This article was downloaded by: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network]

On: 1 September 2010

Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 918588849]
Publisher Taylor & Francis
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-
41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713770930

Novel Design of Photovoltaic System Coupled with Packed Bed Thermal

Energy Storage
Faten H. Fahmya; Z. S. Abdel-Rehimb
a
Electronics Research Institute National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt b Mechanical Engineering
Department, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

To cite this Article Fahmy, Faten H. and Abdel-Rehim, Z. S.(1997) 'Novel Design of Photovoltaic System Coupled with
Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage', Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 19: 10,
1031 — 1041
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/00908319708908906
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00908319708908906

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or
systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or
distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents
will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses
should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss,
actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly
or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
 Novel Design of Photovoltaic System Coupled
with Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage

FATEN H. FAHMY
Electronics Research Institute
National Research Center
Dokki, Cairo, Egypt

Z. S. ABDEL-REHIM
Mechanical Engineering Department
National Research Center
Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

Because of their simplicity, ease of operation, and low cost, photovoltaic (PV)
thermal systems have been consmtcted for commercial operation, panicularly in
deueloping countries. This work presents a new solar electric thermal energy storage
system. The design is of a PV standalone with a packed bed thennal energy storage
unit. The unit is intended for use as an economic storage system to supply the
heating load (air space and water) with thermal energy where the gap between the
main source and the load demand occurs during the night. The bed is packed with
different materiak that have high thermal propenies. Design, savings, and operation
are ako discussed. The PV system is very efficient for rural areas, especially those
with high insulation. The results show that the steel bed giues maximum thermal
energy storage, while the pebble bed giues a minimum amount of thermal energy
storage. The air mass flow rate affects the storage capacity and charging time. Ako,
the mathematical results of the electrical energy savings using this novel system
ensure the economic point of view and show that it is more efficient for heating
loads than other systems. This novel solar system consisting of PV standalone
combined with a packed bed thermal storage and heating load ouercomes the
disaduantages of batteries.

Keywords heating load, packed beds, photovoltaic, standalone system, thermal

storage

The main natural resource of renewable energy in Egypt is solar energy. Since
Egypt is between 22"N and 31.S0N, the potential for solar energy is high, especially
in the southern regions. These regions are remote and isolated, so we can use
standalone systems, mostly photovoltaic (PV) systems, with storage units as studied
by Travers and John (1992) and EL-Zeftawy (1993). Fahmy (1994) investigated a
new algorithm to study the cell performance of various sets of PV modules. The
modules are a simple approach to design and construction of various connected PV
systems, depending on the arrangements of the panels. The intermittence of solar
radiation is the main problem of this source. The packed bed thermal energy

Received 15 August 1996; accepted 12 September 1996.

Address correspondence to Faten H. Fahmy, Electronics Research Institute, National
Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt. E-mail: faten@eri.sci.eg

Energy Sources, 19:1031-1041,1997

Copyright O 1997 Taylor & Francis
0090-8312/97 $12.00 + .OO
 1032 F. H. Fahmy and Z. S. Abdel-Rehim

storage unit is required to cover gaps between the energy output of the solar
system and the heating load.

System Configuration
The major commercial market for PV systems in the past has been for small,
reliable power supplies in remote areas. The systems are generally operated
without any nonsolar backup and are therefore the sole source of electric power
for the load demand (Green, 1982).
A schematic diagram of a standalone solar PV unit coupled with a packed bed
thermal energy storage unit and heating system is shown in Figure 1.
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

Photovolfaic Arrays
Photovoltaic arrays are composed of a sufficient number of modules connected in
series to generate enough electrical energy to feed the required heating load. Each
+
module is composed of a number of p n silicon cells (18 x 2) with 11 X 11 cm2
in series connection. The module of this standalone system will be able to generate
60 W output of electrical power with 20 V output and 3 amp current. The current
output will be proportional to the intensity of sunlight on the module. The PV
system is the main supply for the load demand.

Heating System
The heating system is the secondary supply for load demand during the daytime. It
consists of an air blower to push the cold air with a certain flow rate through a
special heating chamber. The inlet air can be heated according to the required
temperature of the heating load. A set of ball valves control the flow rate of the
inlet and outlet cold and hot air of the whole system to meet the requirement.

Storage System
The storage system consists of two parts. The main part is the packed bed thermal
energy storage, and the secondary storage unit is a small set of batteries to feed the
blower during the night.
The packed bed storage system consists of air as blower connected in series
with a heating chamber through a set of ball valves to control the flow rate of the
inlet and outlet of cold and hot air through the test section (bed) during charging
and discharging processes.
The most commonly used batteries for solar systems have been lead-acid
batteries. According to the load requirement, here the battery will operate in a
fairly usual mode, whereby it remains fully charged during the day and is dis-
charged during the night to operate as the main energy source for the air blower of
the packed bed storage unit. As the air blower requires 1/2 kW, a set of batteries
are cascaded in series and can be chosen with a rate suitable to the need.

