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Improving solar cooker performance using phase change materials: A

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DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2020.07.015

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 Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Improving solar cooker performance using phase change materials: A T

comprehensive review
⁎
Adil A.M. Omaraa,b, , Abuelnuor A.A. Abuelnuorc, Hussein A. Mohammedd, Daryoush Habibid,
Obai Younise
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Baha University, Al Baha, Saudi Arabia
d
School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia
e
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Wadi Addwaser Campus, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj, Saudi Arabia

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Solar cookers (SCs) provide a renewable source for cooking applications. However, their main drawback is that
Solar cooker they cannot be utilized during the shortage of sunlight. Moreover, most SCs have a relatively low cooking speed
Phase change materials and can expose the user to serious solar radiation. Using thermal energy storage (TES) can considerably over-
Thermal energy storage come these limitations. This work provides a rich literature review of the applications of phase change materials
Thermal performance
(PCMs) as TES mediums to improve the SC performance. The paper indicates the feasibility of PCMs for im-
Solar energy
proving the cooking performance and thermal parameters of SCs with lower cooking time in addition to the
possibility of evening cooking. Furthermore, the review discusses the influence of thermal and geometric fea-
tures of PCM on the cooking behavior. Additionally, the effect of the heat transfer fluids and the compatibility of
the encapsulation materials are also included. Besides, the review also discusses the challenges of using PCMs
with SCs related to optimal PCM quantity, PCM type, low exergetic efficiency, non-efficient thermal control,
mechanical strength, and thermal conductivity limitations. Finally, the economic and environmental aspects,
and usage of solid-solid PCMs are recommended as future research for further studies.

1. Introduction
World demand for non-renewable energy sources (beginning with
petrol) is expected to surpass yearly production, most likely during the
upcoming two decades. Worldwide monetary and political emergency
and clashes can likewise be started by deficiencies of oil or gas
(Ahmedelbdawy et al., 2018). In addition, consuming non-renewable
energy sources release unsafe emissions, for example, nitrogen oxides,
carbon dioxide, aerosols, and so forth which influence the local, re-
gional and worldwide environment (Thirugnanasambandam et al.,
2010). The use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) has turned out to be
increasingly common throughout the globe. This conventional energy
source could be depleted with time (Kumaresan et al., 2015). World-
wide, and more precisely in the developing countries, cooking con-
sumes considerable amount of energy in residential sector. In various
developing countries, energy needs for cooking take over about 30% of
the overall energy consumption. Due to the required energy limitations
and needs to lessen the wide deforestation in those countries, it is quite
necessary to find out alternative, appropriate and non-costly cooking
strategies, depending on the renewable energies (Farooqui, 2013).
Some endeavors on utilizing solar energy in cooking were presented
in the historical backdrop of solar energy (Meinel and Meinel, 1977).
These endeavors were extinguished by the appearance of cheap oil fuels
in the early 20th century. Starting from the renaissance of solar cookers
(SCs) in 1950, many researchers have investigated different designs of
solar cooking devices (Reddy and Rao, 2007). SCs have for some time
been displayed as a fascinating solution to the global concern of les-
sening fuel resources and other environmental issues related with fossil
fuel requirements for cooking. SCs present a renewable and sustainable
energy supply for cooking requirements. The usage of SCs is observed in
considerable fuel and time reserved just as expanded energy security for
countryside families utilizing cooking fuels (Wentzel and Pouris, 2007,
Al-Soud et al., 2010).
The SC limitation usage in low intensity sun-light rays times is

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: adilomara2012@gmail.com (A.A.M. Omara), abuelnuor99@gmail.com (A.A.A. Abuelnuor),
Hussein.mohammed@ecu.edu.au (H.A. Mohammed), h.habibi@ecu.edu.au (D. Habibi), oubeytaha@hotmail.com (O. Younis).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2020.07.015
Received 10 June 2020; Received in revised form 5 July 2020; Accepted 6 July 2020
0038-092X/ © 2020 International Solar Energy Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A.A.M. Omara, et al. Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563

Nomenclature M Mass of water (kg)

MCO2 Quantity of CO2 diminished by a SC (kg/month)
Abbreviations MCO2tot Total amount of CO2 generated (kg/month)
mLPG Monthly quantity of consumed LPG (kg/month)
DSC Differential scanning calorimetry Ms Monthly quantity of saved money ($/month)
HTF Heat transfer fluid M1 Mass of cooking utensil (kg)
LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas N Number of pots
PCM Phase change material P Cooking power (W)
PE Pentaerythritol PLPG LPG price of 1 kg ($/kg/month)
P/F Pentaerythritol to fin volume ratio PP Payback period (month)
SC Solar cooker Ps Standard cooking power
SEC Solar electric cooker Pt Percentage working time of the SC (month)
SHSM Sensible heat storage material QF Useful heat stored in the food (J)
TES Thermal energy storage Qin Solar input (W/m2)
Qtot Total amount of heat stored (J)
Symbols Qs Quantity of sensible heat stored (J)
T Absolute temperature (K)
A Absorber area (m2) Ta Ambient temperature (K)
Ac Collector area (m2) T̄a Average ambient air temperature (K)
am Fraction melted Ti Initial temperature of PCM (K)
Asc Intercept area of SC (m2) Tf Final temperature of PCM (K)
C Concentration ratio Tm PCM melting temperature (K)
C3 Coefficient characterizes a cooker To Reference temperature (K)
Clp Specific heat of PCM at liquid form (J/kg °C) Tps Maximum absorber plate temperature (K)
Cp Specific heat of the PCM (J/kg °C) Ts Sun temperature (K)
CR Heat capacity ratio ts Specific boiling time (sec)
Csp Specific heat of PCM at solid form (J/kg °C) Tw1 Initial temperature of water (K)
CT SC total cost ($) Tw2 Final temperature of water (K)
Cu Specific heat of cooking utensil (J/kg °C)
Cw Specific heat capacity of water (J/kg °C) Greek symbols
dt Time interval (sec)
dTw Temperature difference of water (K) η Efficiency of the SC
F Heat exchange efficiency factor ηu Utilizable efficiency
F1 First fig. of merit ηo Optical efficiency
F2 Second fig. of merit ηen Energy efficiency
G Solar irradiance (W/m2) ηex Exergy efficiency
Ḡ Average solar radiation (W/m2) ΔT Temperature rise (K)
GNR Constant direct normal radiation (W/m2) Δhm Latent heat of PCM (J/kg)
It Total instantaneous solar radiation (W/m2) τ Cooking time (sec)
m Mass of the medium (kg) ψ Maximum efficiency ratio

considered as one of its essential shortcomings. Moreover, the time
required for cooking is relatively long and users are sometimes exposed
to serious solar radiation (Aramesh et al., 2019). Using thermal energy
storage (TES) can considerably improve SCs performance (Mawire
et al., 2010). The primary merits of integrating TES unit with SCs are
that the cooking can be faster and occurs during periods of low or no
sunlight. Integrating SC with TES allows the system to be additionally
utilized during peak periods to reduce energy consumption, particularly
at evening times (Mawire et al., 2008, Panchal et al., 2017). Therefore,
this paper intensely focuses only on integrating phase change materials
(PCMs) as TES mediums with SCs. The materials and application of
PCMs with SCs have been presented in previous review articles, such as
(Sharma et al., 2009a), (Nkhonjera et al., 2017), (Muthusivagami et al.,
2010) and (Thirugnanam et al., 2020). However, none of these studies
has presented in details the possibility of using PCMs for enhancing the
SCs performance. The current work presents a comprehensive literature
review of applications of PCMs for enhancing SCs performance along
with reducing the cooking time and providing evening cooking.
The structure of this paper includes overviews on SCs types and TES
methods, thermal performance analysis of SCs with PCMs, PCMs can-
didates for solar cooking, and finally the limitations of incorporating
PCMs into SCs.
2. Types of SCs
SCs are devices that utilize solar radiation for cooking foods. The SC
additionally empowers other important operations such as sterilization
and cleansing. There are incalculable configurations of SCs in the
worldwide, which are consistently enhanced by scientists and produ-
cers. Along these lines, arrangement of a SC is a difficult action (Cuce
and Cuce, 2013). In any case, it can be stated that majority of the SCs
without heat storage today fall inside two primary gatherings based on
the heat transferring method to the cooking unit namely direct SC and
indirect SC (see Fig. 1). Direct SC uses sun-light energy directly during
cooking processes whereas in the indirect cooker the thermal energy is
moved from a collector by a fluid. Different kinds of SCs are shown in
Fig. 2.
2.1. Direct SCs
The most common types of direct SCs are box and concentrating
types.
2.1.1. Box-type SCs
A box-type SC has an isolated box with a transparent cover made of
glass. The box is typically integrated with reflectors that direct the sun

