Principal difficulties with parabolic trough collector systems and performance-boosting strategies: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Solar energy has become one of the prominent sources of renewable energy in recent decades. The major factors that make solar energy; the default renewable energy source are its universal availability at large, free of cost, environmental friendliness, sustainability, and other advantages. The temperature range of the parabolic trough collector varies up to 400 °C. This makes the collector most suitable in the concentrated solar power generation category. This review paper mainly discusses the challenges faced by the PTC systems and their mitigation for performance enhancement. Furthermore, the current review paper also outlines the research conducted by various scholars on the parabolic trough collector performance enhancement through inserts/turbulators, and the effect of rotation of the tube on the collector performance. At last, a summary of all the literature concerning different inserts is included. It is discovered that the collector's thermal efficiency will rise with the tube's rotation, but this is dependent on several other variables, including the collector's optical characteristics, tracking errors, and the type of heat transfer fluid used, among others. This review paper is poised to be a valuable resource for researchers with a vested interest in systems based on parabolic trough solar collectors.