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Electricity and gas-based heat treatment of metal is an energy-intensive process. To mitigate the use of such high-grade energy, the concept of an open volumetric air receiver-based solar convective furnace (SCF) system is developed for the heat treatment of metal. This system includes an in situ waste heat recovery mechanism. This paper presents a Joule heating-based, controlled, experimental assessment of a laboratory-scale, retrofitted, SCF system for generating benchmark data. The reported measurements illustrate the heat transfer for (a) the charging and discharging process of thermal energy storage and (b) the two-stage heat treatment of metal with an in situ heat recovery process. The overall system efficiency, including heat recovery, heat storage, and heat transfer, is found to be 24%. Thus, the SCF system can serve as a viable alternative to an electrical energy-based heat treatment furnace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The open volumetric air receiver (OVAR) based systems can be used for metals processing operation, such as, the heat treatment of aluminum. Some important aspects, related to the technology adaptation, are (a) the selection of receiver design, (b) the integration of an application, based on hot air, with an OVAR, and (c) mitigation of dust deposition in the porous absorber of an OVAR. Therefore, the presented aspects are (a) literature review on the porous absorbers for OVARs, (b) literature review on solar furnace, and an innovative OVAR‐based solar convective furnace (SCF) for the heat treatment of aluminum, and (c) mechanism of transport and deposition of dust in an absorber pore. These reveal that (a) the design improvements are required, to enhance the thermal efficiency of OVARs, for an input power to air mass flow rate ratio exceeding 900 kJ/kg, (b) the SCF system, based on OVAR, is plausible, and (c) the dust deposition in an absorber pore may be mitigated. The findings will be useful for deployment and operation of the OVAR based systems in arid deserts. This article is categorized under:Solar Heating and Cooling > Science and Materials [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]