DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF SOLAR PARABOLIC TROUGH COLLECTOR SYSTEM – A NOVEL WAY TO TRAP THERMAL ENERGY FOR EFFICIENT COOKING

Human civilization has been witnessing a gradual shift towards cleaner fuels-from wood to coal, from coal to oil, from oil to natural gas; renewables are the present demand. The present work reports the design, construction and experimental testing of a Solar Parabolic Trough Collector (SPTC) System for efficient cooking to reduce the cost of thermal energy. The light energy from the sun is reflecting by reflective sheet in the parabolic trough solar collector. Then it is absorbed by evacuated tube called as absorber which is placed at the focal line of the SPTC. Water is passed to the tube from reservoir through the water hose tube. Inside the evacuated tube, water is starting to boil and converted to steam by continuous focus of reflecting mirror by tracking mechanism. Further, the generated steam is sent to the cooking tank using a separate pipe line. Preliminary test results show that the overall performance of the solar thermal cooker is satisfactory. The SPTC is capable of cooking 3.0 kg of rice within 60 to 90 minutes, and various ingredients within maximum of 45 minutes at peak hours of sun. From the test result and the collector performance, the working model is seen fairly acceptable for thermal energy usage in cooking processes. Physical output indicates that, by using envelope Evacuated Tube Absorber (ETA) in SPTC; high quality steam can be produced for efficient cooking of rice, dhal, vegetables and eggs, etc.