Comparative Exergy, Economic and Environmental Analysis of Parabolic Trough Collector and Linear Fresnel Reflector

Abstract

In recent years, the use of renewable energy sources and investigation on renewable energy have significantly grown. In this research, parabolic trough and linear Fresnel collectors, which are widely used in the field of solar energy, have been investigated from the point of view of exergy. First, the energy balance equations for different components of the collector were solved using numerical methods and the temperature distribution in each component of the collector was obtained. Then the values of exergy destruction in each component of the system were calculated. The comparison of the results obtained in the present work with the results of the previous research showed a good agreement. The results showed that the exergy efficiency in the parabolic trough collector is approximately 1.5 times that of the linear Fresnel reflector. Also, changes in exergy efficiency, exergy destruction of the whole collector, output exergy cost and CO2 emission with increasing solar radiation intensity and fluid mass flow rate for both collectors have been compared and investigated.

Keywords

• cost
• efficiency
• exergy destruction
• mass flow rate
• solar collector
• solar radiation