540
A.A.M. Omara, et al.
Fig. 1. Classification of SC types (Muthusivagami et al., 2010).
rays towards the box (Saxena et al., 2011). An illustration sketch of box-
type SC is given in Fig. 2a. So as to improve the solar radiation ab-
sorptivity, the box absorber is coated with black paint. It usually con-
tains more than one pan, and four cooking containers loaded up with
foods can be put into the box (Khan, 2006, Kothari et al., 2011). The
temperature inside the box-type cooker can be reached to 100 °C, which
enables the boiling cooking (Yettou et al., 2014).
2.1.2. Concentrating SCs
Concentrating SC cooks nourishments by retaining the heat from the
solar radiation with no obstruction between the solar radiation and the
cooking unit (Yettou et al., 2014). They depend on the concept of sun-
based optics wherein they concentrate the solar energy on the base of
the cooker to warm it and accomplish incredibly high temperature
(Herez et al., 2018). Those cookers contain a parabola-shaped con-
centrator, cooking vessel where it is set on the center of the cooking
unit, and a stand as an aid with swinging system to make the reflector
confronting the sunlight, as shown in Fig. 2b. The two noteworthy sorts
of these cookers named above and below concentrating light cookers
(Kumaresan et al., 2015).
2.2. Indirect SCs
Indirect SCs comprise of a collector to accumulate thermal energy
and cooking unit to utilize the product. The cooker’s container is up-
rooted from the collector wherein it is isolated and shielded from solar
energy. A heat transfer fluid (HTF) is utilized to exchange thermal
energy between the collector and the cooker. Then again, a control
valve situates the HTF flow rate to the cooking unit (Herez et al., 2018).
Indirect SCs are generally categorized by the kind of collector utilized
whether it is flat plate collector (Kumaresan et al., 2018) (Fig. 2c),
evacuated tube collector (Kumar et al., 2018) (Fig. 2d) or compound
parabolic concentrator (González-Avilés et al., 2018) (Fig. 2e).
3. Overview of TES with PCMs
3.1. Methods of TES
There are common techniques used to sore the thermal energy
541
Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563
which are thermo-chemical, sensible heat, and latent heat (Sidik et al.,
2018, Abuelnuor et al., 2017, Omara and Abuelnour, 2019). Thermo-
chemical storage occurs from the thermal impacts of reversible che-
mical reactions and is portrayed by high storage capacity and low
controllability. Storage of sensible heat is acknowledged during the
temperature variation of heat storage media. Despite the fact that this
technique is relatively simple and characterized as it is easy to control,
the amount of stored heat is moderately low (Yang et al., 2018, Chen
et al., 2008b). At last, latent heat storage relies upon the concept of
utilizing PCMs which charge or discharge heat during the phase chan-
ging with the expanded or diminished encompassing temperature, in-
dividually (Bondareva and Sheremet, 2020). Its benefits involve small
temperature variations, high heat storage capacity during the phase
change, and good controllability (Yang et al., 2018, Xu et al., 2018,
Zhang et al., 2018, Şahan and Paksoy, 2018). PCMs charge 5–13 times
higher thermal energy per unit mass than sensible heat storage mate-
rials (Marcos et al., 2020). This is mainly because of their impressive
heat storage potential. Ideally, the melting process in PCMs is utilized
as charging process in light of the fact that just a volume change of 10%
or less happens (Zahir et al., 2019). This is relied upon to be the littlest
conceivable volume change which goes with a phase change (Weingrill
et al., 2018, Omara et al., 2018b). Therefore, this review paper mainly
focuses on PCMs with latent heat storage.
3.2. PCMs
A PCM must have certain characteristics of physical, chemical and
economic properties to meet requirement of TES applications (Zheng,
2015, Abuelnuor et al., 2018). For physical properties, the material
must possess an appropriate phase transition temperature, full re-
versible solidification/melting cycles, large enthalpy change, high
thermal conductivity, large specific heat capacity and negligible su-
percooling (Omara and Abuelnuor, 2019). For chemical properties, the
material must possess a low vapor pressure, low volume pressure, de-
sirable homogeneity with other substances, chemical stability, non-
flammability, and non-toxicity. For economic properties, the material
must be cheap, recyclable, and widely available (Akeiber et al., 2016).
PCMs are classified into four groups regarding the physical stages
occupied in the phase transition: liquid–gas, solid–gas, solid–solid and
A.A.M. Omara, et al.
Fig. 2. Various SC types: (a) Box SC type; (b) Concentrating SC type; (c) Flat plate collector SC type; (d) Evacuated tube collector SC type; (e) Parabolic collector SC
type.
solid–liquid (Delgado et al., 2019). The phase transition involving gas
state is not suitable because of the large volumes or high pressures
needed to charge the heat, whereas solid–solid PCMs are characterized
by relatively slow phase transition and low latent heat (Zeinelabdein
et al., 2018). Thus, solid–liquid PCMs are adequate for charging heat in
thermal systems (Omara et al., 2018a, Omara et al., 2019). Solid-liquid
PCMs are normally classified depending on the synthetic segments into:
organic, such as paraffins, sugar alcohol and fatty acids; inorganic, such
as salt hydrates and metallic; and eutectic PCMs (comprise of a com-
bination of any rate of two different PCMs) (Grossule, 2015). Table 1
lists PCMs properties that engaged in solar cooking applications.
4. Mechanism of SC with PCM
Any heat storage material that experiences solid–liquid phase
change in the required operating temperature domain is capable of
storing thermal energy as latent heat of fusion (ABHAT, 1983). It must
have a surface that exchanges the heat in order to be able to transfer the
heat from the thermal source to the PCM and also from the latter to the
542
Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563
thermal sink (Cárdenas and León, 2013).
In direct SCs, the PCM is usually placed beneath the absorbing plate
(Cuce and Cuce, 2013). During the cooking time, the insulated disk is
removed which is on the top of the cooking unit, so that the food
temperature increases to the cooking temperature in a period of time,
and cooking occurs (Muthusivagami et al., 2010). The PCM heats up the
food in the cooking unit by conduction and convection, then the PCM
gradually solidifies, so that the entire lower part of the cooking unit is
heated and the food gets cooked. It was revealed that the rate of heat
transport process taken place between the PCM to the cooking vessel
needs longer time particularly for evening times cooking as it somehow
occurs very slowly (Sharma et al., 2009a)
In indirect SC, the cooker is connected with a collector by pipes
(Schwarzer and Da Silva, 2003). Fig. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram
of an indirect SC with PCM. For the period of sunshine hours, solar
radiations fall on an absorber tube. The HTF passes through the ab-
sorber tube, connecting pipes and outer space of cooker (Saini et al.,
2016, Singh et al., 2015). Cold HTF which comes from the lower part of
the cooker absorbs thermal energy after passing a cross the absorber
A.A.M. Omara, et al. Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563

Table 1
PCMs used in solar cooking applications.
PCM name Material Melting point (°C) Latent heat of fusion (kJ/kg) References

Peanut oil Fatty acid 3.0 21.7 (Maina et al., 2020b)

Palm oil Fatty acid 17.2 127.3 (Wi et al., 2015)
Coconut oil Fatty acid 25.1 115.3 (Németh et al., 2018)
Na2SO4·10H2O Salt hydrate 32.0 251.0 (Becheleni et al., 2017)
Na2HPO4·12H2O Salt hydrate 36.1 279.0 (Feng et al., 2018)
Paraffin P116 Paraffin 46.7 210.0 (Sharma et al., 2002)
Propolis Organic 47.0 175.2 (Cuce et al., 2020)
Stearic acid Fatty acid 55.1 160.0 (Li et al., 2013)
Myristic acid Fatty acid 58.0 199.0 (Sarı et al., 2019a)
Paraffin wax Paraffin 59.0 214.0 (Tatsidjodoung et al., 2013)
Naphthalene Organic 79.0 150.0 (Yang et al., 2015)
Acetamide Organic 82.0 263.0 (Xia and Zhang, 2011)
Mg(NO3)2·6H2O Salt hydrate 89.0 162.8 (Nagano et al., 2004)
Oxalic acid dihydrate Salt hydrate 101.0 370.0 (Deepa et al., 2005)
Erythritol Sugar alcohol 118.0 339.8 (Agyenim et al., 2011)
MgCl2·6H2O Salt hydrate 118.0 167.0 (Xie et al., 2017)
Acetanilide Organic 118.9 222.0 (Shobo and Mawire, 2017)
Benzoic acid Fatty acid 122.5 194.8 (Purohit et al., 2019)
53%KNO3/40%NaNO2/7%NaNO3 Eutectic 145.2 101.5 (Coccia et al., 2018)
D-Mannitol Sugar alcohol 167.0 300.2 (Sagara et al., 2014)
Galactitol Sugar alcohol 187.2 357.4 (Paul et al., 2015)
Pentaerythritol Organic 188.0 244.5 (Venkitaraj and Suresh, 2017)
60%NaNO3/40%KNO3 Eutectic 220.0 161.0 (Zhang et al., 2016)
LiNO3 Inorganic salt 253.0 373.0 (Lachheb et al., 2016)

% in weight

world for assessing the performance of SCs.

5.1. Methods of thermal performance analysis of SC

To evaluate the parameters of various configurations of SCs, one

should firstly calculate efficiency and power (Lahkar and Samdarshi,
2010). (Khalifa et al., 1985) presented an equation to calculate the
overall utilizable efficiency (ηu) as:
QF
ηu =
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of indirect SC with PCM (Herez et al., 2018). Q in (1)
where QF is the useful heat stored in the food for a temperature dif-
tube and transfers the heat to the higher part of the SC due to ther- ference of ΔT. For constant direct normal radiation GNR, the collector
mosiphon phenomenon (Saini et al., 2016, Kumaresan et al., 2012). The area Ac and cooking time τ, the solar input Qin is obtained using the
function of HTF is to release thermal energy to the PCM, and then this following equation:
heat will be stored by PCM and released to the cooking unit. Q in = GNR A c τ (2)
Throughout daytime, the heat transferred by PCM is utilized for
cooking purpose. Stored heat is used for cooking in evening periods The specific boiling time (ts) required to heat mass of water M, to
(Saini et al., 2016, Muthusivagami et al., 2010). boiling is calculated by:
It was revealed that, based on the thermal behavior, the tempera- ΔtA c
ture rises dramatically at the beginning of the PCM freezing stage, this ts =
M (3)
is mainly because of the high temperature variation between the HTF
Mullick et al. (1987) suggested a technique to compare the SC
and the PCM (Domanski et al., 1995, Lecuona et al., 2013). It then rises
performance by calculating two figures of merit. The first figure of
gradually till it achieves a maximum value and it then does not change
merit F1 is obtained by stagnation examination at no-load conditions
until the PCM eventually solidified. Then, the sensible heat takes place
via the next equation:
and the heat transfer rate to the fluid is decreased as a result of de-
crement in temperature difference and an increment in the thermal Tps − T̄a
F1 =
resistance (Domanski et al., 1995, Lecuona et al., 2013, Alva et al., Ḡ (4)
2018). After this stage, the working fluid temperature starts to reduce
where Tps is the maximum absorber plate temperature, T̄a is the average
slowly due to releasing thermal energy to the ambient (Domanski et al.,
ambient air temperature and Ḡ is the average solar radiation.
1995, Lecuona et al., 2013).
The second figure of merit F2 is calculated from the full load water
heating examination by this equation:
5. Thermal performance analysis w1 T
a − T̄
F1MC w ⎡ 1 − (1/F1)( Ḡ ) ⎤
F2 = Fηo CR = ln ⎢ T − T̄
⎥
Various researchers have attempted to develop SCs for practical Aτ ⎢ 1 − (1/F1)( w2Ḡ a ) ⎥
⎣ ⎦ (5)
applications. In terms of SC performance, each component has an im-
portant contribution and a direct impact on the overall performance where F is the heat exchange efficiency factor, ηo is the optical effi-
(Saxena et al., 2011, Panwar et al., 2012). Some performance para- ciency, CR is the heat capacity ratio, Cw is the specific heat capacity of
meters have been used and analyzed by various researchers around the water, A is the absorber area, and Tw1 and Tw2 are the initial and final

