180 results about "Parabolic trough" patented technology

A reflector (e.g., mirror) for use in a solar collector or the like is provided. In certain example embodiments of this invention, a reflector is made by (a) forming a reflective coating on a thin substantially flat glass substrate (the thin glass substrate may or may not be pre-bent prior to the coating being applied thereto), (b) optionally, if the glass substrate in (a) was not prebent, then cold-bending the glass substrate with the reflective coating thereon; and (c) applying a plate or frame member to the thin bent glass substrate with the coating thereon from (a) and / or (b), the plate or frame member (which may be another thicker pre-bent glass sheet, for example) for maintaining the thin glass substrate and coating thereon in a desired bent orientation in a final product which may be used as parabolic trough or dish type reflector in a concentrating solar power apparatus or the like.

A Theoretical Overlay Photographic (TOP) alignment method uses the overlay of a theoretical projected image of a perfectly aligned concentrator on a photographic image of the concentrator to align the mirror facets of a parabolic trough solar concentrator. The alignment method is practical and straightforward, and inherently aligns the mirror facets to the receiver. When integrated with clinometer measurements for which gravity and mechanical drag effects have been accounted for and which are made in a manner and location consistent with the alignment method, all of the mirrors on a common drive can be aligned and optimized for any concentrator orientation.

A solar concentrating collector includes corrugated board parabolic support segments with flexible strips and side tabs over the cut edge to support a laminate with reflective coated film. The reflector assembly has supporting arms and pivots about a heat absorbing conduit secured to vertical extensions of adjacent stationary posts. Selected external surfaces are weatherproofed. The conduit includes vacuum insulators and means to isolate conduit from insulator expansion. Upper arms support pulleys and cable take-ups for continuous collector position changes. Cross members of the extended post secure the fixed conduit, and at a higher level, a programmable drive to rotate two cable capstans for cables that pivot two adjacent reflector assemblies. Other embodiments include triangular or square fluid conduits with planar surfaces for photovoltaic cells and a modified reflective surface to disperse solar rays into a band of reflected sunlight directed to photocell areas.

The present invention proposes a hybrid methodology and apparatus between photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar panels to lower the photovoltaic solar energy production cost. In particular, the disclosed methodology addresses a simple quasi-parabolic trough PV (QPTPV) low concentration system with greater tolerance to tracker pointing errors. The quasi-parabolic trough (QPT) reflector is defocused to cover the width of a linear solar cells array, which is reduced from a large rectangular solar cells panel. In summary, the QPTPV system consists of low cost quasi-parabolic reflectors, a compact linear PV cells array and a lower cost relaxed pointing 2-axes tracker. The combination of these low cost technologies disclosed can achieve the lowest cost per kilowatt hour of photovoltaic energy production.

A reflector (e.g., mirror) for use in a solar collector or the like is provided. In certain example embodiments of this invention, a reflector is made by (a) forming a reflective coating on a thin substantially flat glass substrate (the thin glass substrate may or may not be pre-bent prior to the coating being applied thereto), (b) optionally, if the glass substrate in (a) was not prebent, then cold-bending the glass substrate with the reflective coating thereon; and (c) applying a plate or frame member to the thin bent glass substrate with the coating thereon from (a) and / or (b), the plate or frame member (which may be another thicker pre-bent glass sheet, for example) for maintaining the thin glass substrate and coating thereon in a desired bent orientation in a final product which may be used as parabolic trough or dish type reflector in a concentrating solar power apparatus or the like.

Which, using a heat transfer fluid in any thermodynamic cycle or system for using process heat, comprises:two-dimensional solar concentrator means for heating the heat transfer fluid from a temperature T1 to a temperature T2; three-dimensional solar concentrator means for overheating the heat transfer fluid from a temperature T2 to a temperature T3; such that the advantages of working at high-temperatures of the three-dimensional solar concentrator means are taken advantage of with overall costs similar to those of two-dimensional solar concentrator means.In a specific application for generating electric power, the two-dimensional solar concentrator means consist of a parabolic trough collector (1), while the three-dimensional solar concentrator means consist of a heliostat field and central tower (2) for generating overheated steam that expands in a turbine (6) coupled to an electric generator (7).

