Evaluation of Solar Air Collector-Thermoelectric Hybrid System

Abstract

Solar energy is the most long-lasting, free, clean and renewable energy which cause zero-pollution to the environment. Recently, it has become a popular topic for the scientists to replace the fossil fuels as the primary sources of energy generation. To maximize the usage of solar energy, solar-thermoelectric air hybrid collector system is created and constructed, with size of 0.98m ×0.59m ×0.12m. The purpose of the combination of solar collector and thermoelectric is to collect hot air for drying purpose and generate electricity. The experiment is carried out in a laboratory with the usage of solar simulator, in which the solar intensity is fixed at 700 W/m2. The key factor which manipulating the experiment is the mass flow rate if the air flow through the hybrid system, which is set at 0.0333kg/s, 0.0385kg/s, 0.044kg/s, 0.0495kg/s, 0.055kg/s. The experiment investigation with the effect of different mass flow rate on the overall efficiency of the solar-thermoelectric air collector system is presented.