International Journal of Energy Research, Vol.44, No.9, 7698-7712, 2020
Solar flux distribution study in heat pipe cavity receiver integrated with biomass gasifier
Technological advances have taken place in the field of solar receivers, gasifiers, and heat pipes, however, the integration of these technologies is not significantly available. In this paper, the conceptual design of a novel biomass gasifier is presented. The system facilitates the solar capture and gasification process separately. It is fitted with a heat pipe arrangement to transfer heat from the solar receiver zone to the gasifier zone. Collection of heat pipes comprised of few straight tubes and few innovative semi-'S' shaped tubes. Solar receiver geometry is modified to semi-cylindrical shape and the evaporator section of heat pipes is arranged circumferentially inside the solar receiver. The conventional gasifier is modified with an arrangement to distribute uniform solar heat throughout the fixed bed of biomass feedstock. This paper aims to present the optical analysis of the proposed heat pipe embedded solar receiver. Heat pipe disposition inside the cavity, receiver positioning on focal planes and slope error are varied to perform optical performance of the proposed solar reactor. Average solar flux is found to increase up to 1.1-fold to 1.7-fold placing cavity receiver below focal height by 16 and 32 mm respectively. Also, the magnitude and flux profiles incident on surfaces are affected with concentrator slope error. Average flux reduces up to 21.7% with 4 mrad as compared to 2 mrad error.
Keywords:biomass gasifier;high-temperature heat pipes;optical analysis;solar flux distribution;solar receiver