Author(s): Syed Jafar

Abstract: An attempt has been made to investigate the performance of a new parabolic trough collector with a hot oil storage tank (HOST). This hot oil generating system uses Therminol oil (VP-1) as heat transfer fluid (HTF) which receives heat while passing through the absorber tube and back to the hot oil storage tank (HOST). This experimental parabolic trough collector setup heats the Therminol oil (HTF) up to 94°C in the absorber tube and circulated through a copper-coil heat exchanger in the storage tank with the help of a circulating pump. The thermal energy gained by the storage tank and the thermal efficiency of the system mainly influenced by the incident beam radiation.