1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Energy is the basis of human life. The increase of higher energy demands with
a population increase is a challenge coupled to another bigger challenge of
climate change and pollution. For a country like India, which is almost
dependent on fossil fuel imports, it is a huge burden on its emerging economy;
hence it is in a dire need to find clean energy sources to meet its demands.
According to the International Energy Agency report published in November
2019, there are significant efforts to develop clean energy and renewable energy
technologies, but the developments are moving slowly. The renewable energy
share in India has reached to about 10% in the year 2018. Fossil fuels still have
dominant dependence to near 80%. This depicts the magnitude of the challenge.

Among the various renewable energies, the solar energy is a critical resource.
The sun continuously emits electromagnetic waves into space. The earth itself
acts like a large solar collector receiving these waves and transforming it into
various forms.

Solar radiation received by the earth at the higher atmosphere level amounts to
174 petawatts. The earth's energy balance is detailed in Figure1.1.
Approximately 30% of the radiation is reflected back and the rest is absorbed by
landmass, clouds, and water bodies. The solar light experienced near the earth's
surface is mostly in the visible region and a small portion near the ultraviolet
frequency. Annually solar energy absorbed by the earth, amounts to 3850K
exajoules.
 2

Figure1.1: Earth's solar energy balance(Univ.of Tennessee, Canada)

India has a vast potential for solar power. Recognizing this, the Indian
Government has taken a leadership role in harnessing solar energy. The solar
energy potential has been geographically mapped across India as shown in
Figure1.2 (Yadav et al. 2015). Developments in the area of solar energy
harnessing can prove that it is important for bridging the gap between demand
and supply of energy and also it will be a big boost for economic development
while reducing pollution levels and CO2 emissions.
 3

Figure 1.2: Solar energy map of India (Yadav et al. 2015)

Solar energy can be harnessed by two methods namely; solar thermal

and solar photovoltaic. Solar energy is directly converted to electricity in
photovoltaic system. In the case of solar thermal conversion, the Concentrated
Solar Technology (CST) is comparatively new and progressively developing in
terms of deployment. Most of the industrial heat applications still use fossil
fuels as a source of energy and hence they are responsible for large CO 2
emissions. This field is considered most ideal for CST. According to the report
published by the Central statistics office, Government of India in the year 2019,
the industrial sector in India consumed 55.51% of the energy generated.
Industrial Process Heat (IPH) requirements usually demand temperatures
between 80oC to 250oC.
 4

1.1 CONCENTRATED SOLAR TECHNOLOGY (CST)

Two significant potential areas of application for CSTs are:

Process heat: For temperatures below 400 oC, solar

concentrators are regarded as a commercially feasible solution.
For temperatures up to 80oC, non-concentrating collectors are
useful. Concentrating collectors are considered practical for
process heat starting from 100oC and beyond.

Solar cooling: Another appropriate application for solar heat is

solar cooling. In most locations in India, the cooling demand in
summer peak period matches with solar high irradiance, and
hence solar cooling becomes the best application match.

1.2 TYPES OF CST

Concentrated Solar Technology (CST) can concentrate solar radiation

with the help of reflecting materials to produce temperatures in the range of
100oC to 450oC or more. These devices are usually equipped with tracking, to
focus sun rays on to a receiver all the time. They use the direct normal radiation
and not the diffused radiation. Some of the CST devices are as follows:

(1) Flat plate (Non concentrating)

(2) Parabolic Trough (PTC)

(3) Compound Parabola

(4) Fresnel Reflector based Dish (ARUN)

 5

(5) Paraboloid Dish

(6) Linear Fresnel reflector concentrator (LFRC)

(7) Fixed Focus Elliptical Dish (Scheffler Dish)

(1) Flat plate collector:

A flat-plate collector (Figure 1.3) is the most widely used application

of water heating up to 75oC.

