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Special Issue on Emerging and Renewable Energy: Generation and Automation

Special Issue on Emerging and Renewable Energy: Generation and Automation
Thermal analysis of linear solar concentrator for indirect steam
Thermal analysis of linear solar concentrator for indirect steam
The 15th International Symposium generation on District Heating and Cooling
generation
Assessing
Karima Ghazouani the feasibility
a
a
, Safa Skouriof a using the heat
a
, Salwa Bouadilaaa, AmenAllah
Karima Ghazouani , Safa Skouri , Salwa Bouadila , AmenAllah Guizani demand-outdoor Guizaniaa
temperature function for a long-term district heat demand forecast
The Research and Technology Center of Energy, the Thermal Processes Laboratory, Hammam Lif, B.P. 95, 2050 Tunis, Tunisia
a

The Research and Technology Center of Energy, the Thermal Processes Laboratory, Hammam Lif, B.P. 95, 2050 Tunis, Tunisia
a

a,b,c a a b c c
Abstract I. Andrić *, A. Pina , P. Ferrão , J. Fournier ., B. Lacarrière , O. Le Corre
Abstract
a
IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research - Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
The thermal performance ofba Parabolic Trough Solar Power Plant (PTSPP) is critical to the overall efficiency of the system. The
Veolia Recherche & Innovation, 291 Avenue Dreyfous Daniel, 78520 Limay, France
The thermal performance
advancement of a Parabolic
cof this technologies has ledTrough
to theSolar Power Plant
development (PTSPP)
of steam is criticaland
production to the overallsolution
efficient efficiency
thatofutilizes
the system. The
the sun’s
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes,2 France
advancement
energy for thermal of this technologies
power generation. hasInled
thistowork
the development of steam
a parabolic trough production
concentrator and
with efficient
aperture solution
area of 10.8that utilizes
m was the sun’s
designed and
energy forinthermal
evaluated power generation.
the Research and Technology In this work of
Center a parabolic trough concentrator
Energy (CRTEn) withtype
in Tunisia. This aperture
of concentrating m2 was
area of 10.8 solar designed
power and
collector
evaluated
is analyzedinfor theindirect
Research and Technology
steam Center Several
generating system. of Energy (CRTEn) in
parameters, as Tunisia.
thermal This type of concentrating
characterization of absorber; solar powerefficiency
thermal collector
is analyzed
ofAbstract
mixed heat forexchangers;
indirect steam generating
thermal system.
efficiency, Several parameters,
concentration as thermal characterization
ratio and quantification of absorber;
of steam generation, thermal efficiency
were considered in order
of
to mixed heat exchangers;
study their thermal
effects on energy efficiency,
efficiency. concentration
Experimental ratio show
results and quantification of steam
that the receiver generation,
of parabolic wereconcentrator
trough considered in order
extracts
to study
552.73 W their
of effects
absorbed on energy
energy. We efficiency.
found thatExperimental
the thermal results
energy show that
efficiency the receiver
varies from of
24% parabolic
to 28%
District heating networks are commonly addressed in the literature as one of the most effective solutions for decreasing the trough
for PTSPP concentrator
system andextracts
reach
552.73 W of
angreenhouse
average absorbed
concentration
gas energy.
emissionsfactor We
from found
around
the 200.that
building Asthe thermal
results,
sector. the energy
These maximum
systemsefficiency
value
requireofvaries fromgenerated
the steam
high 24% towhich
investments 28% for
are PTSPP
by parabolic system
trough
returned andthereach
concentrator
through heat
an 8averageh. concentration
kg / Due
issales. to the changedfactorclimate
around conditions
200. As results,
and the maximum
building value ofpolicies,
renovation the steamheatgenerated
demand by in
parabolic trough
the future concentrator
could decrease,
8 kg / h. the investment return period.
isprolonging
Copyright © 2019ofElsevier Ltd.isAll rights the
reserved.
©The2019
Copyright
main
The©scope
Authors.
2019
this paper
Published
Elsevier Ltd. by
to Elsevier
All
assess
rights
feasibility of using the heat demand – outdoor temperature function for heat demand
Ltd
reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of theasSpecial Issue on The
Emerging andisRenewable
Selection and peer-review under responsibilityinofLisbon
forecast. The district of Alvalade, located (Portugal),
the scientific was used
committee of the 6tha case study.
International district
Conference onconsisted
Emergingofand 665
Selection
Energy:
buildings and
thatpeer-review
Generation varyand