Other Required Components

In addition to the array of solar modules and storage batteries, the other system
components are a blocking diode to prevent loss of battery power through the cells
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

Blocking AC Load
Inverter

Silicon
Solar
Array
I
Controller

Orifice
Meter

Cold Air
Heater
> -
7

Hot Air
Heating Load
During Day
Heating Load

Cold Air Hot Air

Heater

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of PV system coupled with thermal energy storage unit and heating system.
 I034 F. H. Fahmy and 2. S. Abdel-Rehim

overnight and a regulator to prevent overcharging of the battery in periods of high

insulation levels. An inverter must be used to convert the DC output power of the
PV unit to AC to be suitable for the required AC load.

Load
Heating Load. A large portion of residential energy use is in the form of
low-grade heat for hot water and air space heating (Sayeghand et al., 1992) for
small-scale domestic use. Hot air can be used directly to heat or warm the required
air space or used in specially designed hot air systems. At the same time, we can
use this hot air to heat water, which can be stored in tanks. The temperature of the
outlet hot air and hot water depends on many factors, which will be discussed in
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

the following section.

Electrical Load. The PV system is designed to meet the necessary electrical load.
This load is composed of an air blower and a heater for the heating system and for
the packed bed thermal energy storage system. The air blower requires 400-500 W,
and the heater 600-750 W. Thus the total load during daytime is 2.0-2.5 kW. To
generate this required electrical output power, the PV system is composed of
36-44 modules connected in series. These modules can be arranged on the roof in
two rows (18 modules in each row) or 4 rows (9 modules in each row), and all the
connections are in series to give high output voltage. For a 2.5-kW load we need 44
modules, which can be arranged in 2 rows (22 modules/row) connected in series or
4 rows (11 modules/row) also connected in series.

Design of Photovoltaic System

Solar cells operate by converting sunlight directly into electricity using the elec-
tronic properties of a class of material known as semiconductors. For mathematical
simplicity, an idealized case will be assumed where the generation rate of
electron-hole pairs by illumination will be assumed uniform.
The current-voltage characteristics are

at room temperature

where

= 10-5:10-3 amp
 Phofouolfaic-Packed Bed Thermal Energv Storage

For the idealized case of a pure and perfect semiconductor,

while for the vast majority of cases,

Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

In the case of impurity,

Output energy is
E = IVt (11)

Design of Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage System

The packed bed has a cylindrical shape of diameter D = 0.5 m and total bed length
L = 1.2 m (Abdel Rehim, 1995). It is filled with solid spheres of diameter
d , = 0.0235 m as the storing medium. Some of the beds are packed with three
layers of different materials that have high thermal properties. The hot air flows
axially from the bottom of the bed, causing heat transfer between the solid and the
air. The inlet hot air temperature is Th = 80°C flowing at a rate G = 0.15 and 0.3
kg/m2s for two computer runs. The temperature field inside the bed for the air
and solid phases and the energy stored in the bed can be obtained from conserva-

Table 1
Numerical values of thermal properties of the materials used

Density p Specific heat c, Thermal conductivity

Materials (kg/m3) [U/(kg " a K [kJ/m s "C)]
Glass 2500 0.67 0.00021
Rock 2560 0.96 0.00048
Porcelain 2420 0.85 0.00036
Pebbles 1600 0.88 0.0015
Steel 7850 0.48 0.0045
Air 1.185 1.005 -
 F. H. Fahmy and Z. S. Abdel-Rehim

Table 2
Description of packed beds

Packed bed Description

glass, rock, and porcelain
glass, porcelain, and pebbles
glass, rock, and pebbles
rock, porcelain, and pebbles
rock, steel, and rock
glass
rock
porcelain
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

pebbles
steel

2
G=0.15 k g l m s

Time, t , (hours)
Figure 2. Variation of energy stored for various beds with time at air mass flow rate
G = 0.15 kg/(rn2 s). Beds 81-810 are described in Table 2.
 Photouoltaic-Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage 1037

tion equations solved by a finite difference technique and a tridiagonal matrix

solver, the Thomas algorithm, through a special computer program.
The air energy equation is

(Coutier & Farber, 1982).

The solid energy equation is
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

The initial and boundary conditions for the two phases (air and solid) are

Time, t , (hours)
Figure 3. Variation of energy stored for various beds with time at air mass flow rate
G = 0.3 kg/(m2 s). Beds Bl-BIO are described in Table 2.
 F. H. Fahmy and Z. S. Abdel-Rehim

The appropriate upstream ( Z = 0) and downstream ( Z = L)boundary condi-

tions of the solid phase are specified by the solid temperature that satisfies the
energy equation at the upstream and downstream boundaries.
The stored energy integral equation is
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

The numerical values of the thermal properties of selected materials are given
in Table 1, and the description of the packed beds used is given in Table 2.

Results and Discussion

As is clear from the numerical results of the study, the suggested system has a new
design for the combined PV and packed bed thermal storage system (Figure 1).