543
A.A.M. Omara, et al. Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563

water temperature, respectively. Determination of the exergy of input solar radiation is very im-
High values of F1 indicate low heat loss factor and good optical portant for applying the second law analysis of SCs. Therefore, (Petela,
efficiency, while high values of F2 indicate good optical efficiency ηo, 2005) proposed an equation for the usage of solar energy in SCs as
good heat exchange efficiency factor F, and low heat capacity of the follows:
cooker interiors in comparison with full load of water. For the purpose
1 To 4 4 To
of determining the desirable range of figures of merit (F1 and F2), ψ=1+ ⎛ ⎞ −
3⎝T⎠ 3 T (12)
(Purohit, 2010) conducted many tests on a box-type SC under the In-
dian climatic conditions. It was found that the value of first figure of where ψ is the maximum efficiency ratio and T is the absolute tem-
merit F1 varies from 0.1243 to 0.1335 (with average value of 0.1285), perature.
while the value of second figure of merit F2 ranges from 0.4543 to
0.4997 (with average value of 0.4744). 5.3. Economic and enviromental analysis of SCs
(Funk, 2000) showed that the cooking power (P) is expressed by:
MC w dTw The payback period of the SCs is estimated by calculating the saved
P= money as follows (Herez et al., 2018):
dt (6)
where dTw is the temperature difference of water and dt is the time Ms = Pt mLPG PLPG (13)
interval. where Ms is the monthly quantity of saved money, Pt is the percentage
(Funk, 2000) proposed to calculate cooking power (Ps) as: working time of the SC, mLPG is the monthly quantity of consumed LPG,
700MC w ΔT and PLPG is the LPG price of 1 kg.
Ps = Therefore, the payback period (PP) can be obtained from (Herez
600Ḡ (7)
et al., 2018):
(Patil SR, 2004) showed that the cooking time (τ) can be calculated
as: CT
PP =
Ms (14)
MC w Tw1
τ= ln
C3 N Tw2 (8) where CT is the SC total cost.
The quantity of CO2 diminished by a SC (MCO2 ) (because of the use
where N is the number of pots and C3 is the coefficient that char- of clean solar energy of LPG fuel) is expressed as (Herez et al., 2018):
acterizes a SC.
(Nahar, 2003, Nahar, 2001) presented the following expression for MCO2 = Pt MCO2tot (15)
calculating the SC efficiency (η): where MCO2tot is the total amount of CO2 generated.
(MC w + M1 C u)(Tw2 − Tw1)
η= τ
CA ∫0 Gdt 5.4. Thermal performance of PCM
(9)
where M1 is the mass of cooking utensil, C is the concentration ratio, Cu For storage of sensible heat, heat is stored by the temperature in-
is the specific heat of cooking utensil and G is the solar irradiance. crease of the solid PCM. The capacity to store this heat relies on the
specific heat of the PCM, and the temperature variation and the PCM
5.2. Thermodynamic analysis of SCs quantity (Sharma et al., 2009b, Abuelnuor et al., 2018), and it can be
calculated as:
Energy and exergy investigations reveal elective techniques for as- Tf
sessing and comparing SCs. Using energy analysis technique solely is Qs = ∫T i
mCp dT = mCp (Tf − Ti )
(16)
not enough to comprehend of all the aspects of energy usage procedures
of the systems (Hekkert et al., 2007). The energy efficiency ηen is the where Qs is the quantity of sensible heat stored, m is the mass of PCM,
ratio of energy output to energy input, and is expressed as (Panwar Cp is the specific heat of PCM, Ti is the initial temperature of PCM, and
et al., 2013): Tf is the final temperature of PCM.
Latent heat storage relies upon heat charging or discharging when
energyoutput [MC w (Tw2 − Tw1)]/t
ηen = = the PCM experiences a phase transition. The total heat storage system
energyinput It A sc (10) capacity with a PCM is given by (Sharma et al., 2009b, Abuelnuor et al.,
where It is the total instantaneous solar radiation and Asc is the inter- 2018):
cept area of SC. Tm Tf
Exergy gives an indicator of the capability of an offered equipment Qtot = ∫T i
mCp dT + mamΔhm + ∫m mCp dT
(17)
to remove heat from its environment, as the equipment move nearer to
the equilibrium with its surrounding (Petela, 2003). Exergy approaches Qtot = m[Csp (Tm − T)
i + am Δhm + Clp (Tf − Tm)] (18)
zero when the system approaches the states of equilibrium with the where Qtot is the total amount of heat stored, am is the fraction melted,
surrounding (Dincer and Cengel, 2001). It was likewise observed that Δhm is the latent heat of PCM, Csp is the specific heat of PCM at solid
exergy analysis is more advantageous than energy investigation for form, Clp is the specific heat of PCM at liquid form, and Tm is the PCM
evaluating SC performance since the energy efficiency is not capable of melting temperature.
assessing the convenience or quality of the different energy streams
flowing via a system and leaving as products and wastes (Kabeel et al., 6. Improving SC performance using PCMs
2019). The exergy efficiency ηex can be expressed as (Herez et al., 2018,
Pandey et al., 2011): 6.1. Improving cooking performance
T
exergyoutput MC w ⎡ (Tw2 − Tw1) − To ln Tw2 ⎤/t
ηex = = ⎣ w1 ⎦ (Akinwale, 2006) conducted an experimental research on a direct
exergyinput 4T
It ⎡1 − 3Ta ⎤ A box-type SC supplied with Fresnel mirror and storage unit. The PCM
⎣ s ⎦ sc (11)
used in the storage unit was LiNO3. The experiments were conducted
where Ta is the ambient temperature, To is the reference temperature for daytime and late evening periods. The outcomes revealed that the
and Ts is the sun temperature. PCM maintained stable temperature of cooking pot at 258 °C for 6 h.

544
A.A.M. Omara, et al.
Moreover, the PCM kept the water temperature above its boiling point
for 25 h. It was observed this cooker could prepare a meal for 6 persons
in 6 h after the PCM charging process.
(Lecuona et al., 2013) studied a prototype of a movable con-
centrating parabolic SC integrated with a thermal storage utensil. The
utensil was fabricated by two traditional co-axial cylindrical cooking
units, an inner pot and a bigger outer pot as shown in Fig. 4. The area
between the two co-axial pots was padded with the PCM creating a
medium coat. The numerical simulation of the SC was conducted using
1-D finite differences model. The thermal performance of the inside of
the utensil was simulated by using a lumped elements model subjected
to solar radiation with convective heat transfer was studied. Commer-
cial grade erythritol and paraffin wax were selected as the PCMs. The
numerical study was validated with experimental data under weather
conditions of Madrid. Their findings demonstrated that cooking the
lunch during the day and the next day breakfast was possible with the
assistance of thermal storage. This indicates the possibility of PCM in
storing and retaining the heat loss inside the utensil of the SC.
(Kumaresan et al., 2016) experimentally studied the performance of
an indirect SC integrated with PCM. The prototype comprises of a PCM
storage tank, a cooking pot and a positive displacement pump as shown
in Fig. 5. Therminol 55 was utilized as the HTF while D-Mannitol was
utilized as the PCM. During the experiments, the peak temperature was
152 °C inside a span of 15 min which is nearly lower than the time
consumed by a traditional LPG oven in stewing mode. A heat balance
Fig. 4. (a) Full setup of the SC; (b) Concentrated sun on cooking pot; (c) Internal view of cooking pot (Lecuona et al., 2013).
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for the designed cooking system was set up to record for the heat input
and the circulation design. They observed that the storage system was
capable of conveying thermal energy to the cooking pot at a steady rate
for more time. The PCM could also increase the heat for cooking by
10.2%. However, the piping circuit heat loss was found to be 54.3%.
Thus, the authors recommended to positioning all the segments nearer
to the cooking unit in order to reduce such losses.
(Tesfay et al., 2016, Tesfay et al., 2019) conducted experimental
and numerical study of an indirect SC incorporated with PCM (binary
NaNO3/KNO3) unit for the purpose of Injera baking in Ethiopia. Injera,
as a fermented flat bread sort, is the most popular food type consumed
in Ethiopia. The PCM unit was integrated to an indirect parabolic dish
concentrator where the water was used as the HTF. It was indicated that
the SC could produce more than 19 Injeras during the day, which was
satisfied for average Ethiopian family size. The findings also revealed
that the PCM was capable of heating the system up to 250 °C (typical
temperature for Injera baking) and retaining this heat for about 2 days.
(Abreha et al., 2019) carried out a numerical research on a shell-
and-tube PCM unit containing a binary salt NaNO3/KNO3 for solar
cooking application. The inner diameter and length of the unit was
240 mm and 960 mm, respectively. The storage unit consisted of 19
numbers of HTF tubes with outer and inner diameter of 18 mm and
15.6 mm, respectively. Longitudinal fins were attached to improve the
heat transfer rate of the PCM unit. The circular configuration of the
PCM unit was considered as the best geometry for the numerical
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Fig. 5. The components of the system (Kumaresan et al., 2016).

investigations. The HTF inlet temperature of was set at 235 °C. The
results demonstrated that the PCM took about 60 min to completely
charge, and the total heat absorbed in the PCM unit was 10.17 MJ;
which equivalents to the energy required to cook 20 kg of rice (500 kJ
per kg using a stove with capacity of 650 W (De et al., 2014)).
Gabisa and Aman (2016) presented an experimental study on using
eutectic PCM (NaNO3/KNO3) for solar cooking where an electric heater
was used to simulated the solar radiation. The experiments were carried
out on two Ethiopian local meals; shiro wet and potato meal. It was
revealed that about 2.38 kWh heat was needed to cook the two meals
for family of 5 members during lunch and dinner. The results showed
that the PCM could store the required heat in 50 min and provide it to
the two meals for 4.5 h.
Keith et al. (2019) introduced a collapsible direct parabolic SC with
12 panels and a PCM-integrated cooking pot. The PCM used was stearic
acid. It was found that the cooker with PCM could cook food typically
found in refugee diets, and kept it warm for subsequent meals. The
results based on cost analysis of the improved SC showed that for a
family of 4 members using the improved SC, the payback period will
not exceed one year, which presents a low cost and greener alternative.
Chaudhary et al. (2013) carried out a series of tests on direct SC
integrated with parabolic dish collector and PCM unit containing
acetanilide. The SC with PCM unit was placed on the collector’s ab-
sorber plate, as shown in Fig. 6. The PCM charges the heat during
daytime and discharges it to the SC located inside the insulator box
throughout the night. Three cases were studied to evaluate the SC
performance with PCM: conventional SC, SC with black external sur-
face, and SC with black external surface and glazing. The results re-
vealed that 26.8% and 32.3% more heat was stored in PCM attached to
SC with black surface and SC with black external surface and glazing,

Fig. 6. Photographic representation of the experimental setup (Chaudhary et al., 2013).

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respectively, as compared to PCM in the conventional SC. Maximum

temperature of cooking medium of from 52 to 88 °C was achieved with
these designs, indicating their feasibility for cooking process at this
temperature rage.
Unger et al. (2019) conducted an experimental study on a special
design of SC named solar electric cooker (SEC) which uses diodes
connected to a solar panel as the heating component for cooking pur-
poses (see Fig. 7). Erythritol was selected as the PCM and incorporated
into the SEC for faster cooking process. It was found that the SEC boiled
1 L of water during 20 min and continued to store heat for more than
4 h with the help of the PCM.
Bhave and Thakare (2018) designed a concentrating type SC (Fig. 8)
with MgCl2·6H2O as PCM for boiling cooking. The designed cooker
could store an amount of heat for 50 min enough for cooking 140 gm of
rice for around half an hour. The period needed for cooking 50 gm of
rice with 100 ml of water was also half an hour, this is typical for
outdoor solar cooking as well. The usage of solar radiation stored above
100 °C for cooking was 32% which is sensibly good.
Bhave and Kale (2020) designed and tested a high temperature SC
with eutectic PCM (binary NaNO3/KNO3) in order to enable cooking in
the shade of a kitchen when needed. The SC consisted of an insulated
container where located at the focus of a parabolic concentrator dish.
The results of high temperature cooking showed that the frying tem-
perature of 170–180 °C for the oil was easily achieved during indoor Fig. 8. Parabolic concentrator and receiver assembly of the SC (Bhave and
cooking and continuously kept constant by heat transferring from PCM Thakare, 2018).
to the cooking pot via fins. Frying of 0.25 kg of potato chips was
achieved in 17 min, while approximately 0.6 kg of rice was cooked in
two successive batches, consuming 20 min each.

6.2. Improving thermal performance parameters

Domanski et al. (1995) examined a SC behavior regarding charging

and discharging periods of PCMs under various conditions. Two con-
centric cylindrical containers were built with a 2-cm gap padded with
the PCM. Mg(NO3)2·6H2O and stearic acid were used as the PCMs, in-
dividually. The SC performance was observed to rely emphatically upon
the PCM thermophysical properties, the solar intensity and the quantity
Fig. 9. Complete setup of SC (Nayak et al., 2016).
of the food. The results showed that the utilization efficiency could be
improved up to 85% by using PCMs. The SC energy efficiency during
releasing the heat was observed to be 3–4 times bigger than that for efficiently utilized for cooking during the evenings due to the use of
steam and heat-pipe SCs in indoor cooking. PCM. The results also showed that acetanilide has better thermal per-
Nayak et al. (2016) evaluated the SC performance with acetanilide formance than stearic acid. The experiments demonstrated that a
and stearic acid as PCMs. SC components were built for household and cooker utilization efficiency of 31% could be obtained by acetanilide,
joined to water heater integrated with evacuated tube solar collector which is higher than the typical efficiency (26.7%) indicated by El-
and PCM tank, as given in Fig. 9. The circumference of cooker was Sebaii and Ibrahim (2005).
integrated with heat exchanger and annulus area of the cooking unit Maina et al. (2020a) introduced experimental and simulation re-
was padded with PCMs. The findings revealed that the cooker was search to evaluate the thermal performance of a box-type SC with single

Fig. 7. Components of special designed SEC (Unger et al., 2019).

