Search results for "Solar energy."
showing 10 items of 148 documents
Membrane distillation: Solar and waste heat driven demonstration plants for desalination
2013
Abstract The development of small to medium size, autonomous and robust desalination units is needed to establish an independent water supply in remote areas. This is the motivation for research on alternative desalination processes. Membrane distillation (MD) seems to meet the specific requirements very well. This work is focused on experimental studies on full scale demonstration systems, utilizing a parallel multi MD-module setup. Three different plant concepts are introduced, one of them is waste heat driven and two of them are powered by solar thermal collectors. Design parameters and system design are presented. After the analysis of plant operation a comparison among the plants as we…
Development of a Membrane Distillation module for solar energy seawater desalination
2012
Abstract Membrane Distillation (MD) processes are gaining growing interest among novel desalination technologies, in particular for small scale applications also coupled with non-conventional energy sources. In the present work an original laboratory scale planar geometry Membrane Distillation unit was designed, built and tested for future coupling with solar energy. Though conceptually simple, the original geometry was developed in order to allow for multi-stage arrangement, compactness, internal heat recovery and possible integration with a polymeric heat exchanger for final brine heating by means of solar energy or waste heat. The laboratory scale unit was tested in order to investigate …
Optimization of a thermoelectric system for power generation realized by ‘‘hidden’’ components
2014
Abstract Today the utilization of renewable energy sources is very important to support the traditional ones, and also in order to reach the objectives fixed by the Kyoto Protocol. In this context, also well-known technologies related to the electric energy production, formerly not suitable – due to the poor technological level of the components or due to the high costs linked to the system efficiency – may now find a suitable collocation. Among these technologies, the thermoelectric effect may be very advantageous in some particular applications of small power. A power generation system utilizing this technology has been studied by the authors. This system utilizes the thermal difference b…
Conceptual study of the coupling of a biorefinery process for hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae with a concentrating solar power plant
2017
A conceptual analysis of the coupling of a concentrating solar power plant with a chemical process for hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of microalgae to biocrude was performed. The two plants were considered coupled by molten salt recirculation that granted energetic supply to the chemical process. Preliminary estimations have been done considering a solar field constituted by 3 linear parabolic solar collectors rows, each 200 m long, using a ternary molten salts mixture as heat transfer fluid, and a chemical plant sized to process 10 kT/y of microalgae. Under adopted conditions, we have estimated a minimum selling prize of the biocrude that is similar to that achieved in non-solar HTL proce…
A novel solar trigeneration system integrating PVT (photovoltaic/thermal collectors) and SW (seawater) desalination: Dynamic simulation and economic …
2014
Abstract The paper investigates the integration of renewable energy sources and water systems, presenting a novel solar system producing simultaneously: electrical energy, thermal energy, cooling energy and domestic water. Such system is designed for small communities in European Mediterranean countries, rich in renewable sources and poor in fossil fuels and water resources. The polygeneration system under analysis includes PVT (photovoltaic/thermal solar collectors), a MED (multi-effect distillation) system for SW (seawater) desalination, a single-stage LiBr–H2O ACH (absorption chiller) and additional components, such as storage tanks, AHs (auxiliary heaters) and BOP (balance of plant) dev…
Inverted-opal photonic crystals for ultra light-trapping in solar cells
2010
We investigated a three dimensional inverted opal having the potential to notably increase light-trapping in solar cells. The 3D photonic crystal top layer is an angle- and direction-selective filter, which decreases the acceptance cone of the solar cell. Numerical optimisation methods are used to verify the optical and electrical properties for a large angluar and energy spectrum for a system consisting of an inverted opal on top of a thin crystalline silicon solar cell. It is numerically shown that an inverted opal grown in the Τ - Xdirection might fulfill the requirement for such a filter. An estimate for the theoretically achievable efficiency for nonconcentrated light is presented that…
Solar radiation as a prospective energy source for green and economic processes in the food industry: From waste biomass valorization to dehydration,…
2019
International audience; Solar energy has recently attracted the attention of both industry and academia, to be used as a source of clean energy for green production of various products such as food-related commodities. This review aims to explore the applicability of this green energy source for extraction of valuable components (e.g., bioactive compounds and essential oils) from plant materials and waste biomass, dehydration of plant materials, water recovery through desalination, decontamination, cooking, and baking of agri-food products. According to the literature, concentrated solar power systems (CSP) have been successfully employed for bioactive compounds (e.g. essential oils) extrac…
A method for detecting malfunctions in PV solar panels based on electricity production monitoring
2017
In this paper a new method is developed for automatically detecting outliers or faults in the solar energy production of identical sets (sister arrays) of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. The method involves a two-stage unsupervised approach. In the first stage, "in control" energy production data are created by using outlier detection methods and functional principal component analysis in order to remove global and local outliers from the data set. In the second stage, control charts for the "in control" data are constructed using both a parametric method and three non-parametric methods. The control charts can be used to detect outliers or faults in the production data in real-time or at t…
A GIS-based optimization model finalized to the localization of new power-to-gas plants: The case study of Sicily (Italy)
2022
In 2020 the European Commission approved the GND (Green New Deal), a strategic plan aimed at the decarbonization of the EU by 2050. In this scenario, the diffusion of alternative renewable energy sources (RESs) play a key role, particularly electric energy production from wind and photovoltaic power plants. Regardless, the nonprogrammable nature of these power sources led recent studies to focus the interest on the power-to-gas solution (PtG), consisting of the electrolytic transformation of excesses of unused electric energy into hydrogen. The complexity of this technology requires the development of strategic optimization models aimed at finding the best locations for new PtG plants in sp…
Photocatalytic Processes in Membrane Reactors
2010
Conversion and degradation processes of various substrates in various types of matrices using both artificial and solar light are today very attractive by considering the scarcity and the expensiveness of the conventional energy sources. Coupling of membrane with light has shown to be very powerful and promising hybrid process, especially because a synergistic effect has been often observed. Some examples of reactions carried out to produce useful chemicals or to degrade noxious species in the framework of the green chemistry approach are reported. Fundamentals of heterogeneous photocatalysis, in general, and photocatalytic reactions in membrane reactors, in particular, are treated with a f…