Feasibility analysis of an industrial turbocharged solar air heater using linear Fresnel collectors.

Several high-energy demanding industrial processes require hot air in the medium temperature range (<400°C). Linear concentrating collectors are the suitable solar technology, which can be adopted to reduce or replace fossil fuel consumption for medium temperature industrial processes heat. Direct air heating inside the evacuated receiver tubes of linear Fresnel collector or parabolic trough collector is a convenient solution for hot process air production, avoiding the use of a heat transfer fluid HTF and a HTF/air heat exchanger, aiming at cost and maintenance reduction. In this study, a feasibility study of direct solar air heater using Linear Fresnel collector is presented. A turbocharger is coupled with the solar field to minimize the auxiliary power for pumping, overcoming one the main recognized drawback of this technique. The turbocharged solar air heater with a solar field area of 845 m2 is simulated across representative days and typical meteorological year for the location of Madrid (Spain), showing the main performance and features of the innovative layout proposed. It provides 500 MW hr/year with almost null auxiliary pumping consumption, operating 2650 hr and delivering a hot air stream varying 0.2-0.9 kg/s at 300 – 400 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]