SOLAR AIDED PROCESS HEAT APPLICATION IN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES

Abstract

The thermal energy requirement for a large number of processes in industries lies with a temperature range of 60°C-250°C, which constitutes major energy consumption in this sector, hence there is a huge potential for the implementation of solar aided industrial process heat systems. Different technologies of solar collector are available which can be selected based on the solar resource available at site and temperature range of the processes. Current work focuses on the thermal energy requirement in Chemical Industry in form of steam, hot air and hot thermic fluid. Non-evacuated tube parabolic trough collectors have been designed and analyzed for the chemical cluster in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. The site calculation is depicted by a particular case with roof – top installation of the system and a solar fraction of 22 % has been achieved. For the smooth integration of the solar collector system hydraulic scheme has been suggested by P&I diagram in the work. On the further evaluation, financial feasibility has been determined for the system with a payback period of 2.55 years & 25 % internal rate of return wrt. MNRE standards.