Energy and exergy analysis of parabolic trough collectors

In the study, energy and exergy analysis of a parabolic solar collector has been investigated theoretically. First of all, the necessary equations have been given to perform thermodynamic analyzes. Afterwards, computational algorithms model have been created in the computer program. Then, in order to test the validity of the calculations, the model was tested by experimental tests. Finally, in order to perform energy and exergy analysis appropriately, two liquid working fluids synthetic oil and molten salt and a gas working fluid air was used. In addition, the air was used at two different pressures at atmospheric pressure and 100 bar. Thus, while the differences between the liquid and gas fluids were examined thermodynamically, the thermodynamic properties of the air at different pressures were also analyzed. As a result, it has been shown that liquid fluids exhibit higher energy efficiency to the air. Moreover, after the inlet temperature 315 °C exergy performance of liquid fluids are better than the air. In addition, there has been an improvement in the thermodynamic properties of the air by raising the pressure of the air from atmospheric pressure to 100 bar.