Sharif Digital Repository

In this study, heat oil conversion experiments using steam and formic acid as a hydrogen carrier be carried out in a batch reactor at T = 380 degrees of Celsius and P = 165 bar. Material balance and product distribution were calculated after the process. Properties of crude oil before and after thermal conversion, including viscosity, API gravity, SARA measurement, and elemental analysis, were analyzed. It has been presented that the use of formic acid as a hydrogen carrier solvent reduces the formation of coke and gaseous products and enhances the performance of liquid products. Also, the viscosity of the refined oil decreased by 23.2% due to the addition of formic acid compared to the... 

We introduce a new third generation of solar cell structure which inserts different-sized quantum dots in the active region of a pin structure. Generating an intermediate band in the bandgap of the host material makes a good overlap with a part of solar spectrum. The effect of the recombination mechanisms on efficiency and currentvoltage characteristics of this intermediate band solar cell is calculated. We deduce that the increase in recombination lifetime of the excited carriers can improve the characteristics of this structure. This result can be a route which helps us to take the effect on solar cell characteristics into consideration  

A luminescent coating of CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ particles applied on photoanode (TiO2) layer of SQ1 sensitized solar cell by doctor blading the paste of phosphor particles. The luminescent layer acted as a dual functional layer and enhanced the short circuit current density (JSC) by 64% via both scattering effect and downshifting of the photons in 400-600nm spectral range to photons in 600-800nm spectral range. Considerable relative enhancement in incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE) up to 350% in 400-600nm spectral range proves the down shifting effect as the dominant factor for the improved performance of dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). © 2016 Elsevier B.V  

A luminescent coating of CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ particles applied on photoanode (TiO2) layer of SQ1 sensitized solar cell by doctor blading the paste of phosphor particles. The luminescent layer acted as a dual functional layer and enhanced the short circuit current density (JSC) by 64% via both scattering effect and downshifting of the photons in 400–600 nm spectral range to photons in 600–800 nm spectral range. Considerable relative enhancement in incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE) up to 350% in 400–600 nm spectral range proves the down shifting effect as the dominant factor for the improved performance of dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). © 2016 Elsevier B.V  

The use of solar energy concentration systems for achieving performance enhancements in the Photovoltaic/thermal hybrid solar systems and reduction of initial costs is an idea that has been studied for years. In this article a new structure for parabolic trough photovoltaic/thermal collector is proposed and its thermal and electrical performances are experimentally investigated. The receiver of this concentrator contains a triangular channel with an outer surface covered with photovoltaic cells and thermoelectric modules with a specific arrangement so that in addition to absorbing heat, a larger portion of the solar radiation is directly converted to electricity. Hence, the performance of... 

Global warming escalation has extended average temperature of earth beyond its safe limit. To avert this environmental-threat, solar energy has acquired substantial attention of remarkable researchers in this century. To effectively utilize solar energy by transforming into thermal and electrical energy, the involvement of nanofluids having intensified thermal, optical and magnetic properties, has become very popular. The foremost objective of this article is to provide a comprehensive review on the applications of nanofluids in solar energy systems like solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, solar stills, and thermal energy storage, which are thoroughly discussed in this paper. The effect of... 

Solar updraft tower (SUT) is a simple power plant in which ventilation of heated air inside a channel drives a turbine. This system is recognised as suitable for areas with abundant solar radiation. As a result, there is no extensive research on the performance of SUTs under mild solar radiation. Studies show that strong ambient crosswinds can affect the performance of a SUT. In this paper, the efficiency of SUTs in areas which benefit from strong winds, despite low solar radiation, is investigated through numerical modelling. Comparison is made between the efficiency of a commercial-scale SUT in Manzanares (Spain) with intensive solar radiation, and one of the same size potentially located... 

The solar collectors absorb solar irradiation and then produce thermal energy; however, they cannot generate electrical power. Electricity and thermal energy can be produced by the photovoltaic thermal module, simultaneously, while the outlet temperature of the photovoltaic thermal module is not usually high enough to provide thermal requirements of a building such as hot water or space heating. This work proposes a novel compound system created by the connection of a solar collector in series with a photovoltaic thermal module to resolve the issue of low outlet temperature in the photovoltaic thermal module and lack of electrical power in solar collectors. To examine the feasibility of this... 

In this research, the design of a solar reverse osmosis desalination plant was investigated by integrating various components using TRNSYS and ROSA software. To this goal, a two-stage reverse osmosis system with 50% recovery in the city of Chabahar was modeled. The calculations were performed in three different case studies, i.e., a photovoltaic power plant, a solar collector power plant with Organic Rankine Cycles, and a photovoltaic thermal power plant with Organic Rankine Cycles, with the reverse osmosis desalination plant being a novel investigation. Water production and electrical energy generation of each case study were evaluated both on a daily and yearly bases. The simulation... 

Direct steam generation (DSG) in parabolic trough collectors causes an increase to competitiveness of solar thermal power plants (STPP) by substitution of oil with direct steam generation that results in lower investment and operating costs. In this study the integrated solar combined cycle system with DSG technology is introduced and techno-economic assessment of this plant is reported compared with two conventional cases. Three considered cases are: an integrated solar combined cycle system with DSG technology (ISCCS-DSG), a solar electric generating system (SEGS), and an integrated solar combined cycle system with HTF (heat transfer fluid) technology (ISCCS-HTF).This study shows that... 

