Experimental study of solar air heater performance with evacuated tubes connected in series and involving nano-copper oxide/paraffin wax as thermal storage enhancer

The investment of solar energy in life applications has become mandatory to maintain a clean environment and reduce the use of fossil fuels. This work aimed to improve the performance of solar air heater (SAH) by using evacuated tube solar collectors ETSC integrated with nano-enhancer phase change material (NE-PCM). To achieve this purpose, a system consisting of 5 linked collecting panels was designed, fabricated, and experimentally investigated. Each panel included a glass-evacuated tube with two concentric aluminum pipes installed inside. NE-PCM was placed between the inlet and outlet air paths inside the evacuated tube to enhance the heat transfer rate. The performance was investigated with and without NE-PCM at five mass flow rates (0.006, 0.008, 0.01, 0.03, and 0.05 kg/s). Experimental results revealed that the highest temperature was 116, 108, 102, 95, and 93 °C, respectively, for the above mass flow rates without adding NE-PCM. The outlet temperature was decreased by 6–15 °C when using NE-PCM. The SAH efficiency was increased by 29.62% compared to the system without NE-PCM at 0.05 kg/s. The maximum thermal efficiency for the system with NE-PCM was 62.66% at 0.05 kg/s, and the pressure drop was 6.79 kPa under the same conditions. As well known, the hot air is used for a variety of purposes including space heating, food processing, drying of fruit, vegetables, dairy, and solar cooking.