Analysis and comparaison of different Heat Transfer Fluids for a 1MWe Parabolic Trough Collector

Abstract

The present work contains a numerical simulation of a 1MWe parabolic trough solar collector using 6 various Heat Transfer Fluids (HTF) under the weather conditions of Oujda (Morocco). Our objective is to study the performances of different HTFs and make a comparison between them in order to find out the most suitable HTF to be used for small scale solar plants. The main results of the simulations show that the VP1 is the best one to be used in this conditions, since it's the one that provide the highest thermal and electrical production that reach 650MWth and 200MWe in June respectively. However, the Molten Salts (Hitec and Solar Salt) are the disproportionate ones because the lowest thermal and electrical production.