Selecting the best nanofluid type for A photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) system based on reliability, efficiency, energy, economic, and environmental criteria

By A. Sohani, Mohammad Hassan Shahverdian, Hoseyn Sayyaadi, Saman Samiezadeh, M. H. Doranehgard, S. Nižetić, Nader Karimi. Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers / Elsevier, 2021

100 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The foremost alternative for running a PV unit is chosen among five items using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) decision-making approach. Two items are individual PV usage and pure water based PV/T system, and three other ones are, Al2O3, TiO2, and ZnO nanofluid based PV/T technologies. The experimental data gathered throughout a year for a 250 W multicrystalline module is utilized to obtain the results. Energy yield, electrical and thermal efficiencies, payback period, and CO2 reduction are the decision-making criteria, while reliability is added to them to have a broader insight from the performance. According to the results, with the gained score of 33.1 out of 100, ZnO nanofluid based PV/T system is the best alternative. It has annual energy production and average electrical and thermal efficiencies of 632.5 kWh, 14.65, and 47.63%, respectively. Moreover, it can reduce CO2 emission by 853.8 kg and enjoy the reliability of 0.986388, which is the highest one among the alternatives. Additionally, this alternative offers a payback period of 5.12 years, which is around 10% lower than the main rival, i.e., TiO2 nanofluid based PV/T system. Utilizing pure water PV/T is also found much better than Al2O3 one because of economic issues.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b7a1feef176a2a97e11bdd61acccac60c1764c83