Figure 1.3: Flat plate collector

(2) Parabolic Trough Collector:

This is a line focusing type (Figure1.4) where solar radiation gets

concentrated at the focus of a parabolic collector. Mostly, cylindrical parabolic
concentrators are used in which the absorber is placed along the focus axis.
 6

Figure 1.4: Parabolic trough collector (SEGS III California)

(3) Compound Parabola concentrator (CPC):

CPC derives its name from two parabolic reflectors (Figure 1.5)
located on the left and right of the absorber plate. The construction of a CPC
makes it feasible to harness solar radiation with a wide angular spread.

Figure 1.5: Compound parabola concentrator (www.reseachgate.net)

(4) The ARUN Dish is a paraboloid solar concentrator (Figure 1.6) that has a
point focus. It can be used with various heat transfer fluids like steam, oil,
water, or air at pressures of up to 25 bar and temperatures of up to 350oC.
 7

Figure 1.6: Arun dish (HELI SCSP Solar Thermal Energy news)

(5) Paraboloid dish

The Paraboloid dish concentrator shown in Figure 1.7 has a point-focus that
tracks the sun in two axes, concentrating solar energy onto a receiver located at
the focal point of the dish. The concentration ratio of this concentrator is high in
the range of 500 to 3000 producing high temperatures upto 450oC.

Figure 1.7: Paraboloid dish (Alternate energy tutorials)

(6) Linear Fresnel Reflector Concentrator (LFRC)

These concentrators have long mirrors (Figure 1.8) which has absorbers fixed
at the focal point. These mirrors have the capability of focusing solar radiation
up to 30 times its normal intensity.
 8

Figure 1.8: Linear Fresnel (AREVA, Novatech)

(7) Fixed focus elliptical dish (Scheffler dish)

The Scheffler solar dish (Figure1.9) has a paraboloid shape. The dish
is designed to focus solar radiation at a small focal point away from the dish.

Figure 1.9: Scheffler dish installation (Brahakumari's Mount Abu, India)

The parabolic dish is constructed with many small size reflectors. More than
90% of the sunlight falling on them is reflected by these glazed mirrors on the
fixed focus. The construction by using mirror segments instead of a single piece
mirror enables significant cost reduction. Besides it is easy to replace an
individual mirror piece in the case of damage.

According to Scheffler (2006), initially small Scheffler dishes of size 2 and 2.7
m2 were developed for family usage and later sizes were extended to 8.0, 9.7m 2,
and others, for usage in community canteens and industrial applications. A
Scheffler collector system is a good alternative for medium (100 oC~250oC) and
high (250oC~400oC) temperature process heat. Sardeshpande et al. (2012)
performed an economic and payback analysis for CST from an Indian market
 9

perspective. In India two largely available concentrators are the Scheffler and
ARUN. It was concluded that Scheffler concentrator is economically more
attractive than the ARUN at temperatures below 150 oC. However at higher
temperatures more than 150oC the thermal efficiency of the system drops.

1.3 CONSTRUCTION OF SCHEFFLER CONCENTRATOR

The key components of a Scheffler dish-based system are the-

• Scheffler Dish

• Receiver

• Dish stand

• Tracking System

• Piping and Insulation

• Instrumentation and Safety Mechanism

• Heat Storage System

The incident angle of the solar radiation varies ±23.5° in relation to the
perpendicular to the earth-axis during seasons in a year. To keep fixed focus,
the paraboloidal dish has to have the same change of inclination and hence dish
requires seasonal variation flexibility.

Bending and flexing is the most unique feature of the Scheffler reflector. This
is made possible by the reflector-frame (Figure1.10) built for the equinox. The
frame of the reflector is inclined as well as elastically deformed for this purpose.
 10

Figure 1.10: Overview of Scheffler construction

The dish is constructed (Figure 1.10) in such a way that inclination and
deforming of the reflector are achieved at the same time. On each side of the
frame there are two pivots named A. Another pivot B is located at the centre of
the reflector a little lower than A. By using the three pivot points in praxis the
approximately correct shape is attained for the curvature of the crossbars. Along
the parabola (centre bar) the two telescopic clamps C and D deform the centre
bar until the concentrated light is sharply focussed at the focal point. Some of
the key terminologies used in the context of the Scheffler dish are as follows

Aperture area:

It is the net opening in the topmost cover through which solar radiation is
admitted into the concentrator.

