Numerical-simulation and experimental-

validation of the largest Egyptian solar

process-heat system
Cite as: J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3584836
Submitted: 03 August 2010 . Accepted: 07 April 2011 . Published Online: 07 July 2011

Adel M. Abdel-Dayem

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J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3584836 3, 043102

© 2011 American Institute of Physics.

 JOURNAL OF RENEWABLE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 3, 043102 (2011)

Numerical-simulation and experimental-validation of the

largest Egyptian solar process-heat system
Adel M. Abdel-Dayema)
Department of Mechanical Power Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mattaria,
Masaken El-Helmia, P. O. 11718, Cairo, Egypt
(Received 3 August 2010; accepted 7 April 2011; published online 7 July 2011)

El-Nasr pharmaceutical solar process heat project is considered as the largest

industrial system installed and working in east Cairo, Egypt 30 N. It was simply
constructed from a one-axis tracking parabolic-trough collector that can produce
about 1.3 ton=h saturated steam to feed the industrial processes in the company.
Twenty-three bar compressed water is heated inside 1958.4 m2 collectors, and later
on it is flashed in a steam flash-drum to produce saturated steam at 8 bars and 175  C
that is fed to the process heat. A mathematical model was developed for the system
components to simulate annual performance of the system. The simulation results
were verified successfully by the measured data that are monitoring the system
performance. First, each component of the mathematical model was experimentally
validated separately. Accordingly, the whole mathematical model was validated
under different weather conditions along the year. The validated numerical model
was optimized. The optimal number of collectors connected in series was obtained as
three collectors not 36 as installed. An economical study of the installed system was
provided. The optimal design of the system was economically estimated. The
optimal collector area is less than that installed, it equals about 538 m2. Annual
performance of the system is presented indicating the seasonal variation. It was
found that the optimized system can produce about 2 ton=h in average. Moreover,
that value is more than that was proposed by the system design. V C 2011 American

Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3584836]

I. INTRODUCTION
Solar process heat is an important sector of using solar thermal energy in industry. It can
play a great role in the areas of moderate latitudes like in Cairo 30 N, where a high solar radia-
tion with relatively long day time. Majority of industries need a steam in their heating proc-
esses. To produce steam, a tracking solar collector like parabolic trough must be considered
that can obtain high temperatures with high efficiency.
Egypt locates between 22 and 31 N latitudes and has an annual average global-solar radia-
tion of about 19 MJ=m2 a. Also, it has about 16 MJ=m2 a and relatively high ambient tempera-
ture along the year. Those best conditions of efficiently utilizing solar thermal energy can be
considered in the industrial sectors which consume about 60% of total national energy con-
sumption in Egypt. The most of that energy is consumed in process heat and 53% of it is
between 80 and 200  C, where the solar applications have a good efficiency. Therefore, the
plant can be considered as a very good demonstrated tool to use such energy.
In the last century, Kutscher1 presented early a modeling of solar process heat system. The
program was able to simulate a system with different components of collector, storage tanks,
flash tanks, and connections. He compared the program results with corresponding results of
the TRNSYS program with more accuracy.

a)
Current address: Umm Al-Qura University, College of Eng., Mech. Eng. Dept., Makkah, P.O. 05555, KSA. Electronic mail:
amabdeen@uqu.edu.sa; adel_abdeldayem@hotmail.com.

1941-7012/2011/3(4)/043102/17/$30.00 3, 043102-1 C 2011 American Institute of Physics

V
043102-2 Adel M. Abdel-Dayem J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

