Performance study on evacuated tubular collector coupled solar still in West Texas climate

Experimental study was performed on a single basin active solar distillation system augmented with a solar collector using evacuated solar tubes. Field tests were conducted over several days under the climatic conditions of West Texas to evaluate the effect evacuated solar tubes have on the daily distillate yield rate. To investigate the feasibility of the solar tubes, active and passive solar stills with and without exterior insulation were examined. The maximum daily production rate for the active distillation system using evacuated solar tubes and the passive distillation system was 3.6 and 1.4 kg/m²day, respectively. The results showed the augmentation of the still with evacuated solar tubes increased its production capacity by a factor of 2.63. It also increased the maximum temperature of the water in the still basin by at least 20 °C. Economic analysis shows that it is feasible to use evacuated tubular collector coupled solar still as an alternative means for reclaiming water in farmlands with a payback period of approximately 6 years.     

Indirect forced solar drying of banana slices: phenomenological explanation of non-isotropic shrinkage and color changes kinetics

Solar drying technology is a noteworthy technique as it uses the renewable solar energy. In this study, thin slices of banana were dried by using an indirect forced solar dryer at air mass flow rates of 0.016, 0.041, and 0.082 kg s^?1. In order to assess the kinetics of shrinkage and color changes, image processing technique was applied for determining area, volume, density, total color difference and browning index. Shrinkage factor of the samples was less than 1 during drying indicating non-isotropic shrinkage with contraction of inner voids. Furthermore, product shrinkage showed two descending drying steps in which the volume change was more than the evaporated water volume in the first step and equal to that in the second step. The dimensionless evaporated water volume with respect to the dimensionless volume difference of the product also revealed that two steps of volume change existed during drying separated at critical moisture ratio 0.23. The area and volume changes were only related to the product moisture content and were independent of the air mass flow rate, and hence air temperature. In contrary to the browning index, the total color difference was not influenced by air mass flow rate and the least change in browning index occurred at mass flow rate of 0.041 kg s^?1.     

Canopy slope effect on the performance of the solar chimney power plant

Solar chimney power plants constitute an impressive construction by its size and its output seems low for its dimensions. Although many works have been carried out on the subject, there is still much scientific and technical improvement to be done. In the present work, we consider the modeling of turbulent flow under the effect of natural convection within a solar chimney power plant (SCPP) by performing numerical simulation using the Saturne Code coupled with Syrthes code. The objective of the study is the analysis of the collector cover slope influence on the performance of the SCPP in two cases. In the first case, the storage system considered is composed solely of the ground under the collector. For the second case, the storage system is made, in addition to the ground, of a 10 cm thick tub filled with water, covering the entire surface of the collector. The concept of minimizing the entropy production is also studied with the objective of optimizing the geometric configuration as well as the effect of the collector cover slope on the efficiency of SCPP. The boundary conditions are defined according to the meteorological data for a typical day available on the site of Adrar, Algeria. The results allow us to focus on the storage system influence on the SCPP performance and the duration of its operation after sunset. This leads to the improvement of the global efficiency of the SCPP. Results show the positive impact of the extra storage media use and the configuration which improves the velocity at the chimney entrance.     

Power performance characterization of multi-crystalline silicon solar cells and its module at outdoor exposure

Outdoor power performance measurements of silicon (Si) solar cells and its assembled module were carried out at the coastal site of geographical location of 12.0107° Latitude and 79.856° Longitude, of Puducherry, India. Measurements were analyzed in comparison with the daily solar illumination data obtained by an optical pyranometer deployed with global measurement condition. It was found that the module required ~3 times more illumination to stabilize in its output voltage than the requirement of an individual cell and exhibited 11.35% loss in its efficiency compared to its STC value. Proposed operation of 5.30 hours was found resulting in an output rating fixed at ~40% from its 100% full capacity.     

Characterization of the pro-inflammatory potencies of purified Jatropha phorbol esters by a gene expression-based in vitro bioassay

The oil extracted from Jatropha seeds is an emerging biodiesel feedstock that also contains several pro-inflammatory phorbol esters. These phorbol esters can elicit adverse inflammatory responses through activation of the protein kinase C, as previously described for the prototypical phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. We extracted and purified the six phorbol esters identified in Jatropha oil and assessed their pro-inflammatory activities using a recently developed gene expression-based bioassay. Borrowing from an approach used for the assessment of dioxin toxicity, we expressed their pro-inflammatory potencies in relation to the potency of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (in terms of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate toxic equivalency factors). The pro-inflammatory potencies of Jatropha phorbol esters were orders of magnitudes below the potency of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. Interestingly, the cytotoxicity of phorbol esters did not appear to be directly related to their pro-inflammatory potencies. Calculations based on phorbol ester potencies and concentrations led to overestimation of the pro-inflammatory activity of Jatropha oil, as measured by the same gene expression-based bioassay. The preliminary results presented here suggest that further work on the described approach may lead to the development of valuable tools and metrics to quantify and predict the pro-inflammatory activities of complex phorbol ester mixtures.     

