The monitoring increase of world population and living standards accomplished with the massive demand of limited fossil fuel and dangerous nuclear fission emphasizes the global energy crisis. Solar power offers a viable option for solving the uprising energy crisis. Furthermore, there is a strong motivation to explore the possibility of harnessing solar thermal energy around the world, especially in locations with relatively high temperature (i.e Egypt).In the present work, the enhancement of both of thermal energy transfer and storage in a concentrated solar power (CSP) system was developed. The enhancement criteria stand on improving the thermal properties of the base fluid by adding nanoparticles (i.e alumina). Innovative eutectic halide salt (used in the current work) was chosen as a base heat transfer fluid for three main aspects which are i.) relatively high heat capacity, ii) wide working temperature range up to 850 oC, and iii) low cost compared to similar solutions. The Alumina (Al2O3) nanoparticles (prepared by citrate nitrate auto combustion technique "Pechini method") with 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% concentrations by weight were mixed with ternary halide eutectic salt composed of 13.4 wt.% NaCl , 33.7 wt.% KCl and 52.9 wt.% ZnCl2 by the aid of a magnetic stirrer. The thermal properties of pure eutectic halide salt were investigated before and after adding nanoparticles (nanofluid). The main concerned parameters are the specific heat capacity, melting point, phase change temperature difference, heat of fusion and weight stability percentage. The experimental results show that specific heat capacity of the nanocomposites increased by increasing nanoparticle concentration .The observed enhancement in specific heat capacity was found to be 1.0416 , 1.095, 1.196, 1.109 and 1.115 (J/g.oC) respectively for various concentrations of 0.0%, 0.5 wt.%, 1.0 wt.% , 1.5 wt.% and 2.0 wt.% respectively. Consequently, the heat of fusion was to be 96.34, 71.64, 76.923, 71.98 and 70.67 for concentrations 0.0%, 0. 5 wt.%, 1.0 wt.% , 1.5 wt.% and 2.0 wt.% respectively. While, the stability of nanocompositions in liquid phase increased by increasing the concentrations of NPs |
