Experimental Analysis of Storage of Solar Energy in Phase Change Materials Encapsulated in Copper Cylinders

摘要

The requirement and raise in the cost of hydrocarbon fuels have made the entire world to turn towards the renewable energy resources. There are various renewable energy out of which solar energy is the efficient energy and available in abundant. In this study, thermal energy is transmitted through the therminol -55 oil which is the Heat Transmit Fluid (HTF). D-Mannitol is taken as the Phase Change Material (PCM) and stored inside the copper cylindrical container. The D-mannitol PCM was stored in the copper cylinder container with and without fins. These container were immersed in a tank containing HTF. The therminol-55 oil was passed through the solar parabolic trough collector. A heater was provided for heating HTF up to the temperature 300°C which was allowed to flow in to the PCM tank. The experiments were conducted in two stages one with finned container and another without finned container with heating and cooling modes. In heating mode the temperature of the HTF was raised to 300°C and was allowed to cool during its cooling mode to 120°C. The time taken for the heating and cooling of heat was measured to analyse the heat transmit study of thermal storage system.