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booster mirror. Three different PCMs, paraffin wax, palm oil and peanut
oil, were separately incorporated into the SC for cooking application in
Maiduguri, Nigeria. An agreement of 4–7% between the experimental
and simulation outcomes was observed. The results found that the value
of F1 for paraffin wax, palm oil and peanut oil was 0.13, 0.12 and 0.13,
respectively, while F2 value was 0.44, 0.38 and 0.40 for the same order.
The cooker energy efficiency was also found to be 33%, 34% and 32%
for paraffin wax, palm oil and peanut oil, respectively. The findings
obtained from paraffin wax and peanut oil were similar to those ob-
served by the authors’ previous studies of Maina et al. (2019b) and
Maina et al. (2020b), respectively.
Maina et al. (2019a) presented an experimental investigate of a
double-reflector double-compartment box-type SC using stearic acid as
a PCM. The first and second compartment was uploaded with water of
2.5 kg and 3 kg, respectively. The values of F1 and F2 were found to be
0.14 and 0.47, and 0.15 and 0.4, for the first and second compartment,
respectively.
Adetifa and Aremu (2016) studied the thermal performance of
double-exposure box-type SC using various PCMs. The PCMs chosen for
the evaluation were benzoic acid, stearic acid and palm oil. The im-
proved SC with PCM was compared with standard SC without PCM. The
results showed that benzoic acid raised the average cooking power of
1 kg, 1.5 kg and 2 kg of water by 12.6 W, 3.6 W and 3.4 W, respectively,
as compared to the standard cooker. Moreover, for 1 kg of water, stearic
acid increased the average cooking power by 1.6 W, while palm oil
increase the power by 3.2 W for water mass of 2 kg. However, it was
revealed that stearic acid provided negative power cooking for water
mass higher than 1 kg; while palm oil gave the same negative effect for
water mass lower than 2 kg. The value of F1 of the SC was found to be
decreased by 7.1%, 14.2% and 21.4% when using benzoic acid, stearic
acid and palm oil, respectively, in respect to the value for standard SC
(0.14). The value of F2 was improved by 12.5% when using benzoic
acid as compared to value of without PCM (0.4). However, the use of
stearic acid and palm oil showed negative effect on F2 value by 75% and
70%, respectively. Benzoic acid was found to be the most proper PCM
among the three PCMs because of its positive effect on the cooking
power and F2 value and its less negative effect on F1 value.
Reddy et al. (2017) designed a box-type SC with PCM (paraffin wax)
for the requirement of cooking for 2–4 persons. This SC was experi-
mentally and numerically compared with conventional SC without
PCM. The findings indicated that the both cookers had the same value
of F1 (0.1009), while F2 for SC with PCM was improved by 5.3% as
compared to that of conventional SC (0.2946). The economic results of
the improved SC demonstrated that the cooker payback was 7.87 years
with annual CO2 emission reduction of 80.541 kg. The cooking by SC
with PCM was found to be satisfactory which provided the required
Fig. 10. Illustrative diagram of: (a) Cooking pot layout; (b) Cooking pot with PCM tubes (Santhi Rekha and Sukchai, 2018).
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number of persons with the cooked food (rice).
(Santhi Rekha and Sukchai, 2018) designed and fabricated an in-
direct concentric parabolic SC with PCM unit, which was located at the
focus of the parabolic dish. Fig. 10 shows the schematic view of the
cooking pot which was in the shape of hollow concentric cylinder. The
space between the pot surfaces was filled with palm oil as the HTF. A
cylindrical tube was used as the PCM tube which padded with the
chosen storage material. A salt hydrate with melting point of 90–110 °C
was selected as the PCM. Heat loss factor, optical efficiency and the SC
cooking power, were mathematically calculated with and without PCM.
The findings revealed that the heat loss factors and optical efficiency
factors were 2.46 W/m2 and 7.74 W/m2, and 0.22 and 0.098, for the SC
with and without PCM, respectively. Lower heat loss factor indicates
higher value of F1, while higher value of optical efficiency demonstrates
improved value of F2. It was also found that the cooking power of the
SC with PCM was 125.3 W which is 91% higher than that of the SC
without PCM.
Palanikumar et al. (2019) evaluated the influence of PCM storage
enhancement on the thermal performance multi-reflector box-type SC.
Nanoparticles of Al2O3 were incorporated into the PCM (stearic acid) to
improve its charging/discharging rates. The experimental and simula-
tion findings revealed that the cooker energy efficiency with nano-PCM
was improved by 17.6% as compared to that with normal PCM. This
result indicates the potential of nano-Al2O3 in improving PCM perfor-
mance as approved by Bondareva et al. (2020).
Cuce et al. (2020) built up, constructed and examined a box-type SC
with a low-cost booster reflector. The SC was filled with natural
beeswax product, Propolis, which was used as a PCM. Propolis is a
resinous mixture that is used for protection of beehives, from either
climatic changes or diseases. The results indicated that water tem-
perature was maintained over 40 °C until late evening, due to the effect
of PCM. It was found that the value of F1 was 0.08, and the cooker
energy efficiency varied between 4.54 and 7.47%. These values of F1
and efficiency were lower compared to the similar designs in literature
without PCM. Therefore, it was concluded that Propolis slightly reduces
these factors but maintains the thermal energy content of SC until late
evening.
6.3. Potential of PCM for possible evening cooking
The utilization of SCs is restricted since they cannot be utilized on
cloudy weather or during evenings. The storage of solar energy in a SC
provides the opportunity of cooking throughout these periods and
hence, the storage improves the reliability of the SCs.
Buddhi and Sahoo (1997) built up and constructed a box-type SC
containing PCM (stearic acid) and compared it with an ordinary SC in
A.A.M. Omara, et al.
order to investigate the possibility of using the improved cooker during
evening cooking. The results indicated that the SC with PCM showed a
steady plate temperature throughout the night, which demonstrates its
feasibility during this period.
Sharma et al. (2000) examined the performance of a box-type SC
with and without PCM storage unit for cooking during evening period.
Commercial grade acetamide was utilized as the PCM. The experi-
mental tests were conducted with various values of loads and loading
times throughout the winter and the summer. It was observed that
cooking during off-sunshine periods was possible with the SC with PCM
unlike the conventional SC. However, the PCM storage did not affect
the noon cooking.
Buddhi et al. (2003) introduced an experimental study on the po-
tential of a PCM storage unit in a SC integrated with three reflectors for
storing heat during sunshine period and utilizing for cooking foods in
the evening. Commercial grade acetanilide was utilized as PCM. Eve-
ning cooking tests were done with various loads and loading times
throughout the winter. The outcomes indicated that the night cooking
for 20 h was achieved by using only 4 kg of PCM.
Sharma et al. (2005) studied experimentally the thermal perfor-
mance of a box-type SC with commercial grade erythritol as PCM and
equipped with an evacuated tube solar collector (see Fig. 11). The ex-
perimental setup had separated segments for solar concentration and
cooking application integrated with a PCM storage system. Experiments
during day and night cooking were carried out with various loads and
loading times, and simultaneously with the PCM storage system. The
outcomes showed that the noon cooking had no influence on the eve-
ning cooking, and the evening cooking with PCM was observed to be
faster than noon cooking.
Hussein et al. (2008) presented an indirect SC consists of external
elliptical cross section, solar collector, wickless heat pipes, cooking pot
and Mg(NO3)2·6H2O as indoor PCM as given in Fig. 12. The utilization
of solar radiation hitting on the solar collector was improved by using
two reflectors. The outcomes indicated that the improvement in the
Fig. 11. SC with evacuated tube solar collector and PCM storage unit (Sharma et al., 2005).
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solar radiation occurrence on the solar collector by the reflectors was
about 24%. Various tests were carried out on the SC with various loads
and loading times to examine the feasibility of the SC for cooking
nourishment during daytime and night. The outcomes demonstrated
that the SC could be utilized efficiently for solar cooking during noon,
afternoon and evening periods, whereas it could be utilized for heating
and maintaining food warmth during evening and early morning.
Vigneswaran et al. (2017) introduced an experimental work to
evaluate the thermal performance of a box-type SC with PCM unit.
Oxalic acid dihydrate was selected as the PCM. The outcomes demon-
strated that the SC with PCM was capable of cooking food during off-
sunshine periods with a discharge efficiency of 57%.
Choudhari and Shende (2015) presented a solar cooking system
using latent heat storage that includes cooking pot and concentrating
parabolic collector. Cooking utensil was constructed by welding two
aluminum cylindrical pots of different diameters concentric to each
other. PCM (acetanilide) was filled in hollow space between two pots
and pot in parabolic collector SC. In order to evaluate the internal be-
havior of PCM, they developed 1D heat balance model and compared it
with the experimental findings. The outcomes demonstrated that the
PCM could absorb the solar radiation throughout daytime period in
order to be used for evening cooking.
Coccia et al. (2018) presented a multi-reflector box-type SC with
PCM unit consisted of two cylindrical pots installed concentrically. The
annular space between the pots was filled with ternary mixture of
KNO3/NaNO2/NaNO3 as the PCM. It was found that the PCM sig-
nificantly improved the load cooling time in the range of 170–130 °C by
65–107% compared to that without the PCM, indicating the effective-
ness of this design during low solar intensity.
Coccia et al. (2020) experimentally examined the performance of
portable box-type SC coupled with erythritol as a PCM. The dimensions
of the SC are presented in Fig. 13. The load experiments were con-
ducted during heating and cooling stage, in order to assess the SC
performance during low solar intensity. The results demonstrated that
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Fig. 12. Cross sectional side view of the SC (Hussein et al., 2008).

integrating the SC with the PCM extended the average load cooling time
by about 351.16%, which approves the feasibility of the system for
night cooking.
(Mwaura, 2019) evaluated the feasibility of a double reflector box-
type SC with acetanilide as a PCM for evening cooking. The cooker
(Fig. 14) consisted of a rectangular double walled box, a pot as storage
unit, cooking unit, reflectors and a glass cover. The results showed that
the double reflector SC with PCM could be effectively utilized for rice
cooking during daytime and evening. Moreover, the evening cooking
was not affected by the noon cooking; thus, two batches of cooking can
be carried out.
(Kumar et al., 2018) presented a SC integrated with evacuated tube
collector and PCM unit (see Fig. 15). The PCM selected was acetanilide.
The water was utilized as a HTF, which transfers the heat from the
evacuated tubes to the cooking unit. Daytime and evening cooking
processes were conducted separately at various cooking loads. A re-
flector was installed beneath the collector for improving the SC per-
formance. The results showed that the use of reflector reduced the

Fig. 13. Views and cross-sections of the portable SC (all dimensions in mm) (Coccia et al., 2020).

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Fig. 14. Photograph of experimental setup (Mwaura, 2019).

cooking time for daytime and evening cooking by 33% and 16%, re-
spectively. It was also revealed that evening cooking took less time
under low loads and more time under high loads as compared to the
cooking in the daytime. The evening cooking with PCM was quicker
than daytime cooking at low loads.

