Experimental investigation of the energy performance of a novel Micro-encapsulated Phase Change Material (MPCM) slurry based PV/T system (original) (raw)

Based on the theoretical works completed by the authors, the paper presents an experimental investigation into the energy performance of a novel PV/T thermal and power system that employs the Micro-encapsulated Phase Change Material (MPCM) slurry as the working fluid. A prototype PV/T module with the dimension of 800 mm × 1600 mm × 50mm was designed and constructed based on previous theoretical modelling data. The performance of the PV/T module and associated thermal and power system were tested under various solar radiations, slurry Reynolds numbers and MPCM concentrations. It was found that (1) increasing solar radiation led to the increased PV/T module temperature, decreased solar thermal & electrical efficiencies and reduced slurry pressure drop; (2) increasing the slurry Reynolds number led to the increased solar thermal & electrical efficiencies, decreased module temperature, and increased pressure drop; and (3) increasing the MPCM concentration led to the reduced module temperature and increased pressure drop. The experimental results were used to examine the accuracy of the established computer model, giving a derivation rate in the range 1.1% to 6.1% which is an acceptable error level for general engineering simulation. The optimum operational condition and performance of the PV/T system could be outlined in such way: MPCM slurry weight concentration of 10%, Reynolds number of 3,000, solar radiation of 500 W/m 2 to 700 W/m 2 , and the net overall solar efficiencies in the range 80.8% to 83.9%. To summarise, the MPCM slurry based PV/T thermal and power system is superior to conventional air-sourced heat pump systems (ASHP) and solar assisted heat pump systems (ISAHP), and has the potential to help reduce fossil fuel consumption and carbon emission to the environment.

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