A solar thermal powered aircraft powered by heat energy from the sun. A heat engine, such as a Stirling engine, is carried by the aircraft body for producing power for a propulsion mechanism, such as a propeller. The heat engine has a thermal battery in thermal contact with it so that heat is supplied from the thermal battery. A solar concentrator, such as reflective parabolic trough, is movably connected to an optically transparent section of the aircraft body for receiving and concentrating solar energy from within the aircraft. Concentrated solar energy is collected by a heat collection and transport conduit, and heat transported to the thermal battery. A solar tracker includes a heliostat for determining optimal alignment with the sun, and a drive motor actuating the solar concentrator into optimal alignment with the sun based on a determination by the heliostat.

Which, using a heat transfer fluid in any thermodynamic cycle or system for using process heat, comprises:two-dimensional solar concentrator means for heating the heat transfer fluid from a temperature T1 to a temperature T2; three-dimensional solar concentrator means for overheating the heat transfer fluid from a temperature T2 to a temperature T3; such that the advantages of working at high-temperatures of the three-dimensional solar concentrator means are taken advantage of with overall costs similar to those of two-dimensional solar concentrator means.In a specific application for generating electric power, the two-dimensional solar concentrator means consist of a parabolic trough collector (1), while the three-dimensional solar concentrator means consist of a heliostat field and central tower (2) for generating overheated steam that expands in a turbine (6) coupled to an electric generator (7).

The parabolic trough collector has a receiver formed by several single absorber tubes (13). The single absorber tubes (13) are supported by absorber tube supports (14) and surrounded by a glass tube (15). Because of different expansion behavior of the absorber tube (13) and the glass tube (15) during collector operation flexible unions (17) are foreseen between absorber tube (13) and glass tube (15). In order to use the radiation coming to the non active-area where the absorber tube supports (14) and the flexible unions (17) are installed a mirror collar (20) is installed on this area. The mirror collar (20) is able to reflect the solar radiation, which is coming from different directions, to the active absorber part of the single absorber tubes (13) also when the sun incident angle is changing.

A solar concentrating collector includes corrugated board parabolic support segments with flexible strips and side tabs over the cut edge to support a laminate with reflective coated film. The reflector assembly has supporting arms and pivots about a heat absorbing conduit secured to vertical extensions of adjacent stationary posts. Selected external surfaces are weatherproofed. The conduit includes vacuum insulators and means to isolate conduit from insulator expansion. Upper arms support pulleys and cable take-ups for continuous collector position changes. Cross members of the extended post secure the fixed conduit, and at a higher level, a programmable drive to rotate two cable capstans for cables that pivot two adjacent reflector assemblies. Other embodiments include triangular or square fluid conduits with planar surfaces for photovoltaic cells and a modified reflective surface to disperse solar rays into a band of reflected sunlight directed to photocell areas.

In accordance with one embodiment, a parabolic trough system is disclosed to capture solar heat. It has low mass, high rigidity and precise robust rotational control. The trough does not require massive supports, since it use a “sandwich structure” where the core is lightweight urethane foam and the skin is made of aluminum sheet. The inside skin also functions as the parabolic reflector. The shape minimizes wind loads by centering the receiver in the parabola and by making the center of focus the center of rotation.The system can be rapidly built in the field since there are few parts. Assembly does not require heavy equipment. Support posts are used on both sides of the trough to minimize the anchoring requirements in wind loads.The trough bodies are rotated in a rotational control mechanism that uses circumscribing rings to support a continuous row of troughs that can sustain 120 mile per hour winds. Optical performance is improved with the drive ring design. The structure is continuous and torque is uniformly applied to each ring through two spools supported on drive tubes. A cable is wrapped around each spool as well as around the top part of the ring. As the spools rotate, they pull the cable and rotate the rings and troughs with precision and strength. The spools and cables also restrain the system under high wind loads.

A lightweight solar concentrator of the reflecting parabolic or trough type is realized via a thin reflecting film, an inflatable structural housing and tensioned fibers. The reflector element itself is a thin, flexible, specularly-reflecting sheet or film. The film is maintained in the parabolic trough shape by means of a plurality of tensioned fibers arranged to be parallel to the longitudinal axis of the parabola. Fiber ends are terminated in two spaced anchorplates, each containing a plurality of holes, which lie on a desired parabolic contour. In a preferred embodiment, these fibers are arrayed in pairs with one fiber contacting the front side of the reflecting film and the other contacting the back side of the reflecting film. The reflective surface is thereby slidably captured between arrays of fibers, which control the shape, and position of the reflective film. Gas pressure in the inflatable housing generates fiber tension to achieve a truer parabolic shape. A plurality of bridges and or retention clips may be employed in certain embodiments to maintain the position of the reflective surface relative to the fibers.

