintain water flow rate in the
circulation system
• Flow rate of water circulating in closed system is maintained /
controlled through the SCADA system (if required) / controller.

Thermal Storage Tank

• Uses buffering technique, i.e. it store excess heat generated by the
Solar field, which can be utilized during non-solar hrs.
• Stores a phase change material which can transform from solid to
liquid state to store heat, and vice-versa to loose heat gained by it

Water treatment System (if required)

• The feed water needs to be treated to avoid scaling inside the
circulation systems. Dosing systems add controlled volume of
concentrated chemicals to feed water.
 How a Paraboloid Dish Works
Fresnel Paraboloid Collector concentrates solar radiation
over a small region (focus). The dish is positioned such
that its aperture plane is perpendicular to the sun’s rays.
Figure 3 illustrates how ARUN Dish tracks sun in a single
axis to transfer energy to fluid circulating through
receiver.

Figure 4: Arun Dish consisting of a Fresnel Paraboloid collector

to reflect light and receiver where heat is absorbed
 How Tracking Works
In ARUN Dish, collector concentrate sunlight on receiver
tube forming a point focus. With sun’s movement from east
to west (diurnal) and north to south (seasonal), the collector
continuously tracks about two axis, tracking sun’s radiation
and maintaining the focus of collector on receiver. Figure 5
below illustrates this concept.
As shown in Figure 5, tracking sunlight from morning (east) to evening
(west) helps to get the maximum utilization of the sun’s rays by
keeping the Dish perpendicular to the sun for about 10 hours (useful
radiation) per day.
The dish goes to morning position at the start of the day when started
from parking. It starts moving in West direction with Sun’s movement.
By the end of the day, it moves to its ‘evening position’ while
following the sun all the way. At the end of the day it goes back to
parking position.

There are 3 important questions to ask when observing the tracking

system of ARUN Dish:

What is the control logic?

There are two mechanisms for tracking the Dish:

• Chronological Tracking: Tracking motor moves the dish at preset time
intervals at set coordinates
• Light Sensing Tracking: Light sensors track direction of sunlight and move the
Dish in Sun’s
direction
The control logic calculates best position to capture maximum solar
energy. The position is calculated continuously based on input from a
sensor that detects the sun’s position so that aperture area of the
dish is always perpendicular to sun’s rays.

What is the drive mechanism?

The mechanism to cause and transmit the motion to the Dish is

electrically actuated which drives electric motors at a precise
speed (rotational).

What are the sensing devices used?

One or more of the following sensing devices may be used as input

to the control logic:
• Light sensor for tracking
• Wind speed sensors to protect dish against high winds
• Position sensors
Major Problems in Existing Technology
The major problems in manual N-S tracking through
existing
technology are as below:
Manual Operation: It is necessary to manually adjust the
actuators on a daily basis.

Inefficient Functioning of System: There is no

continuous feedback mechanism since the existent system
is manually operated. Therefore, adjustment of focus
depends entirely upon the judgment and skill of the
operator. Due to this, the system may perform at a lower
than predicted performance level, thereby increasing the
risk of inefficiencies in the system.

Increased Operational Cost: One fitter and one helper

are constantly needed to do the adjustment which adds to
Overcoming Shortcomings
• The shortcomings in the semi-automatic tracking system are
overcome by a new design which comprises of a closed loop
tracking system that monitors the focus on the receiver. Any
misalignment between receiver and focus is automatically
corrected by this system.
• The system works on a feedback loop for which the signal is
taken from the image on the receiver. The image processing
software analyses the image and the position of focus and an
algorithm especially developed for Scheffler dishes is used to
convert the signal to the actual rotation of the dish in E-W and
N-S directions.
• To take care of any mechanical errors and instrument lag, the
system is self-calibrating. The motor with gearbox takes care of
E-W tracking while two actuators with motors take care of
rotation in N-S direction.
• A combination of image processing and tracking programs are
built into the controller to give precise signals to the motors for
ARUN 160 at automobile plant of Mahendra, Chakan, near
Pune with pressurized hot water
for degreasing
 GAJRAJ SOLAR DRY-CLEANERS CASE STUDY

• Owner: Mr. Suresh Chavan.

