DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF SOLAR PARABOLIC TROUGH COLLECTOR SYSTEM – A NOVEL WAY TO TRAP THERMAL ENERGY FOR EFFICIENT COOKING

Abstract

Human civilization has been witnessing a gradual shift
towards cleaner fuels-from wood to coal, from coal to oil,
from oil to natural gas; renewables are the present demand.
The present work reports the design, construction and
experimental testing of a Solar Parabolic Trough Collector
(SPTC) System for efficient cooking to reduce the cost of
thermal energy. The light energy from the sun is reflecting
by reflective sheet in the parabolic trough solar collector.
Then it is absorbed by evacuated tube called as absorber
which is placed at the focal line of the SPTC. Water is
passed to the tube from reservoir through the water hose
tube. Inside the evacuated tube, water is starting to boil and
converted to steam by continuous focus of reflecting mirror
by tracking mechanism. Further, the generated steam is sent
to the cooking tank using a separate pipe line. Preliminary
test results show that the overall performance of the solar
thermal cooker is satisfactory. The SPTC is capable of
cooking 3.0 kg of rice within 60 to 90 minutes, and various
ingredients within maximum of 45 minutes at peak hours of
sun. From the test result and the collector performance, the
working model is seen fairly acceptable for thermal energy
usage in cooking processes. Physical output indicates that,
by using envelope Evacuated Tube Absorber (ETA) in
SPTC; high quality steam can be produced for efficient
cooking of rice, dhal, vegetables and eggs, etc.