in under
Automation.
both responsibility
construction of the
period and scientific
typology. committee
Three of the Special
weather scenarios Issue on medium,
(low, Emerginghigh) and Renewable
and three district
Renewable Energy: Generation and Automation, ICEREGA 2018.
Energy:
renovationGeneration
scenariosandwere
Automation.
developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
Keywords: Solar Parabolic Trough,
compared with results from a dynamic Transcal N,
heatsteam generating
demand model, systems
previously developed and validated by the authors.
Keywords: Solar Parabolic Trough, Transcal N, steam generating
The results showed that when only weather change is considered, systems the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
1.scenarios,
Introductionthe error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
1.TheIntroduction
value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the
Concentrating
decrease Solar of
in the number Power
heating (CSP)
hourstechnology
of 22-139h is one of
during thesolar energy
heating season utilization
(depending technologies which can
on the combination be classified
of weather and
Concentrating
renovation scenariosSolar Power
considered). (CSP)
On thetechnology
other hand, is one
function of solar energy
intercept utilization
increased for technologies
7.8-12.7%
into four types based on a system’s method of collecting solar energy: Linear Fresnel (LF), Parabolic Trough (PT), Central per which
decade can
(dependingbe classified
on the
into four
coupled types based
scenarios). on
The a system’s
values method
suggested of
could collecting
be used tosolar
modifyenergy:
the Linear
function Fresnel
parameters
Receiver (CR) and Parabolic Dish (PD). The CSP can be used in a great variety of applications such as desalination, solar (LF),
for Parabolic
the Trough
scenarios (PT),
considered, Central
and
improve industrial
Receiver
cooling, the
(CR) accuracy of heat refrigeration
and heating,
Parabolic demand estimations.
Dish (PD). The electricity
and CSP can beproduction
used in a great
[1][2].variety of applications such as desalination, solar
cooling, industrial heating, refrigeration and electricity production [1][2].
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +216 79 325 811; fax: +21679 325 934.
Cooling.
E-mail address: [email protected]
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +216 79 325 811; fax: +21679 325 934.
E-mail address: [email protected]
Keywords: Heat demand; Forecast; Climate change
1876-6102 Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1876-6102 Copyright
Selection and © 2019
peer-review Elsevier
under Ltd. All of
responsibility rights reserved. committee of the Special Issue on Emerging and Renewable Energy: Generation
the scientific
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Special Issue on Emerging and Renewable Energy: Generation
and Automation.
and Automation.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 6th International Conference on Emerging and
Renewable Energy: Generation and Automation, ICEREGA 2018.
10.1016/j.egypro.2019.04.015
 Karima Ghazouani et al. / Energy Procedia 162 (2019) 136–145 137
2 Karima GHAZOUANI/ Energy Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the installed capacity of CSP will reach 20 GW by 2020 and 800
GW by 2050 [3]. In the literature, numerous studies proved that the advancement in CSP technologies has led to the
development of steam production. Ravelli et al. [4] presented a model of direct steam generation in Concentrating Solar
Power Plants. A simulation procedure was developed in order to predict the performance of a Concentrating Solar Power
Plant with direct steam generation technology. Three different simulation environments were used such as TRNSYS,
Thermoflex and Octave to predict the performance of a five MWe direct steam generation solar power plant, designed
under the INDITEP project. The solar parabolic trough systems have many advantages such as high efficiency modularity,
high power density, versatility, abundant operational experience, and the ease of coupling with fossil fuels and other
renewable energy sources. Numerous researches indicate that parabolic trough collector technology can be used for large
scale power generation very effectively with high dispatchability, for steam generation and others applications. Wang et
al.[5] developed the performance assessment of solar assisted absorption heat pump system with parabolic trough
collectors. A solar assisted absorption heat pump (AHP) system installed in Tianjin University for space heating in winter
and heat water supply. A series of tests were realized to evaluate the optical and heat loss of the collectors. Fan et al. [6]