• Address: M/s Gajraj drycleaners, Bhistbaug, Pipeline
road, Savedi, Ahmednagar.
• No. of workers : 90.
Structural details:

• Year of installation : 2006.

• Applications: Washing, Drying, Pressing (Ironing).

• Type of solar concentrator : Scheffler dishes.

• No. of units installed : 15

• Area of each dish : 16 sq.m.

• Effective area of concentrators : 240 sq. m.

• Steam generated : 750-870 kg/day

• Temperature of the steam generated : 190-200 degree

• Pressure of the steam generated : 7 bar

• Working hours : 11 am to 4 pm. (5 hrs/day)

• Workload : 3000 cloth pieces/day

• Type fuel saved : High Speed Diesel

• Quantity saved : 30 lit/day

Layout of the system:

Financial Details:
• Cost of installation : 23 Lakh
• MNRE Subsidy : 8.5 Lakh
• Payback period : 3 Years, 8 Months
 Solar Laundry for GHB (800 girls)
• Considering 5 pieces per day for each girl
Total number of clothes = 4000 pieces/day
• Operational Time : 11am – 4pm

• For Gajraj Laundry, 3000 pieces : 1300kg of steam at

7 bar pressure
3000
For 4000 pieces : = 1733kg of steam
1300

• Now, 1300 kg steam is generated with 16𝑚2 X 15 =

240 𝑚2
• 1733.33 kg generated = 1733/(1300/240)
= 320 𝑚2
Hence we will need 20 dishes of 16 𝑚2 each or 10
dishes of 32 𝑚2 each
• Considering 16 𝑚2 ∗ 20 dish system:
Cost of each dish = 2.5 Lakh
Total cost of dishes = 50 Lakh
Cost of other installations and auxilary system =
7.5L
Total Cost = 57.5L
• Gajraj needed 30 litres HSD per day, GHB needs 40
litres accordingly.

• Cost of HSD : 64.58 Rs/lit

• Everyday saving = 2583.2 Rs ≈ 2600 Rs.

• Yearly Savings = 7,80,000 (300 working days)

• Payback Period = 7.4 Years

• If MNRE agrees subsidy of 10L then payback period is

6 years
 Feasibility
The suggested system is not feasible because:

• Maintenance cost is high.

• Limited working hours.

• The system was not running with calculated

efficiency in rainy days or cloudy weathers
• If the number of pieces increases ,the suggested
number of dishes will not be sufficient to generate
the required amount of steam and hot water.

• Space required to install dishes is a lot more than

available to us. Further expansion is not possible
because of the space constraint
 SOLAR DESALINATION
• Decline in drinking water quality is affecting
millions in developing countries. Though many
remediation technologies are available, for
common people it‘s a distinct dream and many
options lack appropriateness
• Solar Desalination/ Distillation involves heating of
raw water, producing steam and condensing
steam into drinking water.
• Dissolved Solids level in Solar Distilled water is
less than 3 ppm and Bacteria free. The water is
100% safe, with no taste of hardness.
 APPLICATIONS
• Solar Desalination is applicable in all areas with sunlight and facing water
contaminations from sea water, excess of iron, fluoride, nitrates, arsenic,
calcium hardness etc.
• During rainy days, the still can be altered for Rain Water collection if
needed. Up to 90% of the input water is recovered as distilled water,
ecologically sound and no energy costs.
• Solar distillation is a relatively simple treatment of brackish (i.e. contain
dissolved salts) water supplies. This process removes salts and other
impurities.
• Solar distillation is used to produce drinking water or to produce pure
water for lead acid batteries, laboratories, hospitals and in producing
commercial products such as rose water. It is recommended that
drinking water has 100 to 1000 mg/l of salt to maintain electrolyte levels
and for taste.
• It has been used for emergency situations including navy introduction of
inflatable stills for life boats.
How a simple solar still works

Fig 4.1 Schematic of a single-basin solar still

Design objectives for an efficient solar still
 For high efficiency the solar still should maintain
1. A high feed (undistilled) water temperature
2. A large temperature difference between feed water and condensing surface
3. Low vapour leakage.