The invention relates to a slotted solar intermediate / low-temperature ORC (organic rankine cycle) thermal power generator, consisting of a parabolic trough light-condensing array, a linear focusing strengthening heat collecting tube, a heat-conduction working medium, a heat exchanger, an atomizer, an atomization flash evaporation tank, a pressure pump, a pressure control valve, a heat storage device, a heat-storage working medium, an intermediate / low-temperature ORC power unit, an organic evaporating agent tank, an evaporator, a condenser, an air cooling machine set, a regulating valve, a transmission pipeline, a complementary boiler, a light-condensing array cluster PLC (programmable logic controller), and a hydraulic or turbine worm driver. According to the slotted solar intermediate / low-temperature ORC thermal power generator disclosed by the invention, the heat storage device supplies heat to an intermediate / low-temperature ORC power machine by taking atomized water vapor, glycol, heat-conducting oil or fused salt as a heat-transfer working medium so that the intermediate / low-temperature ORC power machine is directly driven to realize solar heat collection power generation. The slotted solar intermediate / low-temperature ORC thermal power generator disclosed by the invention belongs to the field of solar energy heat utilization.

A high-efficiency residential solar thermal power plant for economically generating power from solar-thermal energy, using a parabolic trough mirror having a longitudinal focal axis, for concentrating sunlight, a timer rotator for rotating the mirror about the focal and longitudinal rotation axis to follow the sun, and a heat collector surrounding a flow channel that preferably has an oblong cross-sectional shape with a major axis aligned with a longitudinal plane of symmetry of the parabolic trough mirror. The heat collector is coaxially positioned along the focal axis of said mirror to receive concentrated sunlight so that a working fluid is heated and provided for use through an outlet end of the heat collector.

A light assembly and reflector are provided for redirecting light from a light source in a motor vehicle. The reflector generally includes a first parabolic trough, a second parabolic trough, and third trough. The first and second parabolic troughs define first and second trough axes. The third trough has a third trough axis. The first and second parabolic troughs are positioned on opposing sides of the third trough, and the first and second trough axes are angled relative to the third trough axis. In this manner, the reflector collects and reflects a sufficient amount of light while providing control over the beam pattern spread, particularly in the horizontal direction, whereby a single LED may be employed such that constraints imposed by heat dissipation are significantly reduced.

A parabolic trough solar collector system has a parabolic reflector used with an independently supported collector tube. The parabolic reflector has a reflective surface formed on a reflective surface support structure, supported by a circular support beam. This assembly rests on a plurality of support and drive rollers supported by a roller support arm, supported by a roller support column. The parabolic reflector assembly rotates against the rollers along a single axis to maintain a focus line of the parabolic reflector surface at the same location as the center of the circle described by the outer edge of the circular support beam. Located at this same focus line is the independently supported collector tube not attached to the parabolic trough reflector. The collector tube is supported on pipe roller hangers, which in turn are supported by a wire catenary system connected to support towers which straddle the parabolic reflector.

Thermochemical processing systems for the production of chemicals using solar (110) or other radiant energy as the heat source for chemical reactions and separations. Radiant energy receivers (310) operating in conjunction with concentrator systems (300), heat exchangers, chemical reactors and chemical separators. Systems and applications include the concentration of radiant energy in support of a moderate- and / or high-temperature, endothermic chemical reaction followed by downstream reactions and separations so that a chemical fuel is produced. Efforts are made to match concentrator types with need; for example, parabolic trough concentrators may be used to produce steam at low- to moderate-temperatures and parabolic dish concentrators may be used to drive moderate- to high-temperature chemical reactions such as methane reforming, and hybrid concentrators (400) may be used to concentrate radiant energy from multiple energy sources.

