APPLICATION OF DESIGN SPACE APPROACH TO SOLAR WATER HEATING SYSTEMS WITH PRESSURIZED STORAGE

Govind N. Kulkarni, Shireesh B. Kedare and Santanu Bandyopadhyay*

Energy Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400 076
*

Telephone: 022-25767894 Fax. : 022- 25726875 E-mail: santanu@me.iitb.ac.in

Abstract
A large number of industrial processes demand thermal energy in a temperature range of 80 to 240C. In this temperature range solar thermal systems have a great scope of application. Challenge lies in the integration of solar heat into a wide variety of industrial processes. Issue in the integration is sizing of components. The problem of sizing of components such as collectors, storage and heat exchanger is addressed in the present analysis. A design procedure is developed for a specific configuration, using a methodology called design space approach. Design space is the region bounded by constant solar fraction lines traced on the collector area vs. storage volume diagram. In the design space generation process, in absence of the basis for selecting optimum values of storage flow rate and heat exchanger area, the same are searched with the help of an optimization formulation. Results demonstrated existence of Pareto optimality character in constant solar fraction curves. Pareto optimal region or practical design space is distinctly identified. A suitable economic criterion can be applied to locate a global optimum. It is further established that the design space methodology has been effective in design and optimization of specific configurations of solar industrial process heat systems. Keywords: integration, solar industrial process heat, design space, optimization, pressurized water storage

1. Introduction
A large number of industrial processes demand thermal energy typically in the temperature range of 80 to 240C (Proctor and Morse, 1977; Kalogirou, 2003). In India, approximately 80% of the industrial process heat demand exists in a temperature range of 100 to 200C (Kedare, 2006). Solar thermal systems including flat plate collectors and concentrators can be applied to fulfill such a demand. The challenge lies in the integration of periodic solar input into a wide variety of industrial processes (ESTIF, 2004). Design issues in solar industrial process heat systems involve sizing of collectors, storage and heat exchanger. Collector sizing and storage sizing up to a limited extent is addressed in the previously proposed design procedures (Klein et al., 1979). Guidelines for design of specific industrial configurations are also proposed (Pareira et al., 1984; Abdel, 2001; Kalogirou, 2004). All the procedures and guidelines are applicable to systems delivering hot water up to 100C. For the systems operating above 100C, simulation programs such as TRNSYS (Klein et al., 1975) and SOLIPH (Kutscher et al., 1982) etc. are available. There is a need to develop general design guidelines for solar industrial process heat systems (Eskin, 2000; Weiss, 2003). For effective integration of solar energy in industrial processes, the general design guidelines must consider optimum component sizing such as storage and heat exchanger sizing. These design issues are addressed in this paper through a proposed design methodology. The design procedure is devised by employing a methodology called design space approach (Kulkarni et al, 2006). Application of design space approach for optimization of solar domestic water heating systems has been successfully demonstrated. In this paper the approach of design space is extended to a solar thermal system with pressurized hot water storage. The aim is to optimally design the system and components satisfying given constraints. Among system components, concerned design variables are collector area, storage volume, solar fraction, storage flow rate, and heat exchanger area. The task of optimum design is multi objective vis--vis minimization of collector area, storage volume, heat exchanger area along with maximization of solar fraction. Minimum system cost also forms one of the major objectives. Deciding a configuration and building a relevant mathematical model is the first step. Generation of design space is the next task followed by optimization.

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2. System Configuration
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the system under consideration. Solar radiation is converted into heat by the collector. This heat is transferred to the storage tank in the form of hot water. Hot water is pumped from the storage, circulated through the absorber tubes and directed back to the storage. Heat is stored in the form of pressurized hot water. When the industrial process demands heat, hot water is pumped to the heat exchanger at a rate ms. Heat exchanger receives water (hot stream) at storage temperature (Thi = Tst). In the heat exchanger, heat is extracted by the cold stream. Hot water returns to the storage at a temperature Tho. Cold stream fluid is pumped at a constant flow rate of mc. A minimum inlet temperature for the cold stream (Tci) is maintained. This may be the desired process heat temperature. Similarly, a minimum outlet temperature of the cold stream (Tco,min) is required to meet the entire demand. This temperature can be determined by knowing the demand and cold stream flow rate. Actual outlet temperature of the cold stream (Tco) depends on the storage temperature Tst. Auxiliary is placed in the cold stream circuit in the form of a light diesel oil hot water generator heater. If Tco < Tco,min then, auxiliary heater will be switched on to heat cold stream to the desired temperature. The system equations relevant to the configuration are expressed in the mathematical model next.

ms
Solar Concentrator Storage Tank Tst Load pump

Thi Heat Exchr.

Tco

Aux.