analysed the performance of a solar heating system with absorption heat pump and oil/water heat exchanger. Two systems
were used for space heating: absorption heat pumps (AHPs) and oil/water heat exchanger (OWHE). In cloudy days with
high DNI lasting for a short period (2 hours), the two systems AHPs and OWHE were compared and found that the
operation of OWHE system was better than the operation of AHP system. Authors demonstrated that the system produces
saturated steam during 8 h with a quality higher than 0.6 for a flow rate of 33 kg/h and the collector performances are
suitable for the coupling with the steam engine. Marefati et al. [7] developed an optical and thermal analysis of a parabolic
trough solar collector for production of thermal energy in different climates in Iran with comparison between the
conventional nanofluids. Solar energy potential was evaluated using PTC in under consideration cities with different
climates. An on-site test method for optical efficiency of large-size parabolic trough collectors developed by Wang et al.
[8]. The method is based on energy balance of incident solar radiation, heat gain, cosine loss, end loss, optical loss and
heat loss. This method was implemented on the 300 kWt PTC experimental rig located in Langfang, China, Hebei. As
result, the optical efficiency is evaluated to be around 77%, which agrees well with that of the LS-3 collector (77%).
Hoste and Schuknecht [9] analyzed thermal efficiency of Sky Fuel’s advanced, large-aperture, parabolic trough collector.
An advanced and low-cost parabolic trough collector funded in part by DOE and developed by Sky Fuel, Inc for the
purpose of comprehensive performance and efficiency testing. The analysis of the collector’s optical laser intercept, heat
loss of the molten salt compatible receivers, optical efficiency while tracking the sun and operation with HTF molten salt
were tested. Abbood et al. [10] designed, constructed and tested a parabolic trough solar concentrator system for hot water
and moderate temperature steam generation. A three PTC were designed and operated in order to generate hot water and
moderate temperature steam. Several parameters were investigated in the performance analysis of the PTC array. The
technical feasibility of using PTC for applications requiring thermal energy at temperature up to 150 °C was found.
Murtuza et al. [11] presented an experimental and simulation studies of PTC design for obtaining solar energy. The newly
developed parabolic trough solar collector was tested and characterized its performance. The results of this work allowed
the performance of new parabolic trough components such as heat collecting elements and surface materials to be
measured when the collector becomes a test-rig in on ongoing solar thermal research program. Bellos and Tzivanidis [12]
developed an analytical expression of parabolic trough solar collector performance. The thermal performance of PTC and
five parameters by this model were determined for the calculation of the thermal efficiency. An annual performance of a
parabolic trough solar collector analysed by Liang et al. [13]. A transient heat transfer model was established in this study
in order to simulate the dynamic performance of a PTC for three different sun-tracking systems in various climate regions
in China. The net annual heat gain in sun-rich areas was almost four times as much as that in sun-absent areas for the
same sun tracking system. In the concentration process of sunrays, non-uniform heat flux distribution is formed outside
the absorber tube. Akbarimoosavi and Yaghoubi [14] presented 3D thermal-structural analysis of an absorber tube of a
PTC and the effect of tube deflection on optical efficiency. Three-dimensional temperature distribution and tube thermal
expansion due to non-uniform solar flux over the tube were determined numerically. Local concentration ratio, flux
density, temperature distribution and thermal expansions were determined for the designed conditions. Simulation and
optimization of parabolic trough receiver with non-uniform heat flux distribution presented by Wang et al.[15]. This work
presented a non-uniform heat flux distribution (NUHF) of PTC, including simulation studies of PTRs and the calculation
methods of NUHF. Chang et al. [16] presented heat transfer enhancement of a molten salt parabolic trough solar receiver
with concentric and eccentric pipe inserts. A three-dimensional simulation model is established. By combining FLUENT
138 Karima Ghazouani et al. / Energy Procedia 162 (2019) 136–145
Karima GHAZOUANI/ Energy Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 3

