Abstract:
Solar energy is now days one of the most important source of energy due to the scarcity
(limited source of fossil fuel) and environmental crisis of carbon release from fossil
fuel. It is clean and has no any negative impact on environment and ecology. As its
source is a sun, it is renewable and free energy, which mostly used for power generation
and heating purposes. Scheffler reflector is one of the various methods of harvesting
the solar energy. These concentrators are lateral sections of paraboloids and provide
fixed focus away from the path of incident beam radiations throughout the year. This
study presents the performance assessment of scheffler reflector that installed at
JUCAVM campus, which has a total surface area of 16m2
.The scheffler reflector
installed has attempted to roast coffee bean for commercial purposes, but due to the
error that is committed during the installation, the reflector could not concentrate the
ray coming from the sun. Hence, this study reveals the reason why the solar beam
reflected dispersed instead of concentrating since scheffler reflector has a fixed focus
throughout the year. Finally, after a successful assessment and corrective measures
taken the dish has brought to concentrate the ray at the fixed focus and the required
amount of heat for roasting coffee bean have been harnessed. Additionally, collecting
solar data at the place of assessment and observing the effect of seasonal change on
the reflector performance was also part of the assessment. After series of assessments,
the scheffler reflector has concentrated the solar ray at the fixed focus. The other
corrective measure has also been done on the absorber (roaster). Since the roaster
could not distribute the required heat needed for roasting coffee then the improved
absorber with better surface reaction for heat distribution capacity has raised. A
temperature of 1520C has been achieved with the help of simulation using COMSOL
MULTIPHYSICS software package to show how much heat distribution on the
absorber has been achieved. Temperature distribution on the receiver of scheffler
reflector has also been compared with the temperature on receiver of parabolic solar
dish. During the sunny day, the maximum temperature of above 3000C and 2100C from
absorber of scheffler reflector and parabolic solar dish have been observed during the
assessment respectively.