6.4. Advantage of PCM in reducing cooking time

In general, surrounding the cooking vessel by a PCM unit would

Fig. 15. (a) Photograph of the experimental setup; (b) Illustrative sketch of the
SC with the PCM unit (Kumar et al., 2018).
improve the heat transfer mechanism between the PCM and the food
(Mehling and Cabeza, 2008). Referring to Eq. (8), the cooking time can
be reduced by increasing number of pots. This can be done by the use of
PCM which works as an additional cooking pot providing more heat for
accelerated cooking process, and thereby reducing cooking time.
(Saxena et al., 2013) tested experimentally a simple box-type SC
with PCM unit and a comparison was done with a traditional SC.
Commercial stearic acid was utilized as PCM. The findings demon-
strated that the cooking time for SC with PCM was reduced by ap-
proximately 15 min in comparison with the conventional SC.
Kanimozhi et al. (2015) investigated the performance of coconut oil
as PCM with a box-type SC. The experiments were conducted with two
SCs; with absent and present of PCM. The experimental outcomes re-
vealed that the SC with PCM showed 15% reduction in heating time
compared to that one without PCM.
Yuksel et al. (2015) investigated the effect of paraffin wax as PCM in
a box-type SC during the day and evening hours. The SC having an
inner reflector was fabricated by filling metal shavings with PCM. The
influence of the reflector angle on the SC thermal efficiency was also
discussed. It was found that the examined cooker could be efficiently
utilized at an angle of 30°. The thermal efficiency was improved by
about 18.35% with the aid of reflector. The peak temperature of the
PCM during the tests was between 75.1 and 80.5 °C which is the lowest
temperature (75 °C) desired for cooking most types of food. The effect
of the reflector was contributed on 13.29% of the PCM temperature.
Moreover, the heating time was diminished to about 1 h.
Arabacigil et al. (2015) conducted similar study to Yuksel et al.
(2012) using outer reflector with the same experiments. The findings
indicated that the maximum PCM temperature in the system reached

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83.4 °C. The mean solar radiation reflected by outer reflector con-
tributed by 9.26% of the PCM temperature. The SC can be efficiently
used with 30.3% daily utilization efficiency because of PCM heat sto-
rage. Moreover, the heating time was reduced to about 1 h.
Geddam et al. (2015) carried out experimental work on different
box-type SCs with various heating loads. The optimum performance of
box-type SCs was reached with the highest SC load. Paraffin wax was
added to the experimentations as a PCM to improve the thermal storage
capacity of the SC. Their results showed that the PCM improved the
time of food cooking by 3–4 h.
Senthil (2020) investigated the improvement in the productivity of
an indirect SC integrated with parabolic dish collector by using PCM.
The PCM selected for the study was paraffin wax. It was observed that
the time consumed to achieve 90 °C of water with and without PCM was
90 min and 120 min, respectively. Thus, the PCM improved the cooking
time by 25%.
6.5. Effect of thermal features of PCM
PCM heat transfer characteristics (such as melting and solidification
rates and temperature distribution) play a big role on the SC perfor-
mance. Therefore, some researchers attempted to assess the thermal
parameters impact on SCs performance.
Dang (1985) proposed an analytical research on the thermal beha-
vior of a box-type SC equipped with a planar reflector. For storage of
heat in the cooker, four PCMs named Na2HPO4·12H2O, Na2SO4·10H2O,
paraffin P116 and stearic acid have been considered. Plate temperature
as a function of PCM properties and melting depth was reported. The
transient behavior was explained for a typical winter day. The findings
demonstrated that the heat storage was completed after the sunshine
hours, indicating the feasibility of PCMs for evening cooking. Further-
more, it was revealed that the peak plate temperature was slightly
different when using different PCMs, due to the dependency of plate
temperature on the thermophysical properties. The melting front re-
mains constant to be constant after a certain period, indicating that the
heat transferring from one PCM layer to another became constant.
Buddhi et al. (1988) introduced a numerical study based on simple
computer time saving iterative approach to assess the thermal perfor-
mance of a box-type SC. Numerical calculations related to four different
PCMs have been done during a typical summer and winter day. The
PCMs used were naphthalene, myristic acid, stearic acid and paraffin
P116. Solidification and melting experiments were carried out. They
compared the numerical findings with experiment observations for
validation. It was observed that the experimental outcomes were mat-
ched well with numerical outcomes which confirmed that the system is
feasible. It was demonstrated that the PCM storage efficiency depended
Fig. 16. (a) Illustrative diagram of the whole system; (b) Top view of PCM unit; (c) Vertical section of PCM unit (Tarwidi et al., 2016).
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strongly on the meteorological characteristics (solar intensity and am-
bient temperature) and the PCM melting point. Therefore, structuring
of proper SC should be carried out taking the weather conditions into
account.
Abu-Hamdeh and Alnefaie (2019) demonstrated the achievability of
utilizing commercial grade acetamide as PCM in a SC integrated with
parabolic reflector for thermal storage. The storage unit contains of
small aluminum capsules of PCM located on the reflector to examine
the potential of the system amid sunny days. The system thermal be-
havior was investigated during inert state at three rates of air flow
through the receiver. The outcomes showed that the PCM temperature
diminished quickly through the initial few minutes as the cooking dish
temperature increased at the same rate, and then both temperatures
coordinated and diminished gradually. The change rate was directly
proportional to air flow rate. The findings also revealed that the energy
efficiency between the PCM capsules and air flow increased which was
also directly proportional to air flow rate.
Xie et al. (2019) numerically evaluated the thermal behavior of a
glass vacuum tube solar oven with PCM layer, as well as the effect of the
food initial temperature on the PCM temperature distribution. The solar
molten salt (NaNO3/KNO3) was utilized as the PCM. Their results
showed that inserting PCM layer (ϕ40 mm/80 mm × 770 mm) raised
the oven inner wall temperature 30–80 °C higher when using PCM layer
than that without using PCM layer under the same operating condi-
tions. The results also revealed that the food initial temperature in the
range of 10–50 °C marginally impacted the temperature of the PCM
layer.
6.6. Effect of PCM geometry
Geometry of PCM storage systems is another factor that plays a
crucial part in the system performance as it drives the heat transfer
behavior and shows its effects on the overall performance (Dinker et al.,
2017). Some researchers reported the impact of PCM geometry on the
performance of SCs. (NKhonjera et al., 2016) conducted experimental
work to investigate heat storage and release performance of a finned
PCM storage system that uses pentaerythritol (PE) as PCM for solar
cooking. The unit was fabricated from aluminum, the length was
181 mm, width of 160 mm, and height of 107 mm. Fins were in-
corporated into base of the top plate by means of 5 mm tongue and
groove connections with dimensions of 144 × 80 × 1.5 mm. In spite of
the fact that fins would enhance the heat transfer of PCM storage unit,
the optimal PCM to fin volume (P/F) ratio for practical purposes is often
undetected. For this reason, they studied the storage and release be-
havior of three rectangular PCM storage unit experimental models with
6, 12, and 21 P/F ratios per model. The charging speed, heat storage
A.A.M. Omara, et al.
potential, temperature distribution and the cooking power, were com-
pared. Their results showed that the charging speed lessens with P/F
ratio and depending on charging speed only, the select of P/F ratio that
brings a balance between charging speed and quantity of thermal sto-
rage is arbitrary. It also demonstrated that the P/F ratio more than 12
strongly reduced the discharging behavior of the system.
(Bhandari et al., 2019) comparatively tested three different com-
mercial PCMs (i.e. OM50, OM65 and HS89) with a box-type SC in three
different geometries of storage unit: cylindrical, trapezoidal and square.
The melting points and latent heat of PCMs were 48–50 °C and 183 KJ/
kg for OM50, 65–69 °C and 250 kJ/kg for OM65, and 88–89 °C and
180 kJ/kg for HS89, respectively. The experimental observations
showed that the cylindrical geometry was the most appropriate for PCM
storage unit. Moreover, the HS89 showed the best thermal behavior
among the three PCMs.
6.7. Effect of PCM type
Tarwidi et al. (2016) showed numerically the thermal behavior of a
SC equipped with evacuated tube solar collector and integrated with
various PCMs (see Fig. 16). The candidate PCMs were paraffin RT100,
MgCl2·6H2O, Mg(NO3)2·6H2O and erythritol. The heat transfer of the
PCMs was modeled using heat conduction equations. A mathematical
model of phase change phenomena in the PCMs was illuminated by
transforming heat conduction formulations emerged with moving
boundaries into an enthalpy equation and verified by analytical solu-
tion of 1D model. The simulation results indicated that PCM with the
greatest thermal behavior through the primary 2.5 h of heat releasing
was achieved by erythritol. Besides, MgCl2·6H2O could keep the PCM
temperature in the range of 110–117 °C longer than 4 h, while Mg
(NO3)2·6H2O was efficient only for 1 h with PCM temperature about
121–128 °C. Amongst the PCMs those examined, erythritol was the only
PCM that could cook 10 kg of water until boiling for a total time of
3.5 h.
(TARWIDI, 2015) conducted mathematical model and numerical
simulations of PCMs in a SC equipped with solar collector. A storage
cylindrical tank filled with PCM which was encapsulated in small
hollow cylinders was used. The PCMs used were MgCl2·6H2O, Mg
(NO3)2·6H2O, erythritol and paraffin RT100. A HTF was utilized to
exchange thermal energy between the collector and the PCM tank. The
distribution of temperature of the PCM and HTF was described using a
mathematical model. The numerical results were got by reformatting
heat conduction equations of the HTF and the PCM into enthalpy
equation. Thermal behavior through charging and discharging time of
the different PCMs were evaluated. Their numerical results indicated
that Mg(NO3)2·6H2O had the largest potential to charge heat, while
erythritol could reach the largest temperature distribution during
storing period and at the initial 54 min of releasing period.
6.8. Using PCMs with sensible heat storage materials
The principle preferred benefit of PCMs over sensible heat storage
material (SHSMs) is the larger heat storage capacity over a little tem-
perature change (Pintaldi et al., 2015). In spite of that, PCM is relatively
costly as compared to SHSM, particularly when high temperatures are
needed (Lizana et al., 2017). Moreover, PCM systems show few
downsides such as the intricacy of the phase change process which
happens particularly at specific temperatures, the non-homogeneity of
the melting media and the corruption of the substance with time be-
cause of solidification/melting cycles (Sarı et al., 2019b). The low
thermal conductivity of PCMs results in low thermal response through
the absorbing process, which is additionally a tricky issue for PCM
systems (Zhao et al., 2010). Therefore, integrating PCMs with sensible
heat mediums is a great alternative to address the shortcomings of the
systems implemented with PCMs. The SHSMs that are used for im-
proving PCM performance in SCs are illustrated in Table 2.
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Yadav et al. (2017) examined the thermal performance of PCM
(commercial grade acetamide) incorporated with various SHSMs in a
SC equipped with parabolic dish collector for night cooking (see
Fig. 17). Iron grits, sand, iron balls and stone pebbles were used as
SHSMs, separately. The cooker was put at the center of two concentric
pots holding PCM in the internal side and various SHSMs in the external
side. With the present of sunlight, the SC was put on a collector plate to
store the heat in the SHSMs. At night, the SC was put in an insulated
container and stacked with the tested food, where the PCM transfers
thermal energy to the pot. It was discovered that PCM-stone pebble and
PCM-sand combinations provided 3–3.5 times more stored heat when
contrasted with PCM-iron ball and PCM-iron grits combinations (in
spite of the high thermal conductivity of iron). This is due to the low
specific heat of iron balls and iron grits, as compared to the other
SHSMs. So, it can be concluded that the dominant property of SHSM is
the specific heat, while the thermal conductivity has no significant
impact on the SC performance. The outcomes additionally revealed that
food cooking with PCM-stone pebbles and PCM-sand was achieved
during late evening, while it was not possible with PCM-iron balls and
PCM-iron grits. Their outcomes demonstrated that the PCM helped with
cooking while the SHSM helped PCM in sustain its performance.
Panchal and Sadasivuni (2018) evaluated the thermal performance
of a box-type SC supplied with scheffler reflector and different heat
storage materials. Sand, stone pebbles and iron balls were selected as
SHSMs, while acetamide was selected as PCM. Various experiments
were carried out on the dual storage unit in which the PCM was com-
bined with each SHSM separately. Four couples were obtained by in-
serting the PCM into the inner/outer space of the SC and the SHSMs in
the outer/inner space of the SC. It was revealed that PCM-sand and
PCM-stone pebbles combinations improved the storage capacity by
3–3.5 times as compared to PCM-iron balls. This is due to high specific
heat capacity of sand and stone pebbles in respect to iron balls. More-
over, the cooking with PCM-iron balls combination was found to be
ineffective because of the low specific heat capacity of iron-balls, which
slows the reaching of PCM (in the cooking unit) to its melting point. The
results also showed that inner PCM/outer SHSM configuration showed
better performance that outer PCM/inner SHSM; because the PCM with
higher storage capacity was in direct contact with the cooking unit,
which led to improved cooking performance. The outcomes demon-
strated the feasibility of this SC with PCM-sand and PCM-stone pebbles
combinations for late evening cooking.
6.9. Effect of encapsulation material
Chen et al. (2008a) conducted numerical study on the heat storage
of PCMs for a box-type SC. The candidate PCMs were stearic acid, Mg
(NO3)2·6H2O, erythritol, acetanilide and acetamide. The study was used
2D model based on enthalpy method, and the calculations were done
for the melting fraction using only conduction equation. In the nu-
merical calculations, various types of heat exchanger container mate-
rials were used. The results indicated that large value of thermal con-
ductivity of heat exchanger container material had slight impact on the
Table 2
Thermophysical properties of SHSMs used for SC applications (Saxena et al.,
2012, Kanetkar et al., 2018, Panchal et al., 2019).
Material Specific heat Thermal conductivity Density (kg/
(kJ/kg °C) (W/m °C) m3)
Iron balls 0.45 79.5 3233
Iron grits 0.46 55.0 1550
Sand 0.8 0.23 1600
Float glass 0.8 0.74 2800
Stone pebbles 0.88 1.73 1790
Granular carbon 0.93 0.11 460
Ethylene glycol 2.4 0.24 1115
A.A.M. Omara, et al.
Fig. 17. (a) Section view of SC; (b) Top view of SC; (c) Photograph of SC (Yadav et al., 2017).
melting fraction rather for at extremely small values of thermal con-
ductivities. The outcomes indicated that acetamide and stearic acid had
a preferred homogeneity with PCM storage unit. It was additionally
showed that the PCM initial temperature did not make significant
contribution on the fusion time, while the boundary wall temperature
had a significant contribution during the fusion which was effected
strongly on the fusion fraction. The outcomes additionally indicated
that the influence of container material thickness on the melting frac-
tion was not important.
Shobo and Mawire (2016) numerically considered spherical en-
capsulation of PCM (Erythritol) using an aluminum alloy (1050-H14)
for domestic cooking. The strength of the capsule’s wall thickness to
overcome air pressure in the capsule was evaluated for capsule radius of
50 mm. The aluminum alloy revealed a perfect chemical compatibility
with the PCM and the HTF (sunflower oil). It was observed the PCM
thermal conductivity was improved when the capsule wall thickness
increased; thus, the average charging rate reduced. The results showed
that the strength aluminum was enhanced when the capsule wall
thickness increased, though the heat storage capacity decreased. The
results also indicated that an aluminum spherical radius of 50 mm and a
wall thickness of 1.0 mm provided the best thermal performance of
PCM encapsulation for solar cooking.
(Kumar Rai and Kumar Srivastava, 2019) tested the performance of
box-type SC with PCM (paraffin wax) filled into cooking pot of two
different encapsulation materials (aluminum and steel); to evaluate the
cooking process during daytime and evening periods. The results de-
monstrated that the maximum water temperature in PCM filled alu-
minum pot was about 9% higher than that with PCM filled steel pot
(80 °C), which indicates the suitability of PCM filled aluminum pots for
daytime cooking. It was also revealed that the water temperature in
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PCM filled steel pots was maintained above 95 °C for more than 3 h as
compared to PCM filled aluminum pots during evening period, in-
dicating the preference of steel pots for late evening cooking. The re-
sults of daytime and evening cooking can be explained as the high
thermal conductivity of aluminum (237 W/m °C) heats the pot faster
during the evening, while low thermal conductivity of steel (45 W/m
°C) keeps the pot hot for a longer duration during daytime.
Sreepathi et al. (2017) proposed an experimental study of the effect
of PCM insulation on the cooking performance in a SC. The SC was
direct type with butterfly collector. The PCM (oxalic acid dihydrate)
was examined with and without insulation. It was found that the PCM
without insulation kept peak water temperature of 65 °C for only 3 h.
However, it was indicated that the evening cooking can be successfully
achieved by the PCM if proper insulation is provided.
Zengeni (2014) conducted transient heat transfer model in Solid-
works software in order to evaluate the thermal stresses applied on a SC
containing LiNO3 as a PCM. The cooker had cylindrical shape with
diameter and height of 0.25 m and 0.2 m, respectively. Copper, alu-
minum and cast iron were separately used as the module materials of
the cooker, whose thermal conductivity of 383, 237 and 52 W/m °C,
respectively. The heat transfer analysis revealed that the PCM tem-
perature distribution was more uniform when it was paired up with a
module material of a higher thermal conductivity. Amongst the module
materials, cast iron had the lowest conductivity and showed the highest
temperature gradients within the PCM. The thermal performances of
copper and aluminum were quite similar. The geometry of the target
area did not affect the PCM temperature distribution. The thermal stress
analysis showed that the von mises stresses were less than the yield
stress of copper unlike the case of aluminum. This makes copper more
suitable and safe for encapsulating the PCM in the cooker.
A.A.M. Omara, et al. Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563

