Solar Still Productivity Enhancement by PCM and Nano-PCM Composites as Energy Storage

Authors

  • G.Murali , M.Sankeerthana , A.Srinath, C. Sivakandhan

Abstract

Availability of potable water is essential for human survival and domestic need. Incorporating nano-PCM in a solar unit as thermal enhancer and thermal storage has become a promising means to enhance the productivity and efficiency of the still. A solar unit  performing with PCM and nano-PCM (NPCM) materials is used to examine the effect of  productivity of the still. The mixture of PCM & NPCM is filled into 12 copper tubes and are immersed in 1cm level of water in the still. The present paper is attempted to compare the four different cases with fixed level of water(1cm) in the basin. The different cases are namely : Conventional still (Case 1),Still with 12 empty copper rods (Case 2),Still with only PCM of 142g in each tube (Case 3) , Still with NPCM of sample 1 with 0.75%of nano particle concentration+142g PCM in first 6 tubes, sample 2 with 2% of nano particle concentration+142g of PCM in next 6 tubes (Case 4). Paraffin wax with melting point of 62?C is used as the latent heat storage material and aluminum oxide(Al2O3) with 20nm-30nm particle size is used as nano particles. The experiment is conducted in the climatical conditions of Vaddeswaram, Vijayawada, India (Latitude-80.6480?E,longitutude-16.5062?N) . Differential scanning calorimeter is used to examine the thermal properties such as melting point, latent heat fusion, of the NPCM compositions. The results of the experimentation were recorded in hourly basis and it shows that productivity &efficiency of case 1 are 2.66L/m2/day&46.23% . The productivity of case 2,3,4 are 3.17 ,3.58 ,4.27 L/m2/day respectively. Addition of nano particles enhances the latent heat of fusion & specific heat capacity of PCM. The results reveals that use of NPCM increases the productivity by 19.4%&efficiency  by 9.5 % than PCM. 

Keywords: NPCM, Aluminum oxide, Thermal storage, Solidification, Productivity, efficiency.

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Published

2020-05-18

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Articles