A Series Arrangement of Economizer - Evaporator Flat Solar Collectors as an Enhancement for Solar Steam Generator

Two flat solar collectors were designed and connected in series in order to achieve a moderately high outlet temperature. This high temperature is to be considered as the inlet temperature to a concentrated collector which is able of generating superheated steam. The first collector plays a role as a preheater; hence, it is called an economizer and the other plays a role as a temperature riser, thus it is called an evaporator. The economizer is a closed steel tank equipped with internal baffles distributed equally to ensure perfect circulation of water inside the tank. However, the evaporator consists of an array of vertical pipes connected to two horizontal manifolds (risers and headers) and bonded to a steel sheet. Both collectors are coated black with a granulated carbon layer and exposed to sun through two glass layers. Two water flow rates were applied at the evaporator 100 L/hr and 200 L/hr. The result shows that a maximum outlet temperature of 73 degrees C and a maximum efficiency of 82% at the beginning of the experiment and 55% by the end of experiment were achieved when the flow rate was 100 L/hr. In addition, the result shows that both collectors reached a situation where there was no useful gain in heat even, though the solar radiation beam still hits with considerable high intensity. This situation occurs when the heat losses increase. Both heat gain and heat lost were calculated and plotted for both collectors and at the two flow rates. In addition, an average value of solar radiation beam during the experiment was plotted.