Concentration ratio:

It is the ratio of aperture area to the receiver area.

Mirror reflectivity:
 11

It is the ratio of reflected power to incident power.

1.4 MOTIVATION FOR PRESENT WORK

Although it is recognised that solar concentrators are promising in

medium- and high-heat industrial applications, the steam production capability,
characterisation, and efficiency improvement possibilities of Scheffler
concentrators have not yet been fully studied. In the previous literature, apart
from the work by Patil et al. (2014), not many attempts could be identified for
building a characteristic equation with limited parameters. Hence, a possibility
existed to include many more significant parameters. Most of the efficiency
attempts centred on heat loss estimations from the receiver or on changes in
receiver geometry. However, no published research could be found on studying
the Scheffler concentrator by varying several parameters, including studying
wind effects, which has large implications on thermal efficiency. The Scheffler
concentrator system has been studied in the past for the high-temperature water
regions whereas this research work is for steam generation. This enables the
usage of the Scheffler concentrator for applications in such high-temperature
conditions.

1.5 THESIS OUTLINE

The research work is focused on experimental studies of the Scheffler

concentrator with two receiver shapes. These experiments were designed to
establish performance curves and equations covering major influence
parameters. Certain numerical tools are used to study and validate specific
performances and for developing a better understanding. The main objective is
to identify ways to improve the thermal efficiency of the Scheffler concentrator
system. The rest of this Thesis is organised as follows;
 12

Chapter 1 highlights the importance of solar energy and the concentrated solar
technology (CST), making a special emphasis on the Scheffler system. Chapter
1 also describes constructional details and terminologies associated with the
Scheffler concentrator and the motivation for conducting the research work.

Chapter 2 reviews previously published research works classified under topics

such as: the Scheffler concentrator, improvement in thermal performance,
improvement in optical performance, reduction in thermal losses, improvement
in energy and exergy performance, improvement in receiver shapes and other
means. At the end of the chapter, knowledge gaps and problems with previous
researches are identified, and the novelty of the research work is presented.

Chapter 3 states the objectives of the research work, elaborates on the design,
and development of the Scheffler concentrator system, and describes the
experimental set up and procedures.

Chapter 4 details the experimental characterisation performed for both big and
small Scheffler using the experimental data. The process adopted for developing
a characteristic equation using dimensional analysis covering all parameters of
influence, the various π terms developed, and the analysis of their relative
importance and interpretation are also described in detail in this chapter.

In Chapter 5, four potential measures for improving thermal efficiency are

studied and presented and investigated. In each case, performances have been
analysed for identifying trends and limitations. For each Scheffler size and the
receiver combination, the best efficiency conditions have been identified. Based
on the efficiency improvement findings, an integrated Scheffler and flat plate
system is described and experimental results presented. By using the Response
Surface Methodology (RSM), optimum parameters have been identified for
improved efficiency performance.
 13

Chapter 6 presents the receiver performance analysis for surface temperature

distribution using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and experimental and
numerical analysis results are compared. A visualisation tool is used to illustrate
the phenomenon within the receivers. Using this analysis, steam generation rate
capacities have been determined for both Scheffler dishes and the receivers.
Another aspect included is the wind speed and wind direction effect on the
receivers using a virtual wind tunnel CFD technique.

Under 'results and discussions', Chapter 7 discusses the results of the research
work and compares them with the results obtained by other researchers in
related fields.

Chapter 8 outlines the conclusions, limitations, and scope of future research.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW