'Design and Development of Paraboloid Solar Concentrator for Milk Pasteurization'

Abstract:     
Solar energy is the one of the major sources of energy which is renewable inexhaustible, clean and can significantly contribute the world energy requirement with available conversion technology.

The research work was undertaken to design and development of paraboloid solar concentrator for milk pasteurization of 10 lit in one batch capacity at department of Renewable Energy Sources, CTAE, Udaipur. The collector of paraboloid concentrator was 1.08 m in diameter with focal length of 0.28 m. The performance evaluation of the system and techno-economic was evaluated.

The performance of paraboloid solar concentrator was evaluated for two conditions i.e. no load and full load. During no load testing maximum temperature achieved in the system was 174 C. The full load performance of the system was evaluated with cow milk. The time required for milk pasteurization was 85 min for 10 lit batch capacity. During the full load testing, once the production of steam started, the increase in temperature is almost constant and it varies approximately 3 C every 5 min. The difference in temperature is about 10 C.

Water heating and cooling tests are performed to evaluate the performance of the paraboloid concentrator in terms of overall heat loss factor (F’UL) and optical efficiency factor (F’no). The overall heat loss factor was found to be 23.53 and 22.03 W/m2 K for different tests in the month of March. The optical efficiency factor (F’no) was worked out to be 0.327 and 0.330 for the same tests. The optical efficiency of the system was found to be 32.70 and 33.0 per cent.

The thermal efficiency of the paraboloid solar concentrator system was determined. The observed thermal efficiency of the system was 32.65 and 32.96 per cent for average solar insolation of 558 and 586 W/m2 respectively. The cost of the system was found to be Rs. 4431/- with 1.10 benefit to cost ratio. The cost could be recovered within the period of 0.54 years.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 3

Keywords: Concentrator, Milk Paturization, Paraboloid Concentrator

JEL Classification: Q4, Q16, Q13

working papers series