Enhancement and Thermal Performance Evaluation of Parabolic Trough Solar Collector With the Integration of Innovative Snail Porous Material

Abstract

Parabolic trough collector (PTC) is prospective for energy storage compatibility, and its thermal performance is limited by weather dependence. Evaluating the performance of the parabolic trough collector is crucial. In this study, the snail shell porous biological material acts as an energy storage material integrated with the receiver. These porous materials could store heat and supply to enhance thermal performance by supplying heat energy to a working fluid during reduced radiation availability. Hence, the experimentation is conducted under two dissimilar flowrate conditions, such as 150 and 300 liters per hour (LPH), with and without the porous material receiver. The findings of this research demonstrate that receivers with porous material show superior thermal performance compared to those without porous material. The peak average outlet water's temperature, heat absorption, heat transfer coefficient (HTC), and thermal and exergy efficiencies are about 68.7 °C, 5312.3 W, 357.9 W/m2 K, 70.6%, and 49.5%, respectively, at 150 LPH. However, the snail shell porous material enhances heat absorption efficiency by storing and releasing more heat, thereby improving the PTC's overall performance.