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The Influence of Al2O3- ZnO-H2O Nanofluid on the Thermodynamic Performance of Photovoltaic- Thermal Hybrid Solar Collector System

Abubaker Younis, Esam Elsarrag*, Yousef Alhorr and Mahmoud Onsa

A thermodynamic analysis was conducted after testing two working fluids to particularly assess the effect of Nanofluid as heat transfer agent on improving thermal, electrical, and exergetic efficiencies of thermally biased solar photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) hybrid collector system under State of Qatar climate, using experimentally and computationally obtained data. The investigated two fluids were water, and Al2O3-ZnO-H2O Nanofluid mixed with Ethylene Glycol as surfactant. Mass fractions of Nanoparticles were 0.05 wt.% Al2O3 with particle size of 5 nm and 0.05 wt.% ZnO with particles size of 10-30 nm. The results showed that in comparison between water as absorption medium and the mentioned Nanofluid, an increase in thermal and hence total efficiency of the system was recorded for the latter absorption medium scenario, despite considering concentrations of the Nanoparticles relatively low. A very general trend of dramatic decrease in the positive effect of Nanofluid in consistency with the ambient temperature increase was also observed after fitting the data to segments of straight lines. For 0.05 wt.% mass fraction of Nanoparticles the averaged increment in total efficiency was 4.1%, and in total useable energy (exergy) efficiency was 4.6%.