Flat Plat Solar Collector Using Nanofluids

Solar energy is one of the cleaner forms of renewable energy resources. The conventional solar collector is a well established technology which has various applications such as water heating, space heating and cooling. However, the thermal efficiency of these collectors is limited by the absorption properties of the working fluid, which is very poor for typical conventional solar flat plate collector. Recently usage of nano fluids, which is basically liquid- nano particle colloidal dispersion as a working fluid has been found to enhance solar flat plate collector thermal efficiency maximum by 30 percent. In this paper an effort has been made to present a comprehensive overview on thermal performance of solar flat plate collector for water heating using different nano fluids. Moreover, kgCO2/kWh at the site due to usage of nano fluid as a result of enhancement of thermal performance has also been discussed.