| Issue |
Sci. Tech. Energ. Transition
Volume 78, 2023
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 43 | |
| Number of page(s) | 8 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.2516/stet/2023028 | |
| Published online | 22 December 2023 | |
Regular Article
Improving the efficiency of solar-driven trigeneration systems using nanofluid coolants★
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kuwait University, Jamal Abdul Nasser St, Safat 5969, Kuwait
* Correspondence: balshuraiaan@outlook.com
Received:
28
October
2022
Accepted:
4
September
2023
This article is intended to evaluate methods to improve the efficiency of trigeneration plants, which are designed for the co-generation of heat, electricity, and cold. The possibility of using nanofluids with the addition of oxides of aluminum, silicon, magnesium, and copper, as well as copper itself in the concentration range of 1–6% has been analyzed. The results show that the use of nanofluids can increase the exergic efficiency of the system to 22.9–27.8% and increase thermal efficiency by 23.2–26.7%. It was found that nanofluids have low heat capacity, which may be one of the factors that increase the overall efficiency of trigeneration plants up to 43–60%. Magnesium oxide proved to be the most efficient for generating electricity, with 212.8 kW, aluminum oxide (197.5 kW) for cooling, and copper oxide for generating 98 kW of heat. The Pearson criterion was χ2 = 0.87, Student’s t-test 0.07–0.09, statistical significance of results p ≤ 0.005.
Key words: Energy efficiency / Nanofluids / Thermal energy / Solar collector / Trigeneration
© The Author(s), published by EDP Sciences, 2023
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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