Load

Tho

Tci

mc

Cold stream pump

Pump Figure 1: Schematic of solar thermal system with pressurized hot water storage

3. The Mathematical Model

Storage tank temperature (Tst) is an important parameter which influences the system size and performance. Energy balance of a well mixed storage tank can be expressed as
( C pVst ) dTst = qs q Ls qstl dt

(1)

where the rate of storage loss ( qstl ) is estimated to be

qstl = U st Ast .(Tst Ta )

(2)

Solar useful heat gain rate (qs) is calculated (Duffie and Beckman 1991) as,
+ qs = Ac [ IT FR ( ) FRU L (Tst Ta )] (3) where + sign indicates, only positive values of qs to be considered in the analysis. This implies that hot water

from the collector enters the tank only when solar useful heat gain becomes positive. Solar flux incident on the aperture of a tracking concentrator (IT) is calculated as,

Application of Design Space Approach to Solar Water Heating Systems with Pressurized Storage
IT = I bn cos

197 (4)

Combining equations (2) and (3) with equation (1), energy balance of the tank can be expressed as,
( C pVst ) dTst + = Ac [ IT FR ( ) FRU L (Tst Ta )] q Ls U st Ast .(Tst Ta ) dt

(5)

Load met by solar energy will be,

q Ls = ms .Ch (Tst Tho )

(6)

To determine the solar contribution of load (qLs) it is essential to know hot stream outlet temperature Tho and storage mass flow rate ms. For calculating Tho, heat exchanger parameters such as number of transfer units N (Uhx.Ahx./mhCh ) must be known. Here, Uhx is the average overall heat transfer coefficient across hot and cold streams. Heat capacity flow rate ratio R (mhCh / mhCh) and cold or hot fluid temperature effectiveness P ( [Thi Tho] /[Thi Tci] must also be considered. N, R, P relations (Shenoy, 1995) are used on the basis of hot stream. In all cases, hot stream flow rate is the storage flow rate i.e., mh = ms. Implementation of mathematical model begins with, initial values of storage temperature (Tsti), storage flow rate (ms) and heat exchanger area (Ahx) that are assumed. With these assumptions values of N and R are determined using (7) and (8). For illustration purpose and simplicity in computation, a counter flow type of heat exchanger is assumed in the configuration. By taking an energy balance across hot and cold streams, an expression of P in terms of N and R can be derived.
P= exp( N ( R 1)) 1 exp( N ( R 1)) R

, for R 1 (7)

, for R = 1 N +1 With hot stream effectiveness (P) known, hot stream outlet temperature (Tho) can be calculated. Tho = Tst P (Tst Tci ) Cold stream outlet temperature is then, determined. Tco = Tci + PR (Tst Tci )

P=

(9) (10)

Desired load (QL) over a time horizon (A day, a month or a year) is specified. Duration of load is nL hours (time steps) in a day (time horizon) and is assumed to be uniform over all the hours. Cold stream mass flow rate (mc) and inlet temperature (Tci) are given. They are assumed to be constant. Cold stream inlet temperature will be the desired process temperature (TL). Minimum cold stream outlet temperature (Tco,min) required to fulfill the entire load demand (F=1) can be determined as,
QL Tco,min = Tci + nL .t .mc .Cc

(11)

No auxiliary energy will be required if Tco Tco,min else, if Tco< Tco,min auxiliary energy can be calculated as,

qaux = mc Cc (Tco ,min Tco ).t

(12)

Final storage temperature at the end of a time step (t) can be obtained by numerically solving Equation (5).Eulers method is used.
t A I F ( ) A F U (T T ) + m C (T T ) U A (T T ) Tstf = Tsti + c R L sti a s h sti a st st sti ho cT R C pVst

(13)

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The final storage temperature at the end of a time step will be the initial temperature for the next time step. Calculations will continue over the entire time horizon (a day). It is assumed that the change in the internal energy of the storage over the time horizon will be zero. This can be mathematically expressed as,
t dT C pVst st dt 0

dt = 0

(14)

The solar fraction over the time horizon is then determined as,
F= QL qqux QL

(15)