6.10. Effect of HTF type observed from the solidification/melting performance of MgCl2·6H2O
that it solidified nearly with a low degree of super-cooling in the range
The literature showed that the performance of indirect SC relies 0.1–3.5 °C.
intently upon the type of the HTF that flows through the absorber tube The literature showed that galactitol, regarding its temperature and
to absorb solar energy. Saini et al. (2016) examined the performance of latent heat enthalpy, is a PCM candidate for medium temperatures
a SC with PCM storage and equipped with parabolic trough collector as (150–200 °C), thus its feasibility in solar cooking should be detected.
shown in Fig. 18. The solar radiation was concentrated on the receiver Therefore, John et al. (2015) studied the influence of upper cycle
tube and the accumulated thermal energy was exchanged to the SC by temperature on the thermal behavior of galactitol in thermal cycling for
natural circulation of HTF. Engine oil and water were utilized as solar cooking application. Three samples were monotonously fused and
working fluids, while acetanilide was utilized as PCM. Cooking process solidified, and a different upper cycle temperature was assigned for
was done with various nourishments and with varying amount of food. each single sample. Their results indicated that upper cycle tempera-
The SC was capable of cooking food two times a day. The night cooking tures above or near to the melting point were desirable. The lower
was observed to be faster in respect to noon cooking. By utilizing engine upper cycle temperature reached 200 °C and gained 90 thermal cycles
oil as a HTF, the amount of thermal energy absorbed by PCM was im- achievable for solar cooking at temperatures above 150 °C. In this way,
proved by about 19.45% to 30.38% in comparison with water, which galactitol as a PCM for SCs which was thermally cycled minimum once
demonstrates that the performance of SC with PCM using various HTFs a day could provide a lifetime lower than 100 days, which was too short
was independent on the thermal properties of these fluids. in comparison with lifetime of other components of the cooking system.
Kumar and Pandian (2019) conducted a series of experiments on Galactitol was in this manner observed to have stability issues and has
indirect SC with storage tank containing stearic acid as the PCM. The an extremely short lifetime for real PCM medium temperature appli-
HTF transfers the heat from a parabolic trough collector with manual cations.
tracking mechanism to the SC through the storage tank, as shown in YEO et al. (2018) studied polypropylene/polyethylene alloy as a
Fig. 19. Two different HTFs, engine oil and water, were used separately possible candidate of PCM for solar cooking application. Both poly-
during the experiments for mass flow rates of 0.035, 0.045 and propylene and polyethylene have been considered because of their
0.065 kg/s. The results demonstrated that for the both HTFs, mass flow desirable properties such as odorless effect, non-toxicity, recyclability
rate of 0.035 kg/s showed the best thermal performance of SC followed and suitable melting point for cooking application (160–170 °C for
by 0.045 kg/s and then 0.065 kg/s. The maximum efficiency of SC with polypropylene and 85–140 °C for polyethylene). A solidification dia-
engine oil was better than that with water by 16–21%. The heat stored gram of the alloy was constructed to determine the melting point. A
in the storage tank was improved by 8.3% using the engine oil as HTF thermal stability exam was conducted to evaluate the evolution of the
as compared to the water. It was concluded that the engine oil was temperature as a function of the heating cycle. The results showed that
preferred to the water because of its steady flow and lower heat loss. by the melting point obtained for the mixture was 140–160 °C. More-
over, the temperature showed insignificant evolvement, which affirms
7. PCM candidates for solar cooking applications the stability of the mixture. Therefore, these results indicate the pos-
sibility of using this mixture for solar cooking application.
It is quite difficult to attain all the desired chemical, thermal, phy- Shobo et al. (2018) investigated and compared the feasibility of
sical, and economical properties in only one PCM. It is therefore im- three PCMs for solar cooking application under conditions of high
portant to search and develop an optimum PCM candidate that meets charging and heat retrieval. The compared candidate PCMs were In-
the requirements of different TES applications (Şahan and Paksoy, 48Sn alloy, meso-erythritol and acetanilide. The highest thermal
2018). Thermo‐physical properties of different PCMs is a good way of
selecting the particular phase change temperature (Marques et al.,
2014). However, all types of PCMs are not suitable for the solar cooking
application. Generally, there are several methods available for the de-
tection of PCMs thermophysical properties; however, differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis (Barreneche et al., 2013) and T-
history method (Solé et al., 2013) are the most suitable and the widely
used techniques for this purpose. Both methods are used to provide the
melting/solidification enthalpies, the melting/solidification tempera-
tures and the specific heat. Using those two methods, many researchers
studied the thermophysical properties of PCMs for solar cooking.
El-Sebaii et al. (2009) presented a study on the effect of solidifica-
tion/melting fast cycling of MgCl2·6H2O and acetanilide as PCMs on
their thermophysical properties for solar cooking application. The in-
vestigations were carried out for five hundred cycles. The compatibility
of the candidate PCMs with aluminum and stainless steel as the con-
taining materials was also investigated during cycling. They indicated
that acetanilide was a hopeful PCM for cooking application with good
compatibility with aluminum even during low intensity solar radiation.
Notwithstanding, MgCl2·6H2O was unsteady during the cycling due to
the problem of phase separation; along these lines, it was not suggested
as a PCM for indoor cooking. It is also observed that MgCl2·6H2O had
not a good compatibility with neither stainless steel nor aluminum. For
this reason, El-Sebaii et al. (2011) continued their work and studied the
effect of one thousand melting/solidification thermal cycling of
MgCl2·6H2O on its thermophysical properties in a closed holder under
the extra water concept. It was shown that MgCl2·6H2O with the extra
water concept and hermetically containing was a hopeful PCM for solar
cooking and during low solar radiations times. In addition, they Fig. 18. Photograph of the experimental setup (Saini et al., 2016).