In this study, the optimal sizing and performance analysis of a standalone integrated solar power system equipped with different storage scenarios to supply the power demand of a household is presented. One of the main purposes when applying solar energy resource is to face the increasing environmental pollutions resulting from fossil fuel based electricity sector. To this end, and to compare and examine two energy storage technologies (battery and hydrogen storage technology), three storage scenarios including battery only, hydrogen storage technology only and hybrid storage options are evaluated. An optimization framework based on Energy Hub concept is used to determine the optimum sizes... 

In this study, natural convection heat transfer in a vertical flat-plate solar air heater of 2.5 m height and 1 m width, with one- and two-glass covers was studied experimentally. Totally six cases of airflow (two for air heater with one glass cover and four for air heater with two-glass covers) were considered. These cases included states that air could flow within spaces between absorber plate and glass covers or air was enclosed in such spaces. Absorber plate temperature, back-plate temperature, glass cover temperatures, mass flow rates of air within channels and the solar radiation were measured. The following relations are suggested:. For channels in which air could flow:Nu = 0.7362... 

Effects of the amount and mode of input energy to an active multi-stage solar still were investigated in this work. To control the input energy, an electrical heater controlled by a PLC was utilized to simulate the energy absorbed by solar collectors. The study of the amount of input energy indicated that the freshwater production was a quadratic function of the collector over basin area (CBA) ratio. It was also found that stages 1 to 4 produced about 36%, 26%, 20% and 18% of the overall yield, respectively. Moreover, the effect of employing a thermal energy storage (TES) on the system performance was studied by comparing the mode of feeding energy according to the daily solar radiation... 

Scattering particles constitute a key light trapping solution for thin film photovoltaics where either the particles are embedded in the light absorbing layer or a thick layer of them is used as a reflector. Here we introduce a monolayer of wavelength-scale core-shell silica@Ag particles as a novel light trapping strategy for thin film photovoltaics. These particles show hybrid photonic-plasmonic resonance modes that scatter light strongly and with small parasitic absorption losses in Ag (<1.5%). In addition, their scattering efficiency does not vary significantly with the refractive index of the surrounding medium. A monolayer of these particles is applied as the top-scattering layers in a... 

Herein, we report a double-layer photoanode electrode composed of TiO2 nanoparticles active layer and a mixture of nanoparticles and newly proposed skein-like nanotubes (NTs) top layer. Such structure performs well in solar light harvesting due to first, the top layer exhibits superior light scattering and second, the active layer with high dye-loading can make better use of the back-scattered light. The results reveal that 30-40 nm nanoparticles have anatase structure, whereas 5-7 μm skein-like NTs show a mixture of anatase and rutile phases. Photovoltaic measurements demonstrate that by tuning mass ratio between nanoparticles and skein-like NTs, the cells based on single-layer photoanode... 

In this study, a novel idea of storing the latent heat of condensing vapor in solar stills by means of phase change materials (PCMs) as a thermal storage is experimentally investigated. During the daytime, the generated water vapor by the solar energy, is conducted to an external condenser filled with PCM to be condensed. The wasted latent heat is absorbed by PCM and thereby stored. It is worth noting that there is no direct contact between the saline water and the PCM, therefore, the solar energy is not directly stored in the PCM. In the evening, the energy stored in the PCM is transferred as heat to the saline water by heat pipes and enables the desalination process to continue. Several... 

A new poly (acrylonitrile) (PAN)-based gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) is fabricated to study the effect of carbon nanotube (CNT) on dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) efficiency. The GPEs are examined using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to analyze ionic conductivity. A maximum of 4.45 mS cm−1 ionic conductivity is achieved at room temperature with incorporation of 11 wt.% CNT. Performance of DSSC is examined with a solar simulator, and the highest energy conversion efficiency of 8.87% is achieved with the addition of 11 wt.% CNT. All GPE samples are found to follow Arrhenius model with temperature-dependent ionic conductivity testing. Structural properties are also characterized... 

Optical and thermal analysis of the most well-known solar concentrator system; parabolic trough collector (PTC) are investigated and analyzed. To evaluate performance of the PTC, four cities of Iran with different weather conditions are chosen as case studies. Effective parameters such as concentration ratio, incident angle correction factor, collector mass flow rate are considered. The main objective of this work is evaluation of the solar energy potential using PTC in under consideration cities with different climates. Numerical modeling of the analysis is done using MATLAB software. Simulation results shows that Shiraz, with an average annual thermal efficiency of 13.91% and annual useful... 

One of the primary factors affecting the amount of worldwide energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is cooking. Solar cooking is an appropriate solution because it is both inexpensive and expandable. To illustrate modern advancements and the current status of solar cooking technology, this paper presents a review of recent experimental and analytical socioeconomic studies on solar cookers. The experimental studies have been divided into three categories based on different solar cooker structures: (i) box types, (ii) concentrating types, and (iii) panel types. Next, different designs are investigated according to their direct or indirect heat transfer modes and optional equipment for... 

This paper addresses a low complexity and high efficient cooling system applicable on photovoltaic (PV) system leading to enhance electrical efficiency and provide preheated water. The developed system consists of a photovoltaic panel, a cooling water system establishing a uniform surface temperature, and a solar water heater. According to the proposed system characteristics, the setup is constructed based on a single mono-crystalline solar panel to absorb more solar radiation intensity and generate more electrical energy per area in compare to a poly-crystalline panel. The preheated water produced by absorbed heat from the photovoltaic is conducted to a solar water heater to satisfy...