software and a MCRT code, the non-uniform heat flux and detailed temperature distribution of a parabolic trough receiver
(PTR) is successfully simulated.

Nomenclature

Aap aperture area of concentrator, m 2

Ar receiver area, m 2
CR mean concentration factor
d diameter of receiver’s internal, m
D diameter of parabolic dish, m
Gb global solar irradiation, Wm -2
I direct solar radiation, Wm -2
l width of collector, m
L length of collector, m
ms mass of evaporated water, kg
Msteam annual steam energy produced, kg
Qa absorbed energy, W
Qmax maximum heat flow, W
Qp total heat losses from a receiver, W
Qpcv convective losses, W
Qpr radiative losses, W
Qpcd conductive losses, W
Qst heat energy of steam, W
Qu useful energy, W
Tr receiver temperature, °C
Ta ambient temperature, °C
Tgc glass cover temperature, °C
Tst steam temperature, °C
UL overall heat loss coefficient, Wm -2 k -1
η en thermal efficiency of collector, %
ηME thermal efficiency of mixed exchanger, %
η ab thermal efficiency of absorber, %
η op optical efficiency, %

2. Description of the experimental device

This section describes a Parabolic Trough collector used for indirect steam production. shown in Fig. 1. designed,
manufactured and installed in the Research and Technology Center of Energy Borj Cedria –Tunisia (CRTEn). The
collector consists of four parts: (1) a reflector, (2) a receiver, (3) a sun tracking system and (4) a hydraulic circuit. SPT
was fabricated with galvanized steel metal and its interior surface is covered by hard aluminum sheets with a thickness
 Karima Ghazouani et al. / Energy Procedia 162 (2019) 136–145 139
4 Karima GHAZOUANI/ Energy Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

of 2.5 mm which is wrapped by a reflected film in order to reflect the maximum of sunlight into the absorber. The
reflector of the Parabolic Trough (SPT) system has one degree of liberty which was oriented to East-West direction
and rotates around the horizontal North-South axis to obtain the maximum energy incidence provided from the sun.
This concentrator is composed of a parabola with 2.7 m aperture diameter, a focal distance equal to 0.835 m, an
aperture area of 10.8 m2 ( 2 .7 × 4 ) and an opening angle of 76.3°. The parabola is wrapped by an aluminized film
which is thin, lightweight, and low cost. The sun tracking system of the SPT is one axe tracker. The SPT was oriented
from the East to the West direction and rotates around the horizontal North-South axis related to two electric jacks
commanded by two Electrical control circuits.

Fig.1. Solar Parabolic Trough device in Research and Technology Center of Energy.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of Concentrated Solar Parabolic (a) SPD and (b) SPT

The SPT is equipped with a cylindrical receiver located at a linear focus and maintained by two arms in the
extremities. The SPT receiver is a vacuum tube coated of glass and steel it consists of two concentric tubes with 4 m
of length. The inner tube is a selective coating with an opening diameter of 0.07 m and 0.0015 m of thickness. It is
 140 Karima Ghazouani et al. / Energy Procedia 162 (2019) 136–145
Karima GHAZOUANI/ Energy Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 5

painted with a black material in order to absorb the maximum of sunlight. To reduce thermal heat losses, the inner
tube is surrounded by another tube it is a glass cover with 0.12 m of inner diameter and 0.003 m of thickness. The
transmissivity of the glass tube is equal to 0.95. The space between inner tube and glass cover was evacuated. The
direct solar radiations coming to the collector surface are reflected and concentrated towards the receiver. The reflected
solar radiations are absorbed by thermal oil (Transcal N) hydraulic circuits.
SPT hydraulic circuits of the device consists of six components: a receiver, oil tank, oil pump, water tank, water
pump and a mixed heat exchanger (Fig. 2.). The incident sun-radiation coming on the collector surface reflects and
concentrates towards the absorber. The reflected solar radiation is absorbed by a Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) which
circulated in the absorber. Thermal exchange between oil and water will be transferred to a mixed heat exchanger in
order to achieve the hot temperature for steam production. Both fluids returned to a water and oil tanks by respectively
water and oil pumps. SPT hydraulic circuit have two expansion tanks for safety.