The radiation selective absorber coating of the invention includes two or more barrier layers arranged over each other on a substrate surface, an infrared-range reflective layer arranged on the two or more barrier layers, and at least an absorption layer arranged over the infrared-range reflective layer and a final antireflection layer arranged over the absorption layer. The absorber pipe, especially for a parabolic trough collector, is a steel pipe, on whose outer side the radiation selective absorber coating is applied. In the method of making the absorber pipe a first oxide barrier layer is provided on the outer side of the steel pipe by thermal oxidation, and then a second barrier layer, an infrared-range reflective layer, an absorption layer and a final antireflection layer are applied by gas-phase physical deposition.

The invention provides a parabolic trough solar thermal power generation system and method utilizing a fuse salt medium. The system comprises a trough heat collector (1), a saline water heat exchanger (7), a turbo-generator (8), a low-temperature heat accumulating tank (5), a high-temperature heat accumulating tank (6) and a fuse salt discharging system. The trough heat collector (1) is composed of a plurality of columns of independent sub-trough heat collectors, and each sub-trough heat collector is formed by connecting a plurality of heating collecting pipes from bottom to top in sequence. Each sub-trough heat collector is provided with at least one salt discharging pipeline, wherein one end of each salt discharging pipeline is communicated with a cavity of the corresponding sub-trough heat collector, and the other end of each salt discharging pipeline is connected with a salt storage tank. Control valves are installed at the ends, close to the sub-trough heat collectors, of the salt discharging pipelines. In addition, the bottom of each sub-trough heat collector is provided with an air inlet. The parabolic trough solar thermal power generation system and method have the beneficial effects that the system cost is low, and the system using safety is high.

A parabolic trough solar collector system has a parabolic reflector used with an independently supported collector tube. The parabolic reflector has a reflective surface formed on a reflective surface support structure, supported by a circular support beam. This assembly rests on a plurality of support and drive rollers supported by a roller support arm, supported by a roller support column. The parabolic reflector assembly rotates against the rollers along a single axis to maintain a focus line of the parabolic reflector surface at the same location as the center of the circle described by the outer edge of the circular support beam. Located at this same focus line is the independently supported collector tube not attached to the parabolic trough reflector. The collector tube is supported on pipe roller hangers, which in turn are supported by a wire catenary system connected to support towers which straddle the parabolic reflector.

An array of elongated concave parabolic trough-shaped reflectors is disclosed. The orientation of the array is biaxially kept essentially perpendicular to rays of the sun by an optical control such that sunlight is reflected and concentrated along a focal line of each elongated reflector by which (a) water in a tube disposed at the focal line is heated by reflected line focused sunlight impinged thereon and / or (b) line focused reflected sunlight is optically transformed into point focused reflected sunlight using Fresnel lenses from which electricity is generated using solar cells upon which the point focused reflected sunlight is impinged.

The radiation selective absorber coating of the invention includes two or more barrier layers arranged over each other on a substrate surface, an infrared-range reflective layer arranged on the two or more barrier layers, and at least an absorption layer arranged over the infrared-range reflective layer and a final antireflection layer arranged over the absorption layer. The absorber pipe, especially for a parabolic trough collector, is a steel pipe, on whose outer side the radiation selective absorber coating is applied. In the method of making the absorber pipe a first oxide barrier layer is provided on the outer side of the steel pipe by thermal oxidation, and then a second barrier layer, an infrared-range reflective layer, an absorption layer and a final antireflection layer are applied by gas-phase physical deposition.

The invention discloses a board slot combined solar energy and thermal power station complementary generating system which comprises a coal-fired boiler, a steam turbine, a generator, a condenser, a condensate pump, an oil-water heat exchanger of a low-pressure solar feed water heater, a flat-plate solar collector, a first parabolic trough type solar collector, a deaerator, a high-pressure water pump, an oil-water heat exchanger of a high-pressure solar feed water heater and a second parabolic trough type solar collector, wherein the steam turbine comprises a high-pressure cylinder, an intermediate-pressure cylinder and a low-pressure cylinder; high-temperature and high-pressure steam generated in the coal-fired boiler does work by expansion in the high-pressure cylinder, the intermediate-pressure cylinder and the low-pressure cylinder of the steam turbine to drive a generator to rotate and output an electrical load externally. The generating system can be used for realizing the capacity expansion and consumption reduction of thermal power stations and solving the problem that the solar energy is unstable and discontinuous, and is beneficial to low-cost transformation of the thermal power stations and large-scale application and popularization of a solar energy technology.

