Design and feasibility of high temperature nanoparticle fluid filter in hybrid thermal/photovoltaic concentrating solar power

Abstract

A nanoparticle fluid filter used with concentrating hybrid solar/thermal collector design is presented. Nanoparticle fluid filters could be situated on any given concentrating system with appropriate customized engineering. This work shows the design in the context of a trough concentration system. Geometric design and physical placement in the optical path was modeled using SolTrace. It was found that a design can be made that blocks 0% of the traced rays. The nanoparticle fluid filter is tunable for different concentrating systems using various PV cells or operating at varying temperatures.