Biomass as back up to Thermal Power Systems

Solar as energy resource is suffering the non continuous availability during night and cloudy weather. Accordingly, the solar systems are requiring auxiliary source or storage media to compensate for this lack. The energy cluster in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS is conducting a series of investigations to study the applicability of the biomass as auxiliary input to the thermal solar systems. So far, the technique of roof solar chimney backed up by hot flue gases is modeled analytically. The mathematical model involves the aero-thermal mechanism in the flue and air passages. The system in its modified shape is consisting of a passage for the hot flue gas underneath the collector, while it is covered by transparent canopy to allow the solar radiation to transfer to the collector surface. The gap between the collector and the canopy possesses air stream, moving up ward under the bouncy effect. By installing a chimney structure occupying a wind rotor joint to generator, electricity could be generated in small scale. The analysis has shown that 1400 Watt can be produced from 10x20m2 base area using Savonius wind rotor with 0.1 m diameter. Preliminary CFD analysis using FLUENT commercial code was performed to involve the flue gas as heat input. It has been proved that the technique is applicable and the use of flue gases would enhance the performance of the system considerably.

Keywords: roof solar chimney, thermal solar system, hybrid solar dryer.