A reflector for backlighting an indicating instrument has two groups of flutes arranged for evenly distributing light and reducing bright spots. A plate has a recessed portion for receiving the indicating instrument and a semi-bowl-shaped compartment extending away from the plate and opening to the indicating instrument. The compartment has a base with a central projection formed by parabolic flutes and a semi-circular wall connecting the base with the recessed portion of the plate. The semi-circular wall has an inner surface facing the parabolic flutes. The inner surface has flutes extending in a radial direction from the base. Two apertures are positioned in the compartment across a boundary between the base and semi-circular wall. The apertures each receive a light emitting diode mounted on a printed circuit board when the board is assembled on the reflector. The parabolic flutes distribute the light from the light emitting diodes to evenly backlight the indicating instrument. The radial flutes diffuse the light to prevent hot or bright spots from developing under the indicating instrument. The light is further scattered by a chrome coating applied on a surface of the indicating instrument facing the compartment.

The parabolic trough collector has a receiver formed by several single absorber tubes (13). The single absorber tubes (13) are supported by absorber tube supports (14) and surrounded by a glass tube (15). Because of different expansion behavior of the absorber tube (13) and the glass tube (15) during collector operation flexible unions (17) are foreseen between absorber tube (13) and glass tube (15). In order to use the radiation coming to the non active-area where the absorber tube supports (14) and the flexible unions (17) are installed a mirror collar (20) is installed on this area. The mirror collar (20) is able to reflect the solar radiation, which is coming from different directions, to the active absorber part of the single absorber tubes (13) also when the sun incident angle is changing.

The radiation-selective absorber coating, in particular for an absorber tube of a parabolic trough collector, includes a reflective layer which is reflective in the infrared range, at least one barrier layer arranged below the reflective layer, at least one absorption layer arranged above the reflective layer, an antireflection layer arranged above the absorption layer and at least one adhesion-enhancing layer arranged between the barrier layer and the reflective layer. The adhesion-enhancing layer preferably is a molybdenum layer, but can also be provided by a copper, titanium, titanium oxide, or silicon layer. The adhesion-enhancing layer preferably has a thickness of 5 to 50 nm.

A solar trough field system according to the invention comprises multiple parabolic reflectors; a thermal receiver tube, center of which coincides with the focus of the parabolic reflectors and which consists of a metal heat receiving pipe (1) and a glass tube (2) which are nested (the glass tube surrounds the metal heat receiving pipe from outside); a ‘vacuum seal and glass tube connector system’ (E) which connects the glass tubes (2) and the thermal heat receiving pipe (1) to each other; a rotating support unit (21), which connects the parabolic panel to the glass tube connector system (E) and provides the thermal receiver tube (1) to stay stationary while the parabolic panel is rotating around it; ‘flexible expansion unit’ (29) located at the end of each parabolic trough unit which provides vacuum seal while the Heat Receiving Pipe (1) is moving due to heat expansion; and a vertical loop (52) located at the discharge side of the parabolic unit, which can be used instead of water separator and which also provides the heat expansion of the Heat Receiving Pipe (103).

The invention discloses an indirect intermediate-temperature chemical energy storage device for solar heat on the basis of chemical-looping combustion. The indirect intermediate-temperature chemical energy storage device comprises parabolic trough condensers, line-focus reinforced heat collecting tubes, a shell and tube heat collecting reactor, a heat collecting fluid regulating valve, a heat collecting fluid standby storage tank, a gas-solid oxidation reactor, a gas distributing board, a gas-solid heat exchange device, a gas-solid separating device and a pressure pump. The line-focus reinforced heat collecting tubes and the shell and tube heat collecting reactor are connected with the pressure pump, the shell and tube heat collecting reactor and a return valve are connected with the gas-solid oxidation reactor, and the gas-solid oxidation reactor, the gas-solid separating device and the gas-solid heat exchange device are connected with the shell and tube heat collecting reactor. When solar energy is unavailable or the irradiation intensity of the solar energy is insufficient, the line-focus reinforced heat collecting tubes, the heat collecting fluid regulating valve, the heat collecting fluid standby storage tank and the shell and tube heat collecting reactor are connected with the pressure pump. The collected solar heat is stored in a metallic solid fuel form by the indirect intermediate-temperature chemical energy storage device, and the indirect intermediate-temperature chemical energy storage device has the advantages of high energy storage density, simple structure, flexibility in regulation and control and the like.