Energy, exergy, enviroeconomic & exergoeconomic (4E) assessment of thermal energy storage assisted solar water heating system: Experimental & theoretical approach

In this study, exergy, energy, enviroeconomic & exergoeconomic analysis of evacuated tube collector with/without latent heat storage material has been done for different flow rates i.e. 0.13, 0.26, 0.40 & 0.46 LPM. In this manuscript, palmitic acid has been used as a latent heat storage material. The storage material was filled in the annuls between the absorber pipe and heat pipe termed as palmitic acid integrated evacuated tube collector system while another heat pipe based evacuated tube collector system was tested without latent heat storage material termed as evacuated tube collector without storage system. The results of the experimental investigation revealed that daily thermal & exergy efficiencies of palmitic acid integrated evacuated tube collector increased in the range of 36-44% and 28-35% respectively in comparison to evacuated tube collector without storage. Furthermore, storage based evacuated tube collector system mitigated 21-28 tCO(2)/lifetime and 6-8 tCO(2)/lifetime based on environmental and exergoenvimnmental approaches respectively. Whereas, evacuated tube collector without storage mitigated 14-19 tCO(2)/lifetime and 4-6 tCO(2)/lifetime based on environmental and exergoenvimnmental approach respectively. In comparison to collector without storage, the revenue generated by collector with storage was found to be 95-112 $/lifetime and 22-25 $/lifetime higher based on energy and exergy approach respectively. Overall, palmitic acid integrated evacuated tube collector based continuous flow solar water heating system found to be the most promising system comparison to the collector without storage for different selected flow rates of water.

Automated summary

The study compared the performance of evacuated tube collectors with and without latent heat storage material, with palmitic acid used as the storage material. The collector with storage showed significant improvements in daily thermal and exergy efficiencies, as well as reduced environmental impact in terms of CO2 emissions compared to the collector without storage. Additionally, the collector with storage generated higher revenues based on energy and exergy approaches.