Nanotechnology Applications for Solar Energy Systems

8 Nanofluids in Solar Thermal Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTCs)

Maziar Dehghan^1,*, Sanaz Akbarzadeh ², Mohammad Sadegh Valipour², and Hafiz Muhammad Ali³

¹ Department of Energy, Materials and Energy Research Center, Karaj, Iran² Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran³ Mechanical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia^* Corresponding author

8.1 Introduction

Solar energy not only can meet the energy demands of the world but also the potential is more than the needs with no near time limit. More importantly, fossil fuels account for global warming due to releasing air pollution gases ranging from CO to SO₂ and CO₂ into the environment. The temperature is growing increasingly due to CO₂ production because it traps a great deal of heat into the atmosphere; as a result, weather patterns change incredibly. Moreover, the use of solar energy can not only overcome the global warming issue but also generate electricity and heat in a manner that is entirely sustainable and free.

Solar energy has a growth rate of more than a third during the last decade. More than 121 GW of solar capacity were exploited all over the world which can provide power for 23.3 million homes [1]. To capture solar radiation energy, solar collectors are extensively used. Parabolic trough collectors (PTCs) generate heat and also can be used to produce electricity in large-scale solar power plants. PTCs include curved mirrors that reflect ...