ABSTRACT

Foundry is one of the most energy consuming industries. The

major part of the energy consumed goes in for melting the scrap
metal in the furnace. The burning of coke in the cupola furnace
leads to the increasing concentrations of CO, CO 2, SO2, NOx, etc, in
the atmosphere, contributing to global warming, climate change,
acid, rain, etc. Even in the use of induction furnaces, the
electricity is produced either by thermal power plants,
hydroelectric plants, nuclear plants, etc, which have their own
negative impacts in environment.The alarming rates of fossil fuel
consumption and global warming has led researchers to find an
alternative to reduce the consumption of non-renewable
resources in the energy sector. In this light, this paper focuses on
solar thermal energy, which is a replenishable source but due to
lack of good harnessing technologies most of the energy fallen on
the Earths surface goes waste. In this paper, how solar energy
can be used for pre-heating scrap material cost effectively before
the melting process in a foundry is discussed. A method is
proposed to calculate the approximate ecological carbon
footprint savings by employing this method in a typical Indian
foundry. The various cash flows encountered in establishing the
setup in a foundry as well as the pay back period is also
estimated. The results obtained are numerically validated using a
3D-model in ANSYS 15
Design, development and testing of a
double reflector hot box solar cooker with
a transparent insulation material
N.M.NAHAR

A double reflector hot box solar cooker with a Transparent Insulation

Material (TIM) has been designed, fabricated, tested and the
performance compared with a single reflector hot box solar cooker
without TIM. A 40 mm thick honeycomb made of polycarbonate
capillaries was encapsulated between two glazing sheets of the cooker to
minimise convective losses from the window.The efficiencies were
30.5% and 24.5% for cookers with and without a TIM respectively,
during the winter season at Jodhpur. The energy saving by use of a solar
cooker with TIM has been estimated to be 1485.0 MJ of fuel equivalent
per year. The payback period varies between 1.66 and 4.23 y

Performance and testing of an improved hot box

solar cooker N.M.NAHAR

The performance and testing of a novel solar cooker has been described
and compared with a solar oven and a hot box solar cooker. The
uniqueness of the device is that it has a tilted absorbing surface so that
more radiation can be obtained even during winter, therefore, two meals
can be prepared in winter, while only one meal is possible in the hot box
solar cooker because it has a horizontal absorbing surface.
Simultaneously, there is no need of frequent tracking as compared to 1 h
tracking for the hot box solar cooker and 30 min tracking for the solar
oven. The overall efficiency of this improved hot box solar cooker is
24.6%. The payback period shows that use of the solar cooker is
economical.

Parametric model of solar cooker performance

P.A.FUNK & D.L.LARSON

This paper presents a model for prediction of the cooking power of a

solar cooker based on three controlled parameters (solar intercept area,
overall heat loss coefficient, and absorber plate thermal conductivity)
and three uncontrolled variables (insolation, temperature difference, and
load distribution). The model basis is a fundamental energy balance
equation. Coefficients for each term in the model were determined by
regression analysis of experimental data. The model was validated for
commercially available solar cookers of both the box and concentrating
types. The valid range of model application includes most of the feasible
design space for family-sized solar cookers. The model can be used to
estimate the cooking capacity of existing box type and concentrating
type solar cookers. It can also be used to find the combinations of
intercept area and heat loss coefficient required to cook a given quantity
of food in a given climate.