3. Mathematical model

3.1. Thermal analysis

This section covers the formulations and equations used to carry out the energy analyze of the solar parabolic and
parabolic trough collector.
The useful heat delivered by a solar concentrator (SPT) is the heat flux absorbed by thermal oil as heat transfer
fluid (HTF) circulated in the solar heat exchanger (SHE) and it is also the difference between the solar power absorbed
by the receiver Qa and the heat losses from the receiver to the surroundings Qp which is defined by the following
expression:
.
Qu = Oil
mOil C p − oil (Tout Oil
− ab − Tin − ab ) =
Qa − Q p (1)
.
m O il is the oil mass flow rate, C p − o il is the oil heat capacity and (Tout − ab − Tin − ab ) is the difference between the
Oil Oil

inlet and outlet temperatures of the oil.

The expression of solar power absorbed by the receiver is [17].
Q a = η op I A ap (2)
ηop is the optical efficiency its estimated value is taken as 0.85 [19]. It depends on geometry used for collector and
optical characteristic of material. I is the direct solar radiation incident on the collector and A ap represents the
aperture area of the solar concentrator.
The thermal efficiency of the collector is the ratio between the useful energy delivered and the available solar
energy [20].
Q (3)
η en = u
Qa
The mean concentration factor of the system is:
Ar (4)
CR = η en
Aap
Ar is the receiver area of the solar concentrator.
The thermal energy efficiency of the absorber is the ratio between the thermal efficiency of the solar concentrating
system and the optical efficiency which is defined by [20].
η en Qp (5)
η a=
b = (1 − )
η op Qa
The heat losses from the receiver of the parabolic trough of the surroundings is defined by:
= Qp U L A r (T r − T a ) (6)
UL is the overall heat transfer coefficient, it can be calculated based on the conductive, convective and radiative
heat transfer coefficient proposed by [21] (Fig. 3) and it is given by the following expression:
 Karima Ghazouani et al. / Energy Procedia 162 (2019) 136–145 141
6 Karima GHAZOUANI/ Energy Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

−1
 Ar 1  (7)
UL  + 
 Agc ( hc , gc − a + hr , gc − a ) hr , gc − r 
Agc is the glass cover area of the parabolic trough absorber,

Fig. 3 Cylindrical absorber of parabolic trough solar collector

hc,gc−a is the convective heat transfer coefficient between the ambient and the glass cover is given by:
Nu kair (8)
hc , gc −a =
Dgc,0
The Nusselt number for this concept and Dgc,0 is the outer diameter of the glass cover.
hr,gc−a is the radiation heat transfer coefficient from glass cover to ambient is calculated using linearized radiation
equation proposed by [21]:
h r , g c − a = ε g c σ (T g c + T a )(T g c 2 + T a 2 ) (9)
εgc and Tgc , represent the emissivity of glass cover and the glass cover temperature shown in Appendix, respectively.
hr,gc−r is the radiation heat transfer coefficient from glass cover to receiver is:
σ (Tgc + Tr )(Tgc 2 + Tr 2 ) (10)
hr , gc − r =
1 Ar  1 
+  − 1
εr Agc  ε gc 

3.2. Generating steam quantification

The quantity of the steam produced, during the test period, is given by the heat energy of steam that is defined by
the following expression:
Qst = ms H sh (11)
ms is the mass of evaporated water (steam) during the test period and it is defined by the difference between the
measured quantity of water m2 and the quantity of residual water in the water tank m1 .
ms = m2 − m1 = ρ w .(V2 − V1 ) (12)
V1 and V2 are the volume of residual water and the measured volume of water in the water tank, respectively. ρw
is the water density and H sh is the enthalpy of superheated steam.
142 Karima Ghazouani et al. / Energy Procedia 162 (2019) 136–145
Karima GHAZOUANI/ Energy Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 7

4. Experimental investigation

An experimental study has been done of the parabolic trough solar collector. Fig. 4 presented the temporary variations
of the ambient temperature and the relative humidity which obtained in the experiment. the maximum ambient
temperature is equal to 29 °C at noon, the average relative humidity is equal to 75 HR % and the peak global solar
radiation of experiment is 900 Wm-2.
It is important to study the absorber efficiency and the absorbed energy by the receiver for SPD and SPT systems.
Fig.5 shows variations of the inlet, outlet temperatures of the working fluid (Transcal N) circulated in the receiver for
parabolic trough concentrator. The working fluid circulated with an oil mass flow rate equal to 0.016 kg/s. It is seen
from the illustration that the optimum outlet temperatures of the SPT absorbers is equal to 71 °C, at noon. It is clearly
perceived in Fig. 5 that the average difference between the oil inlet and the oil outlet temperatures in the SHE of
parabolic trough concentrator is equal to 7 °C. It is shown that the SPT outlet fluid occupy more time that during 1
hour to starting the temperature increasing and maintain more time to decrease at 15h00.

