Thermal Analysis of Parabolic Trough Solar Collector and Assessment of Steam Power Potential at Two Locations in Cameroon

the past two decades, Cameroon has devoted enormous financial resources to the construction of thermal power plants operating on Heavy Fuel Oil. Despite these efforts, it has been noted that the production of electricity from fossil sources has not been up to the expectations of the population. In this context, it becomes a necessity to explore other sources of energy production most precisely renewable sources. This paper is concerned with the assessment of the steam production potential from solar sources in the stations of Maroua and Yaounde using Parabolic Trough Collectors. Two production modes are considered in this study: The direct mode using water and the indirect mode with TherminolVP1 as heat transfer fluid. The system is modeled based on the study of the energy balance between the receiver and the calorific fluids in order to assess the impact of the irradiance on the calorific fluid outlet temperature at hourly time scale over the day. The assessment of the collector characteristics shows an optical efficiency varying between 0.73 and 0.75 while the overall heat loss coefficient extends over wide ranges depending on the environmental conditions and generation mode. It was shown that the temperature of the steam increases with the number of collectors. For an association of 8 collectors, the average daily production time of pressurized steam at 40bars is 8 hours with a maximum temperature of 600 degrees C in direct mode and 490 degrees C in indirect mode for the month of February in Maroua. The maximum thermal efficiency for the same month is 72.7% in direct generation and 60.7% in indirect generation. These results confirm the real steam potential for electricity generation for complementing existing heavy fuel oil stations with solar sources for better supply. However, further investigations about the energy demand and the supply are necessary for appropriate sizing of the solar generator.