Nano-textured polysilicon solar absorption films

Nano-textured polysilicon (poly-Si) solar absorption films are to be applied to the solar receiver of solar thermal electricity Stirling engine. These films were fabricated by deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon films (a-Si:H) into poly-Si films, using the pulse-wave modulation plasma and furnace annealing of the a-Si:H films. This is followed by wet etching of poly-Si films into nano-textured structures. The films are then coated with a-SiN_x:H films as the antireflection and protection layers. It was observed that increasing the pulsed plasma turn-on (t_on) time leads to deposition of less dense a-Si:H film with high hydrogen content and void density. This results in films having low dielectric constant and refractive index, and high optical bandgap. Less-dense a-Si:H film can be transferred into large grain size poly-Si film, using annealing. Also, highly rough nano-textured surface structure can be produced, by etching. The denser a-Si:H film, large grain size poly-Si film, and nano-textured surface poly-Si film can enhance the absorbance of sunlight and reduce the emissivity of far infrared light. The nano-textured poly-Si film coated with an a-SiN_x:H layer can effectively increase the absorbance of sunlight to approximately 85% and reduce the emissivity of far infrared light to 49%. The nano-textured poly-Si/a-SiN_x:H films can be used as efficient solar absorption films for solar thermal electricity Stirling engine.     

Analysis of PV module connected in different configurations under uniform and non-uniform solar radiations

This paper focuses on investigating the current--voltage (I--V) and power--voltage (P--V) characteristics of a photovoltaic (PV) module connected in various configurations like series, parallel, and series-parallel. The performance analysis of PV module has been carried out under uniform and non-uniform conditions such as change in irradiation (passing clouds), change in temperature, accumulation of dust, and change in wind speed using MATLAB-Simulink environment. From the observed results, it has been indicated that for a given number of PV modules, the array configurations affect the maximum available output power and more local maxima are found under partially shaded conditions. Moreover, the comparative analysis of PV module has been performed for various configurations under the above disturbances. From the results, it is evident that even under non-uniform conditions, the parallel configuration of PV modules is more prominent and maximum output power is obtained. Further, parallel layout is particularly convenient for minimizing shadowing effects. The parameters of the PV module have been obtained from the manufacturer datasheet (KC200GT) for these investigations.     

Drying of salted silver jewfish in a hybrid solar drying system and under open sun: Modeling and performance analyses

This study investigated the thin-layer drying kinetics of salted silver jewfish in a hybrid solar drying system and under open sun. Ten drying models were compared with experimental data of salted silver jewfish drying. A new model was introduced, which is an offset linear logarithmic (offset modified Page model). The fit quality of the models was evaluated using the coefficient of determination (R²), root mean square error (RMSE), and sum of squared absolute error (SSAE). The result showed that Midilli et al. model and new model were comparable with two or three-term exponential drying models. This study also analyzed energy and exergy during solar drying of salted silver jewfish. Energy analysis throughout the solar drying process was estimated on the basis of the first law of thermodynamics, whereas exergy analysis during solar drying was determined on the basis of the second law of thermodynamics. At an average solar radiation of 540 W/m² and a mass flow rate of 0.0778 kg/sec, the collector efficiency and drying system efficiency were about 41% and 23%, respectively. Specific energy consumption was 2.92 kWh/kg. Moreover, the exergy efficiency during solar drying process ranged from 17% to 44%, with an average value of 31%. The values of improvement potential varied between 106 and 436 W, with an average of 236 W.     

不同阳极微生物燃料电池产电性能的比较

微生物燃料电池在处理废水的同时可以产生电能,有希望同时解决废水再利用和能量再产生的问题。采用单室无膜空气阴极微生物燃料电池,处理模拟生活污水,探讨MFC处理模拟废水的效果。研究了以碳布(MFC1)、碳布负载碳纳米管(MFC2)、碳纳米管(MFC3)和泡沫镍(MFC4)作为4种不同的阳极材料,对MFC系统的启动、内阻和产电特性进行比较。结果表明,4种不同阳极MFC在水力停留时间24 h的条件下,对COD有很好的去除作用,其中MFC2的COD去除效率最大,为91.4%。在不影响MFC系统处理废水效果的前提下,实验得到4种阳极MFC系统中MFC2具有最小的内阻,为173.7Ω;并且其功率密度也大于其他3种MFC,达到401.2 mW/m2。