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A.A.M. Omara, et al.
Fig. 19. Photo view of experimental setup (Kumar and Pandian, 2019).
stability of the PCMs was up to 289 °C, 177 °C and 133 °C with In-48Sn,
meso-erythritol and acetanilide. Acetanilide exhibited stable thermal
properties under high charging condition, but rapid mass degradation
was detected. Below 100 °C, both meso-erythritol and acetanilide
showed high supercooling degrees, showing their undesirability for
solar cooking application under high charging condition. In-48Sn was
found to be a promising candidate for solar cooking application under
high charging condition, because of its solidification temperature above
100 °C during the thermal cycling. The residues of the PCMs after
thermal cycling revealed no structural changes in respect to the fresh
samples, while the health hazards related to the PCMs were all within
acceptable limits. In spite of higher usage cost of In-48Sn as compared
to the other candidates, its advantageous stable thermal cycles and its
desired solidification point for cooking making it a good candidate
under high heat retrieval conditions than meso-erythritol and acet-
anilide.
8. Limitations and further research trends
Despite of different benefits of the application of PCMs, there are
many limitations on their used in SCs, which are presented as follows:
1. The PCM quantity is an important consideration in PCM integration
into SCs. The low quantity of PCM results in performance reduction,
whereas the high quantity would increase thermal loads, and thus
overheating. However, only few researchers investigated the op-
timal PCM quantity for solar cooking. Further studies must be
conducted to investigate the influence of PCM quantity on SC per-
formance.
2. PCMs are reluctant in the most part to let heat in and out at the
perceived supply and demand times. Further effective thermal
control techniques should be integrated into SCs to obviate this
drawback.
3. The solar applications with PCM storage at high temperatures ex-
amine problems of mechanical strength loss and improved corrosion
in the PCM. Therefore, further research to improve these associated
problems should be conducted.
4. PCMs are exposed to thermal conductivity limitations, especially
during discharge, and thermochemical cycles can suffer from decay
in reaction rates because of poor heat transfer and irreversibilities.
5. Since the PCM is almost isothermal at its melting point, and the
majority of the thermal energy stored in a PCM system is obtained in
the phase transition state, a system utilizing a PCM basically solely
operates at the melting point of that PCM, which provides lower
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Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563
exergetic efficiency.
6. Only few investigations have studied the thermophysical properties
of PCMs for high temperature applications. Therefore, further in-
vestigations are needed to detect the feasibility of PCMs for solar
cooking application.
This review paper also highlights some trends that can bring further
attention in future research, which are presented as:
1. The economic aspects of using PCMs with SCs must be considered,
since the consumers must be convinced of the returns on investment
of these materials.
2. An environmental analysis of the integration of PCMs with SCs is
required to show the environmental effect of PCM while storing
solar radiation.
3. Quantitative evaluation with exergy analysis must be investigated to
detect the sources and positions of the thermodynamic blemishes in
SCs with PCMs, and indicate the efficient methods of thermo-
dynamic improvement.
4. Although the solid–solid PCMs have many advantages (Fallahi et al.,
2017) despite such as high solar absorptivity, high latent heat ca-
pacity, leakage annulment and solid steadiness; their implementa-
tions in solar applications are still restricted. Therefore, further re-
search on applying these materials with SCs is required.
It is essential to find out solutions to these challenges so that more
PCM techniques can be developed and more of their potential can be
utilized.
9. Concluding remarks
The key remarkable merit of using PCMs units in SCs is that it could
be used for cooking throughout times when the solar radiation is re-
latively low. Therefore, the current review paper has focused on en-
hancing the performance of SCs by utilizing PCMs as a TES technology.
With the aid of PCMs, SCs can effectively cook during evening which is
not applicable for conventional SCs. The current paper provides a
comprehensive review on enhancing the SC performance using PCMs.
Through the evaluation of previous studies and the brief summary
presented in Table 3, the main findings of this review paper are high-
lighted as follows:
• A PCM storage system is able to transfer thermal energy to the
cooking pot at a constant rate for a longer time as compared to one
 Table 3
Summary of the previous studies.
Authors Type of study SC design PCM used Location of study Main results

(Abreha et al., 2019) Numerical study Indirect shell-and-tube unit /KNO

3 3 – total heat stored in the PCM unit was 10.17 MJ.
A.A.M. Omara, et al.

(Abu-Hamdeh and Mathematical modelling and Direct solar stove integrated with fan
• NaNO Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (latitude:
• The design of SC showed a good utilization for storing
Alnefaie, 2019) experimental measurement and reflector
• Acetamide 21°29′N and longitude: 39°11′E)
• The
thermal energy.
(Adetifa and Aremu, 2016) Experimental study Direct double-exposure box-type SC • Benzoic acid Ibadan, Nigeria (latitude: 7°26′N Benzoic acid showed positive effect on F value, while the
2
acid and longitude: 3°54′E)
• other PCMs showed negative effect.
• Stearic All the PCMs showed negative effect on F value; however,
1
• Palm oil • benzoic acid had the less effect.
(Akinwale, 2006) Experimental study Direct box-type SC • LiNO 3 Massachusetts, USA (latitude: • The PCM maintained pot temperature of 258 °C for 6 h.
42°24′N and longitude: • The PCM boiled the water for 25 h.
71°22′W) • The cooker could prepare a meal for 6 persons in 6 h after the
PCM charging process.
(Arabacigil et al., 2015) Experimental study Direct box-type SC with three inner • Paraffin wax Bursa, Turkey (latitude: 40°11′N • Daily utilization efficiency of 30.3%.
reflectors and longitude: 29°3′E) • The heating time decreased to about 1 h.
(Bhandari et al., 2019) Experimental study Direct box-type SC • OM50 Uttarakhand, India (latitude: • The cylindrical geometry was the most appropriate for PCM
• OM65 30°4′N and longitude: 79°1′E) storage unit.
• HS89 • The HS89 showed the best thermal behavior among the three
PCMs.
(Bhave and Kale, 2020) Experimental study Direct SC with parabolic concentrator • NaNO /KNO 3 3 Mumbai, India (latitude: 19°4′N • Frying temperature of 170–180 °C for the oil was easily
dish and longitude: 72°52′E) obtained during indoor cooking.
(Bhave and Thakare, 2018) Experimental study Direct concentrating type SC 2
• MgCl ·6H O 2 Mumbai, India (latitude: 19°4′N • The SC could store an amount of heat for 50 min enough for
and longitude: 72°52′E) cooking 140 gm of rice for around half an hour.
(Buddhi et al., 1988) Mathematical modelling and Direct box-type SC with one reflector • Naphthalene New Delhi, India (latitude: • The PCM storage efficiency depended strongly on the
experimental study • Myristic acid 28°36′N and longitude: 77°12′E) meteorological characteristics and the PCM melting point.
• Stearic acid
• Paraffin P116

557
(Buddhi and Sahoo, 1997) Experimental study Direct box-type SC • Stearic acid Indore, India (latitude: 22°43′N • The SC with PCM provided a nearly constant plate
and longitude: 75°51′E) temperature for the late evening.
(Buddhi et al., 2003) Experimental study Direct box-type SC with three • Acetanilide New Delhi, India (latitude: • The night cooking for 20 h was possible with only 4 kg of
reflectors 28°36′N and longitude: 77°12′E) PCM unit.
(Chaudhary et al., 2013) Experimental study Direct SC with parabolic dish collector • Acetanilide Kurukshetra, India (latitude: • 26.8% and 32.3% more heat was stored in PCM attached to
29°58′N and longitude: 76°53′E) SC with black surface and SC with black external surface and
glazing, respectively, as compared to PCM in the
conventional SC.
(Chen et al., 2008a) Numerical study Direct box-type SC • Stearic acid – • The PCMs were utilized for cooking and keeping food warm
• Mg(NO ) ·6H O
3 2 2 during evening with various heat exchanger container
• Erythritol materials.
• Acetanilide
(Choudhari and Shende, Experimental study Indirect SC with parabolic dish
• Acetamide Maharashtra, India (latitude: PCM could be used for cooking in late evening/night
2015) collector
• Acetanilide 19°45′N and longitude: 75°42′E)
• The
time.
(Coccia et al., 2018) Experimental study Direct multi-reflector box-type SC 3
• KNO /NaNO /NaNO 2 3 Ancona, Italy (latitude: 43°36′N • The PCM significantly improved the load cooling time in the
and longitude: 13°31′E) range 170–130 °C by 65–107% compared to that without the
PCM
(Coccia et al., 2020) Experimental study Portable box-type SC • Erythritol Ancona, Italy (latitude: 43°36′N • The PCM extended the average load cooling time by about
and longitude: 13°31′E) 351.16%.
(Cuce et al., 2020) Experimental study box-type SC with booster reflector • Propolis Rize, Turkey (latitude: 41°1′N The value of F was 0.08, and the cooker energy efficiency
1
and longitude: 40°31′E)
• varied between 4.54 and 7.47%.
(Dang, 1985) Numerical study Direct SC with planar reflector • Na 2HPO ·12H O 4 2 New Delhi, India (latitude: • The heat storage was completed after the sunshine hours.
• Na 2SO ·10H O
4 2 28°36′N and longitude: 77°12′E) • The plate temperature depended strongly on the
• Paraffin P116 thermophysical properties of the PCM.
• Stearic acid
(Domanski et al., 1995) Experimental study Direct SC with two concentric • Mg(NO ) ·6H O
3 2 2 Warsaw, Poland (latitude: • The utilization efficiency could be improved up to 85%.
cylindrical containers • Stearic acid 52°13′N and longitude: 21°0′E) • The cooker overall efficiency throughout releasing the heat was
higher 3–4 times.
(continued on next page)
Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563
 Table 3 (continued)

Authors Type of study SC design PCM used Location of study Main results

(El-Sebaii et al., 2009) Investigative study Direct box-type SC • MgCl ·6H O

2 2 – • Acetanilide was a hopeful PCM for cooking application even
throughout low intensity solar radiation.
A.A.M. Omara, et al.

• Acetanilide 2·6H O was unsteady during 500 cycles; thereby it is not

2
• MgCl
suggested for indoor cooking.
(El-Sebaii et al., 2011) Investigative study Direct box-type SC 2
• MgCl ·6H O 2 – • MgCl2·.6H2O with the extra water concept and hermetically
containing was a hopeful PCM for solar cooking.
(Gabisa and Aman, 2016) Experimental study Electric heater solar simulator 3
• NaNO /KNO 3 Bahir Dar, Ethiopia (latitude: • The PCM stored the required heat for cooking in 50 min and
11°35′N and longitude: 37°23′E) provided it to the meals for 4.5 h.
(Geddam et al., 2015) Experimental study Direct box-type SC • Paraffin wax Trichy, India (latitude: 10°48′N • PCM improved the time of food cooking by 3–4 h.
and longitude: 78°41′E)
(Hussein et al., 2008) Experimental study Indirect SC with external solar 3 2
• Mg(NO ) ·6H O 2 Giza, Egypt (latitude: 30°0′N • The SC could be utilized for heating and maintaining food
collector and longitude: 31°12′E) warmth during night and early morning.
(John et al., 2015) Investigative study Either direct and indirect SC • Galactitol – • Galactitol was observed to have stability issues and has an
extremely short lifetime for real PCM medium temperature
applications.
(Kanimozhi et al., 2015) Experimental study Direct box-type SC • Coconut oil Chennai, India (latitude: • 15% reduction in heating time.
12°80′N and longitude: 80°2′E)
(Keith et al., 2019) Experimental study Collapsible direct parabolic SC • Stearic acid Australia • The PCM kept the food warm for subsequent meals.
• The SC payback period was less than one year for family of 4
persons.
(Kumar et al., 2018) Experimental study Indirect SC with evacuated tube • Acetanilide Kurukshetra, India (latitude: • The evening cooking using PCM was found to be quicker than
collector 29°58′N and longitude: 76°53′E) daytime cooking at low loads.
(Kumar and Pandian, Experimental study Indirect SC with parabolic trough • Stearic acid Chennai, India (latitude: • The HTFs provided better thermal performance as their mass
2019) collector and manual tracking 12°80′N and longitude: 80°2′E) flow rate increases.
mechanism • The engine oil was preferred to the water because of its steady
flow and lower heat loss.