Figure 4. Effect of air mass flow rate on the storage capacity for various beds. Beds 81-810
arc described in Table 2.
 Photouoltaic-Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage I039

Besides the advantages of PV as a clean energy heat source, especially for remote
areas, the packed bed is a more suitable storage system for heating loads. The
results illustrate the effect of many types of packed beds on the total amount of
thermal energy stored in the bed, making the system suitable for many heating
loads.
Figures 2 and 3 show the variation of thermal energy output according to
various beds at different airflow rates G = 0.15 and 0.3 kg/(m2 s), respectively. It
is noticed that t h e steel bed gives the higher thermal energy value (37,579.449 W),
while the pebble bed has the lowest value (33,160.13 kJ). However, the choice of
bed can be specified according to the type of load. The thermal energy stored in
packed beds is proportional to the flow rate of the air (Figure 4). It is clear that
higher air flow rate means higher storage capacity. The use of packed beds saves
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

electrical energy, which makes for an economical system. Instead of using large PV
standalone systems, large battely storage system, or another hybrid energy system,
this savings of electrical energy minimizes the total costs of the global solar system
(Figures 5 and 6).

Conclusion
Based on the above results, we can conclude that the use of packed bed thermal
storage combined with a PV system is the most efficient, economical, reliable, and

35
O ~ n e r g yStored. Qs. MJ
a ~ l e c t r i cEnergy. E , kW
30

Figure 5. Electrical energy savings corresponding to thermal energy storage for various
beds at G = 0.15 kg/(rn2 s). Beds B1-BIO are described in Table 2.
 F. H.Fahmy and Z. S.Abdel-Rehim

n ~ n e stored.ps.
r ~ ~ MJ
[ a ~ l s a l r i cenergy, E, kW
-

G-0.3 kp/n8s
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

Figurc 6. Electrical energy savings corresponding to thermal energy storage for various
beds at G = 0.3 kg/(m2 s). Beds 81-810 are described in Table 2.

simple to use. This is the first time combined PV and packed bed thermal energy
storage has been used. PVs do not pollute the air or impact the environment and
are preferable for rural areas.
Packed beds have long lifetimes because the storing media are nondegradable
materials and are very cheap. The variety of storing media of packed beds allows
for a wide range of thermal energy storage output, which is suitable for multither-
ma1 loads. It is found that the steel bed gives the maximum storage capacity, while
the pebble bed gives the minimum storage capacity. Air mass flow rate plays a
significant role in the storage capacity.
This novel solar system is economical as it saves the required electrical energy
for the heating load during day time and night time in rural areas

Nomenclature

A cross-sectional area of diode

B bed symbol
C~. specific heat of air [kJ/kg°C)l
C~.
specific heat of solid [kJ/(kg°C)]
D diameter of the packed bed, (m)
D,, D , diffusion constant for electron or hole
E electrical array energy (Wh)
 Photouoltaic-Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage

mass flow rate of air per unit area [kg/(m2 s)l

volumetric heat transfer coefficient [kJ/(m3 s "C)
output current of P V module
light current, amps
saturation current density
thermal conductivity [kJ/(m°C s)]
Boltzmann constant
length of the packed bed, m
intrinsic concentration
density of ionized acceptor
density of ionized donors
hole and electron density
Downloaded By: [Canadian Research Knowledge Network] At: 11:49 1 September 2010

charge density of hole o r electron

energy stored in packed bed (kT)
time (s)
air temperature P C )
solid temperature PC)
absolute temperature
output voltages (V)
thermal voltage (= 26 m V at room temperature)
distance in axial direction
void fraction
ph carrier mobility of electron and hole
per
P density (kg/m3)

Subscripts
a air
h hot
s solid
0 ambient condition

References
Abdel Rehim, Z. S. 1995. Experimental and theoretical studies of packed bed thermal
storage. Ph.D. thesis, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Coutrier, J. P., and E. A. Farber. 1982. Two applications of a numerical heat transfer process
within packed beds. Solar Energy World Forum 29(61):451-462.
El-Zeftawy, L. A. 1993. Economic worth of photovoltaic systems for rural and remote area
applications. Scientific Bullerin of Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Suez Canal
Unil~ersity,Egypt 5(2):186-198.
Fahmy, F . H. 1994. A new algorithm to study the cell performance of various sets of the PV
modules. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Egypt: Deuelopmenr
and Enuironmenr, Cairo, Egypt, pp. 361-368.
Green, M. A. 1982. Solar cell operating principals: Technology and system applications,
chap. 3.
Sayeghand, D., A. Katedra, I. Climatyzacji, and X. Cieplownictwa. 1992. Experimental
measurements of solar collector water heater in climatic conditions of Poland. In
Second World Renewable Energy Congress, Reading, U K Sepr. 13-18, pp. 867-869.
Travers, L., and K. R. John. 1992. Modeling and optimization of storage and load manage-
ment in remote area power suppliers. In Proceedings of UPEC, pp. 448-451.