 A high feed water temperature can be achieved if:

1. A high proportion of incoming radiation is absorbed by the feed water as
heat. Hence low absorption glazing and a good radiation absorbing surface
are required.
2. Heat losses from the floor and walls are kept low.
3. The water is shallow so there is not so much to heat.

 A large temperature difference can be achieved if:

1. The condensing surface absorbs little or none of the incoming radiation
2. Condensing water dissipates heat which must be removed rapidly from the
condensing surface by, for example, a second flow of water or air, or by
condensing at night.
Despite a proliferation of more sophisticated designs such as TERI‘s
solar desalination unit with offset collectors, the single-basin still
has the best track record in the field. Hundreds of smaller stills are
operating, in Africa and India.
The cost of pure water produced depends on:
• the cost of making the still
• the cost of the land
• the life of the still
• operating costs
• cost of the feed water
• the discount rate adopted
• the amount of water produced.
Factors affecting performance of solar
distillers For using solar energy to distill
brackish and sea water to produce fresh
water, there are many parameters
affecting the productivity. These can be
summarized as:
• Solar radiation
• Ambient air temperature
• Wind velocity
• Depth of the brine in the basin
• Cover material and its shape
• Ground and surrounding losses
 Basic hypotheses of simplification
In order to avoid complicating the study of this type of solar
still, we allowed the following hypotheses:
• Temperatures of respectively the inner and the outer sides
of the glass, of the brine, of the absorber and inside the
insulator are supposed uniform;
• Water condensation on the cover is homogeneous and
continuous;
• Lateral sides are at constant pressure (adiabatic).
• Heat loss in the basin comes from the base.
• Brine inside the basin is static.
• The vault is considered as a black body.
• Physical properties of materials are considered constant.
• Brine concentration does not intervene in the mass and heat
transfer, from and to the brine. Finally, an analogy between
thermal and electric dimensions has been carried out.
Fig . heat flow in solar still
thermal net work for basin type still
Ut is composed of radiative, convective, and
evaporative heat transfer coefficients which can be
determined if the glass cover temperature can be
estimated. The glass cover temperature may be
found by a quasi-steady heat balance on the glass
cover. The heat balance on the glass cover,
neglecting the heat capacity and thermal resistance
of the glass cover, and the absorption of solar
radiation in it, is
Performance charts of 15th
January
Conclusions
The mathematical model presented before can be
used to study the effect of solar radiation, ambient
temperature, wind speed, glass cover temperature,
transparent cover properties, etc. on the distillate
output.

Some of the conclusions are as follows:

1.The still output (productivity) is strong function of
solar radiation on a horizontal surface. The distillate
output increase linearly with solar insulation for a given
ambient temperature.
2. The increasing of temperature difference between the
saline water and the glass leads to a better production.
3. A higher temperature difference is obtained through the
increasing
4. The increasing of ambient temperature
decease the heat loss from solar still, resulting
in higher distillation rate.
5. Economic analysis showed that if the system
is use solar energy the cost of 1 kg of distilled
water produced will be about 0.0676, based on
10 years lifecycle at 10 % interest rate and the
solar saving is 75% compared by electrical
energy
Recommendations
To increase the productivity we must increase the
temperature difference between the brine and glass cover.

In order to obtain a higher temperature difference, we

recommend:

1.A preliminary heating of the brine before bringing it into the

solar still.
2.A cooling of the glass by using a fan working with an
electrical
energy which is produced by a photovoltaic system.
3.A cooling of the outer side of the glass by flowing first the
brine through the glass, before bringing it into the solar still.
4. And the use of glass having blades at its external side, in order to
increase heat losses by convection, leading to cooling the inner side
of the glass.
 Ongoing Objectives
1. Design of a Solar Dryer and its mathematical modelling
2. Solar powered e-rickshaws that charge the grid when idle
3. Mathematical Modelling and Optimization of a Parabolic
Trough Concentrator for the Improvement of Collection
Efficiency
4. Mathematical modelling and optimizations in Arun dish.