Industrial Process Heat From Tracking-Solar Collectors on Thermal Water Reservoirs

Abstract

The application of seasonal and /or annual storage to industrial process heat is reported. A computer model is available which sizes the floating concentrator and underlying seasonal heat storage reservoir. A prediction of the water temperature variation with time in the storage reservoir is obtained using a Fourier series type analysis. This model has been applied principally to district heating (and cooling) for residential use in Arizona. The use includes domestic hot water. This application showed that the use if annual storage reduced the required solar collector area to one-third that required without annual storage. This winter and /or summer demand with a smaller base load would be similar to many industries using process heat. The model has also been used to simulate a constant thermal load which would also be required in many industrial processes. The use of seasonal storage in this case greatly reduces the collector area required and firms up the availability of solar thermal heat to provide 100 percent of the demand in an average year.