Abstract—This paper presents the results for a feasibility study of a solar chimney which uses low-grade waste heat from compost in conjunction with solar energy transmitted via a transparent roof top. The feasibility study shows that the solar chimney’s turbine power increases with pressure ratio, the height of the chimney as well as the differential temperature in the chamber. This paper also outlines the thermodynamic modeling related to using waste heat from composting to increase the air temperature in the inlet chamber of a solar chimney. It is found that from this analysis that the average temperature in the chamber increases as a function of the chimney inlet chamber axial length. The combined raw in input total heat gain for this hybrid solar composting chimney is found to be 6.24 MW of which 66% (4.12 MW) is comprised of solar, and 34% (2.12 MW) is comprised of composting energy.
Index Terms—Composting, waste heat recovery, solar updraft tower.
The authors are with the Solar Thermal Alternative Renewable Energy Lab in the Mechanical Engineering Department, California State Polytechnic University (Cal Poly Pomona), Pomona, CA 91768 USA (e-mail: kranderson1@csupomona.edu, maryam.shafahi@email.ucr.edu, chris.m.mcnamara@gmail.com).
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Cite:Kevin R. Anderson, Maryam Shafahi, and Chris McNamara, "Thermal-Fluids Analysis of a Hybrid Solar/Compost Waste Heat Updraft Tower," Journal of Clean Energy Technologies vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 213-220, 2016.
