Experimental Investigation of Nanofluid Based on Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles in Absorption Sunlight and Steam Generation

In the present research, the steam generation performances of nanofluids containing titanium dioxide have experimentally been examined. For this purpose, a solar simulator with a xenon lamp as the radiation source, and a pyranometer as a light intensity measuring device are used. Then, the water based-nanofluids in five nanoparticle mass fractions of 0.001, 0.002, 0.004, 0.04, and 0.08% exposed to the light intensity of 3.5Suns (3.5 kW/m2) were investigated to compare their evaporation performances with water (H2O). Finally, the effects of the solar power intensity on the steam generation were examined. The results showed that the titanium dioxide nanostructures are more efficient to directly absorb the solar energy than the water so that the maximum total evaporation efficiency of 77.4% and 54% were obtained at 3.5 kW.m-2 for nanofluid and water, respectively. Furthermore, it was found that light absorption increases as the nanofluid mass fraction increases. Also, increasing the light intensity from 1.5 to 3.5 kW.m-2 enhances the thermal efficiency, while it reduces the evaporation efficiency.