90 35
Relative humidity Ambient temperature
80
30
70

Ambient temperature ( °C )
Relative humidity ( HR % )

60 25

50
20
40

30
15

20

10
10
06 08 10 12 14 16 18
Time(HH:mm)

Fig. 4. Temporary variations of the ambient temperature and relative humidity

90
Absorber oil temperature of the SPT device (°C)

85 Inlet oil temperature

Outlet oil temperature
80

75

70

65

60

55

50

45

40

35

10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (HH)

Fig. 5. Temporary variations of the absorber inlet and outlet oil temperatures
 Karima Ghazouani et al. / Energy Procedia 162 (2019) 136–145 143
8 Karima GHAZOUANI/ Energy Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

4.1. Thermal efficiency and concentration ratio of SPD and SPT

Basing on the experimental result (Fig. 6) and Eq. (10), the receiver of parabolic trough solar extracts an absorbed
energy equal to 552.73 W. The thermal efficiency of solar concentrator is influenced by the mechanical parameters,
the optical parameters, the sun tracking system and the hydraulic circuit. The different parameters are studied in the
last sections and achieved by the systems thermal efficiency studies.

Fig.6 Temporary variation of solar concentrated energy and global solar radiation.

To evaluate the experimental thermal energy efficiency and the concentration ratio for parabolic dish and parabolic
trough, an analytical expressions Eq. (3) and (4) evaluated by the energy balance described in Section 3 have been
respectively used. Fig. 7 shows the variation of SPT thermal efficiency and concentration ratio.it is observed that the
thermal energy efficiency varies between 24 % and 28 % for the parabolic trough collector. Fig. 7 illustrates also the
variation of SPT concentration ratio as function of local time. It is clearly seen that parabolic trough solar collector
reach an average concentration factor around 200. The concentration ratio is proportional to the concentrator thermal
efficiency.

Fig. 7. Temporary variations of the thermal efficiency and concentration ratio.

144 Karima Ghazouani et al. / Energy Procedia 162 (2019) 136–145
Karima GHAZOUANI/ Energy Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 9

4.2. Steam production of parabolic dish and parabolic trough collectors

Part of the heated water coming from the mixed heat exchanger is transformed on steam and it is evacuated on the
air and the rest it is returned to the water tank. To evaluate the steam produced we measured the residual water volume
and the initial volume of water in the water tank. Fig. 8 illustrates the steam mass generating and the heat energy of
steam obtained during the test period with different values of pressure. It is observed that the steam generated and the
heat energy of steam have high values with less pressure and they decrease when pressure increase. Related to Fig.8,
the maximum value of the steam generated is 8 kg/h.
3500
8 Steam mass
Steam heat energy
3000
7

Steam heat energy of PT (W)

Steam mass of PT (Kg/h)

6 2500

5 2000

4
1500
3
1000
2

500
1

0 0
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Pressure (bar)

Fig. 8. the variations of steam heat energy and steam mass function of pressure.

5. Conclusion

This work presented an experimental studies of a two-dimensional concentrator system for indirect steam
generation (Solar Parabolic Trough) installed in the Research and Technology Center of Energy (CRTEn) in Tunisia.
Basing on the thermal characterization of SPT the receiver tube provides high thermal efficiency with large heat
transfer area and transfers it to the mixed heat exchanger to produce indirect steam generation. The PTC thermal
energy efficiency varies from 22 % to 32 % and reaches an average concentration factor around 200. As result of this
study, the maximum value of the steam generated is 4 kg/h using an efficient PTC receiver. Part of the heated water
coming from the mixed heat exchanger is transformed on steam and it is evacuated on the air and the rest it is returned
to the water tank. The steam generated and the heat energy steam given is higher at least operating pressure. the
maximum value of the steam generated for SPD system is al to 8 kg/h for SPT system.

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