Next step is to identify entire design space by running the mathematical model. Identification of entire design space enables a search for optimum design. A prerequisite for design space identification is to select essentially, an optimum storage mass flow rate and heat exchanger area. Location Load
Table1: Input data for pressurized hot water storage system example A dairy plant at Pune, India. Pasteurization load of milk, QL =1.32 GJ/day , (30,000 LPD) Duration: three hours (nL), 8 a.m. to 11.00 a.m., uniform Cold stream: mass flow rate mc : 2.92 kg/s, inlet temperature Tci : 85C , outlet temperature Tco :95C Working fluid: Water Paraboloid collector ARUNTM with two axis tracking ( = 0) FR () = 0.68 and FR UL = 1.5 W/m2K (Kedare,2006a) Storage fluid: Water, pressurized Tank Material: Carbon steel, density 7800 kg/m3 Cylindrical, well mixed, always full, with (h/d) = 2.6, Maximum storage temperature Tst,max = 160C Maximum Design pressure = 7 bar Tank thickness, tt = 33 mm Insulation thickness, ti = 152.4 mm Insulation: Glass wool (k =0.04 W/m-K). Counter flow type Uhx = 1000 W/m2K Cph =Cpc = 4180 J/kg-K

Collectors

Storage

Heat Exchanger

3.1 The Optimization Formulation

In absence of the basis for optimum selection of storage flow rate and heat exchanger area a solution is sought by employing an optimizer which will search the storage flow rates and heat exchanger area in a specified practical range. The mathematical model is converted into two optimization problems. Explicit objective of the first problem is minimization of storage volume while that of the second is maximization. The objective is sought by changing storage volume, storage flow rate and heat exchanger area in such a way that the estimated system performance (F) matches the desired value (Fs). Some variables are specified as input parameters. These are mentioned in Table 1.During optimization, a number of practical constraints are put on the system parameters. A limit on the maximum storage temperature is kept for the safety purpose. A lower limit on storage temperature is also provided. Very small storage volume i.e. below 10 liters may not be practically manageable and correspond to temperatures well above the maximum limit. A constraint is therefore, put on the minimum storage volume. A maximum and minimum feasible size constraint is put on the heat exchanger area. A constraint on minimum and maximum storage flow rate is also be specified. Values of all the constraints are mentioned in Table 2. Time step in the formulation is 3600 s and time horizon is taken as single day. Solar radiation data comprising of beam normal radiation and ambient temperature on a single average day in April is used (Mani, 1982)

Application of Design Space Approach to Solar Water Heating Systems with Pressurized Storage Table 2: Constraints in the optimization formulation Description of constraint Value Maximum storage temperature, Tst,max 160C Maximum storage flow rate, ms,max 10 kg/s Maximum heat exchanger area, Ahx,max 200 m2

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3.2 Results and Discussion

Results of optimization are shown in Figure 2. Any point on the collector area storage volume plot represents a design that may be feasible or non feasible. Design space describes all the feasible designs with performance. All the feasible designs falling under constant solar fraction curves from 0.5 to 1 are demonstrated. Locus of minimum collector areas indicates minimum collector area designs at different solar fractions. Similarly, locus of minimum volumes indicates minimum storage volume designs at different solar fractions. This curve also forms a locus of maximum storage temperature. Maximum temperature constraint will be crossed if storage volume below the locus is adopted.

10000 Locus of Minimum collector areas 0.7 1000 0.6 0.5 100 0.9

Constant solar fraction curves F =1 0.8

Storage volume,cu.m

Pareto optimal region or practical design space

10

1 50 70

Locus of minimum storage volumes 90 110 130 150 170 190 210

Collector area,sq.m

Figure 2: Design space for solar thermal system with pressurized hot water storage

Between minimum collector area and minimum storage volume designs, Pareto optimality is observed in constant solar fraction curves. The characteristic enables a search for an optimum. Region between the locus of minimum collector area and storage volume forms the Pareto optimal region. Storage volumes above the Pareto region are not practically significant. Therefore, Pareto region may also be viewed as practical design space. A suitable economic criterion can be applied to seek a global optimum in the Pareto region. A solar system designer may set a performance target in terms of solar fraction and seek a range of designs to choose. Alternatively, if constraint of space dictates, one can decide the sizes and obtain a projection of performance from the design space. Many times, concentrating collectors are commercially available in fixed aperture models. Accordingly, a designer can decide the priority of performance or cash flow availability and choose the system size. Alternately, one can make use of existing material resources and asses the system performance. Design space, thus, provides a system design as well as a guideline for making decision with specified constraints.

4. Conclusions
An attempt to address the issue of component sizing in solar industrial process heating systems is made. The attempt involved proposal of a design procedure for solar industrial processes heat system with pressurized hot water storage. The procedure uses a methodology called design space approach. Feasibility of the design

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procedure is assessed using a single day analysis. Pareto optimality is observed in constant solar fraction curves comprising design space. The characteristic enables a search for an economic optimum. The proposed design tool offers flexibility to the designer in choosing a system configuration on the basis of desired performance, constraints of space or cash flow. The methodology has been successful in application to a specific configuration of industrial process heating. However, the same can be effectively applied in the design and optimization of a variety of configurations. Future work may be directed towards analyzing different industrial process heat configurations.

References
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