558
(Kumar Rai and Kumar Experimental study Cooking pot • Paraffin wax Prayagraj, India (latitude: • PCM filled aluminium pots are preferred for daytime cooking.
Srivastava, 2019) 25°28′N and longitude: 81°52′E) • PCM filled steel pots are preferred for evening cooking.
(Kumaresan et al., 2016) Experimental study Indirect SC with parabolic trough • D-Mannitol Chennai, India (latitude: • The PCM increased the cooking heat by 10.2%.
collector 12°80′N and longitude: 80°2′E)
(Lecuona et al., 2013) Numerical and experimental Direct concentrating parabolic SC • Paraffin wax Madrid, Spain (latitude: 40°23′N • The PCM enabled the cooking for day lunch and the next day
study • Erythritol and longitude: 3°43′W) breakfast.
(Maina et al., 2019a) Experimental study Direct double-reflector double- • Stearic acid Maiduguri, Nigeria (latitude: The values of F and F were 0.14 and 0.47, and 0.15 and 0.4,
1 2
compartment box-type SC 11°49′N and longitude: 13°9′E)
• for the first and second compartment, respectively.
(Maina et al., 2020a) Experimental study Direct box-type SC with single booster • Paraffin wax Maiduguri, Nigeria (latitude: The value of F for paraffin wax, palm oil and peanut oil was
1
mirror. oil 11°49′N and longitude: 13°9′E)
• 0.13, 0.12 and 0.13, respectively
• Palm 2 was 0.44, 0.38 and 0.40 for the same order.
• Peanut oil • FThevalue energy efficiency was 33%, 34% and 32% for the
• samecooker
order.
(Mwaura, 2019) Experimental study Direct double reflector box-type SC • Acetanilide Nairobi, Kenya (latitude: 1°17′S • The SC with PCM could be effectively utilized for rice cooking
and longitude: 36°49′E) during daytime and evening.
• The noon cooking did not affect the evening cooking.
(Nayak et al., 2016) Theoretical analysis and Indirect SC connected to water • Acetanilide Seeb, Oman (latitude: 23°38′N • The system was capable of cooking during the evenings by
experimental study heating system integrated with • Stearic acid and longitude: 58°8′E) providing PCM storage unit.
evacuated tube solar collector cooker utilization efficiency of 31% could be obtained by
• Aacetanilide.
(NKhonjera et al., 2016) Experimental study Direct finned SC • Pentaerythritol – • The charging speed lessened with PE to fins volume ratio
• The PE to fin volume ratio more than 12 strongly lessened the
discharging behaviour of the system.
(Palanikumar et al., 2019) Experimental and simulation Direct multi-reflector box-type SC 2
• Stearic acid with nano-Al O 3 Tamil Nadu, India (latitude: • The nano-PCM improved the cooker energy efficiency by
study 11°7′N and longitude: 78°39′E) 17.6% as compared to that with normal PCM.
(Panchal and Sadasivuni, Experimental study Direct box-type SC with scheffler • Acetamide Gujarat, India (latitude: 22°18′N • PCM-sand and PCM-stone pebbles improved the storage
2018) reflector and longitude: 72°8′E) capacity by 3–3.5 times as compared to PCM-iron balls.
• PCM-sand and PCM-stone pebbles were suitable late evening
cooking, while it was not possible for PCM-iron balls.
(continued on next page)
Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563
 Table 3 (continued)
Authors
(Reddy et al., 2017)
(Saini et al., 2016)
(Santhi Rekha and Sukchai,
2018)
(Saxena et al., 2013)
(Senthil, 2020)
(Sharma et al., 2000)
(Sharma et al., 2005)
(Shobo and Mawire, 2016)
559
(Shobo et al., 2018)
(Sreepathi et al., 2017)
(TARWIDI, 2015)
(Tarwidi et al., 2016)
(Tesfay et al., 2016, Tesfay
et al., 2019)
(Unger et al., 2019)
(Vigneswaran et al., 2017)
(Xie et al., 2019)
Type of study SC design PCM used Location of study Main results
Experimental study Direct box-type SC • Paraffin wax Tamil Nadu, India (latitude: • The value of F was improved by 5.3% with the PCM.
2
11°7′N and longitude: 78°39′E) cooker payback was 7.87 years.
A.A.M. Omara, et al.
• The CO emission reduction of 80.541 kg was observed.
2
Experimental study Indirect SC equipped with parabolic Kurukshetra, India (latitude:
• Annual
quantity of thermal energy stored by PCM was improved
trough collector
• Acetanilide 29°58′N and longitude: 76°53′E)
• The
by about 19.45% to 30.38% in comparison with water
Experimental study Indirect concentric parabolic SC salt hydrate with melting Phitsanulok, Thailand (latitude: • The PCM improved the cooking power and the optical
• Apoint of 90–110 °C 16°49′N and longitude: efficiency by 91% and 124.4%.
100°15′E) • The PCM reduced the heat loss factor by 214.6%.
Experimental study Direct box-type SC with one reflector • Stearic acid Moradabad, India (latitude: • The cooking time was reduced by approximately 15 min.
28°58′N and longitude: 78°47′E)
Experimental study Indirect SC with parabolic dish • Paraffin wax Chennai, India (latitude: • The PCM improved the cooking time by 25%.
collector 12°80′N and longitude: 80°2′E)
Experimental study Direct box-type SC • Acetamide Indore, India (latitude: 22°43′N • Cooking during off-sunshine periods was possible with PCM.
and longitude: 75°51′E) • The PCM storage did not affect the noon cooking.
Experimental study Indirect SC with evacuated tube solar • Erythritol Mie, Japan (latitude: 33°48′N • The noon cooking had no impact on the night cooking.
collector and longitude: 136°2′E) • The night cooking with PCM was observed to be quicker than
noon cooking.
Numerical study Spherical capsule • Erythritol – • The aluminium alloy showed a perfect chemical
compatibility with PCM.
• The PCM thermal conductivity improved with increasing
capsule wall thickness
• The strength of the capsule increased with the increase in the
capsule wall thickness.
sphere radius of 50 mm and a wall thickness of 1.0 mm could
• Aprovide the optimal thermal performance for the PCM
encapsulation.
Investigative study – • Acetanilide – Acetanilide and meso-erythritol are not desirable for solar
• cooking
• Meso-erythritol application.
• In-48Sn alloy • In-48Sn is preferred for solar cooking application.
Experimental study Direct SC with butterfly collector • Oxalic acid dihydrate Karnataka, India (latitude: • The PCM without insulation kept peak water temperature of
15°19′N and longitude: 75°42′E) 65 °C for only 3 h.
• The evening cooking could be achieved by the PCM with proper
insulation.
Numerical study Indirect SC equipped with solar • Erythritol Bandung, Indonesia (latitude: • Mg(NO ) ·6H O had the largest potential to charge heat.
3 2 2
collector • Mg(NO ) ·6H O
3 2 2 6°55′S and longitude: 107°37′E) • Erythritol could reach the largest temperature distribution
• MgCl 2·6H O 2 during storing period.
• Paraffin RT100
Numerical study Indirect SC equipped with solar • Erythritol Bandung, Indonesia (latitude: • MgCl 2 ·6H O was efficient for only 4 h.
2
collector • Mg(NO ) ·6H O
3 2 2 6°55′S and longitude: 107°37′E) • Mg(NO ) ·6H O was efficient only for 1 h.
3 2 2
• MgCl 2·6H O 2 • Erythritol boiled the water for about 3.5 h.
• Paraffin RT100
Experimental and numerical Incorporated with parabolic dish 3
• NaNO /KNO 3 Mekelle, Ethiopia (latitude: • The PCM was capable of heating the SC up to 250 °C and
study concentrator 13°28′N and longitude: 39°32′E) retaining this heat for about two days.
Experimental study Solar electric cooker (SEC) • Erythritol California, USA (latitude: • The SEC boiled 1 L of water for 20 min.
36°46′N and longitude: • The SC stored heat for more than 4 h with the aid of the PCM.
119°25′W)
Experimental study Direct box-type SC with four reflectors • Oxalic acid dihydrate Chennai, India (latitude: • PCM was utilized for evening cooking with a discharge
12°80′N and longitude: 80°2′E) efficiency of 57%.
Numerical study Vacuum tube solar oven 3
• NaNO /KNO 3 Henan, China (latitude: 34°17′N • PCM layer made the oven inner wall temperature 30–80 °C
and longitude: 113°22′E) higher than that without PCM layer under the same
conditions.
• The food initial temperature had minor impact on the PCM
layer temperature.
(continued on next page)
Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563
A.A.M. Omara, et al. Solar Energy 207 (2020) 539–563

without PCM.

alloy was found to be a possible

capacity by 3–3.5 times as compared to PCM-iron balls and

is the most suitable encapsulation material of PCM.

and PCM-stone pebbles improved the storage
• The overall utilization efficiency of SC could be improved up to 85%
by using PCMs.

• Cast iron is not preferred for the PCM encapsulation.

• Night cooking is possible by incorporating PCM storage systems into
• The heating time was diminished to about 1 h.
SC.
• Night cooking using PCM storage is quicker than noon cooking since
the PCM absorbs part of solar radiation required for cooking at
daytime.
• The night cooking with PCM storage does not affect the noon
candidate for SC application.
• Polypropylene/polyethylene

cooking.
• A SC with PCM shows reduction in heating time by up to 15%
compared to one without PCM.
• The performance of SC with a PCM that has higher latent heat is
PCM-iron grits.

better than that one has lower latent heat at the same melting point.
•
• PCM-sand

The large values of thermal conductivity of heat exchanger con-

Main results

• Copper

tainer material have no significant impact on the melting fraction

except at very low values.
• From numerical studies, the initial temperature of a PCM has no
significant effect on the charging time, whereas the boundary wall
Bursa, Turkey (latitude: 40°11′N
29°58′N and longitude: 76°53′E)

temperature plays a significant role throughout the charging and has

Massachusetts, USA (latitude:
Kurukshetra, India (latitude:

a strong influence on the melting fraction. Also the influence of

42°24′N and longitude:

container material thickness on the melting fraction is minimal.

and longitude: 29°3′E)

Moreover, the food initial temperature has minor impact on the

Location of study

temperature of the PCM layer.

• The PCM storage efficiency is strongly affected by the meteor-
71°22′W)

ological conditions.
• The cylindrical geometry was the most appropriate geometry for
–

PCM storage unit.

• Integrating PCMs with sensible heat mediums is a great alternative
• Polypropylene/polyethylene

to solve the deficiencies of SC integrated with PCMs, since the PCM

helps in cooking, while the sensible heat material helps the PCM in
maintaining its performance.
• Inner PCM/outer SHSM configuration shows better performance
• Paraffin wax

that outer PCM/inner SHSM.

• Acetamide

• Copper is the most preferred encapsulation material in the SCs, due

PCM used

• LiNO 3
alloy

to its low thermal stress effect and good compatibility with the
majority of PCMs.
• The performance of indirect SCs is independent on the properties of
HTF.
Direct box-type SC with one reflector
Indirect SC equipped with parabolic

• Energy efficiency between the PCM unit and working fluid increases
as the working fluid flow rate increases.
• Among different types of SCs, box-type SC is the most common
because of its simple design and the ease to implement additional
equipment with.
Direct box-type SC

• The most common used PCMs are organics, especially fatty acids.
dish collector

This is mainly attributed to their high latent heat and low cost in
SC design

comparison with other PCM types.

–

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they do not have any conflict of interest.
Simulation and analysis
Experimental study

Experimental study
Investigative study

Acknowledgements
Type of study

The support from University of Khartoum is highly acknowledged.

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