Solar
Solar thermal power generation is a very promising renewable energy technology. The two main methods of accomplishing the conversion of thermal energy of absorbed sunlight into electricity are solar power towers and parabolic troughs; both of which rely on a number of mirrors to concentrate the sunlight onto a heat collecting surface. The heat collected at this junction is transmitted via a heat transfer fluid to generate steam, and power the turbine of an electric generator. The limitations of current solar concentrated power technologies revolve largely around the limitations of effectively capturing and storing the diurnal nature of solar energy.
Heterogeneous mixtures and colloidal suspensions offer favorable heat transfer properties for this application, including thermal stability at the desired operating temperatures, high heat capacity, high thermal conductivity, and low viscosity [1]. Moreover, they display interesting light scattering and absorption properties [2], which can be tuned for capture of the entire solar spectrum in novel concentration systems.
We study suspensions of micro/nano-particles, including encapsulated and non-encapsulated phase-change materials for simultaneous improvement of thermal transfer and storage capabilities.
- Keblinski, P., et al., Mechanisms of heat flow in suspensions of nano-sized particles (nanofluids). International Journal Of Heat And Mass Transfer, 2002. 45(4): p. 855-863.
- Graves, S.M. and T.G. Mason, Transmission of visible and ultraviolet light through charge-stabilized nanoemulsions. Journal Of Physical Chemistry C, 2008. 112(33): p. 12669-12676.
