Performance improvement of solar bakery unit by integrating with metal hydride based solar thermal energy storage reactor

[摘要] Storage of solar thermal energy is an effective way to overcome the issue of incompatibility between the solar system and its users. This paper proposed a novel perception by integrating a metal hydride based thermochemical energy storage (MH-TES) system with a solar bakery unit (SBU). A numerical simulation was performed by using COMSOL MULTIPHYSIS 5.3a to assess the dynamic behavior of the reactor. The results showed that the high-temperature metal hydride (HTMH) reactor during the discharging process has a high improvement potential rate (0.195 kW), a high exergetic factor (59.97%) and low exergy efficiency (30.25%) as compared to HTMH reactor during the heat charging process. The overall exergy efficiency of the HTMH reactor was estimated as 34.03%. The maximum value of energy output (Q(out)), exergy output (E-xout), gravimetric exergy output rate (GEOR) and gravimetric efficient heat output rate (GEHOR) during discharging period was calculated as 1560 W, 174 W, 7.4 W/kg and 66 W/kg, respectively. The energy efficiency of SBU is improved from 6% to 42.89% by integrating with the MH-TES system. This paper presents a comprehensive approach for thermal analysis of HTMH for the solar bakery system, which contributes to system optimization for efficient solar energy storage. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[发布日期] 2020-12-01

[关键词] Solar thermal energy storage;(MgH2+V2O5) reactor;Solar bakery unit;Performance improvement;Numerical simulation;Thermal analysis