Many scientists edited in this important area. Price2 provided an overview of a computer
model that is being used by scientists and developers to evaluate the tradeoff between cost, per-
formance, and economic parameters for parabolic trough solar power plant technologies. An
example was included that shows how this model has been used for a thermal storage design
optimization. The annual performance calculated by the model has been validated against actual
operating data from one of the existing plants.
Siangsukone and Lovegrove3 presented a modeling and simulation of a parabolic dish con-
centrator system with a direct steam generating cavity receiver. The dish concentrator system
consists of a parabolic dish with cavity receiver and a steam line and is modeled using the
TRNSYS simulation package. Validation test was performed by comparing with experimental
results measured. Later, they described the results of the latest experimental tests plus associ-
ated system performance modeling of the Australian National University that has a 400 m2 par-
abolic dish solar concentrator system that produces superheated steam via a receiver mounted
mono-tube boiler. The system was modeled and validated in the context of feasibility study and
performance assessment for multiple dishes, central generation Rankine cycle power plants
using the transient simulation package TRNSYS.4
Steinmann and Buschle5 used Modelica (simulation program for solar systems) for the
analysis of different kinds of thermal storage system for applications in power plants and pro-
cess industry. The analysis includes concepts using sensible heat storage media, latent heat sys-
tems, and steam accumulators. The temperature range for these systems is between 200  C and
400  C, and the maximum thermal power is 100 MW. Modelica was also used for system anal-
ysis simulating the interaction of the storage unit with the other components.
Schweiger et al.6 presented a 360 kW solar thermal system for an industrial washing pro-
cess at 80  C in Barcelona, Spain. The system consists of 510 m2 flat-plate solar collectors and
40 m3 storage tank with a steam boiler as an auxiliary. The system has a solar fraction 21.6%
of the total load with about 429 MW h per year. In that manner, Abdel-Dayem and Mohamed7
studied using of solar thermal energy in the textile industry. They developed a mathematical
model to simulate a system for a case-study. The comparison of optimally using solar energy
as a preheating system and a standalone system was developed. They demonstrated that the sec-
ond scenario is more efficient and economic than the other.
Anderson and Duke8 simulated, by f-chart method, a solar thermal system with large-area
arrays of solar collectors to determine their suitability for heating and cooling in a dairy process-
ing environment. They compared between different collectors types. The results presented show
that flat plate and evacuated tube with back reflector style collectors offered the best performance
in heating and cooling systems. On the same manner, Esen9 introduced an evacuated-tube collec-
tor that can produce enough heating temperatures for industrial use. In addition, Ozgen and
Esen10 tested successfully a new air heater with high efficiency for the same purpose.
Industrial process-heat systems were analyzed in the paper of Kalogirou.11 All collector types
considered in this work can be used for providing industrial process-heat. The flat-plate collectors
however are more suitable for low temperature applications and the concentrating collectors for
the higher ones. As is proved by the analysis presented in this paper, the economic viability of
each system depends on the initial cost of the solar system and the fuel price. At the design stage,
the solar systems to be considered need to be simulated and their economic benefits evaluated as
indicated in this paper, in order to select the best system for a particular application. Esen and
Esen12 installed a two-phase thermosyphon solar heater working with the refrigerants using heat-
pipe collector. The system has a good performance as a solar heating system. It can be used for
lower-temperature (about 80  C) industry without any auxiliary energy.
A study of utilizing solar thermal energy in a New Zealand milk powder plant was illus-
trated by Atkins et al.13 They demonstrated that modest hot utility savings were attainable if
the solar system was integrated above the pinch temperature. Solar thermal systems can be con-
sidered as a hot utility and therefore the process integration guidelines for appropriate place-
ment efficiently used.
Brakmann14 found that the parabolic trough collector has the highest annual output energy
and lowest cost for the process heat under the weather conditions of Egypt. Therefore, in
043102-3 Solar process heat numerical simulation J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

El-Nasr Company of pharmaceutical, a pioneer 1.33 MWth solar heating system was installed
to feed steam into the industrial processes. The system was installed since 2005 from 1-axis
tracking parabolic trough that heats compressed water. The heated pressurized water is flashed
to produce a steam that feeds the processes. Temperatures, pressures, flow rates, and weather
conditions are permanently monitored and recorded.
A numerical simulation of such systems can improve the system performance and visualize
the annual performance of them. The system design can be optimized based on economical ba-
sis and weather considerations. Moreover, improvements in the systems’ efficiency parameters
can be studied by a cheap tool like simulation. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a
numerical simulation of the system that was successfully installed and tested. Considering the
above parameters and considerations, the simulation is carried out and validated.

II. EL-NASR SOLAR THERMAL PLANT

Since 2004, the solar plant was installed in El-Nasr pharmaceutical company (30 km from
east Cairo) to feed the company by 1.3 ton=h steam at 175  C and 8 bar pressure. The system is
simply consisted of a parabolic trough array that heated pressurized water (23 bar pressure) to a
flash tank where the water is evaporated. The saturated steam (8 bar) is separated to the factory.
The water liquid is re-circulated to the collectors after mixing with makeup water from a storage
tank. The storage tank is feed by water that comes from the factory at about 85  C and 1 bar
pressure. As shown in the Figures 1 and 2, the plant consists of the following components.

A. Parabolic collectors array

There are 144 horizontal collectors; each 36 collectors are connected in series to raise the
temperature of pressurized water. Each collector has about 13.8 m2 (6 m length and 2.3 m width)
with north-south horizontal axis that is summed about 1958.4 m2. The collectors array is tracked
about an axis that is parallel to the collector axis. The collector absorber is a 2 in. carbon steel
pipe (6 m length) painted black nickel and covered by non-evacuated transparent glass tubes.

B. Tracking control and monitoring

After sunrise, the weather parameters, solar radiation, ambient temperature, and wind speed
are sensing. If the wind speed is not high and safe for collector working, a signal is sent to a
working pump to be running. The 17.2 m3=h pump is on=off controlled based on the allowed
outlet temperature of the collectors. It is running if the outlet temperature is higher than 215

C, the corresponding saturated temperature of 23 bar pressure, and according to the water level
inside the flash tank. Two solar radiation sensors are located on collector surface sides to adjust

FIG. 1. Photograph of the solar plant installed in El-Nasr Pharmaceutical Chemicals.

043102-4 Adel M. Abdel-Dayem J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

FIG. 2. Schematic diagram of the solar thermal plant.

the collectors tracking to be normal to the solar rays using electrical motors and gear boxes.
During the cloudy periods or during night, the collectors’ faces are rotated to the ground to pro-
tect the collectors from damage.
There is a weather station able to measure the global, direct, and diffuse radiation. Moreover,
it measures the ambient temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and moisture content. A data ac-
quisition system was installed to monitor and record temperatures and pressures during the plant.
All measured data are recorded every 2 min. It is used to measure the following parameters:
1. return temperature to the solar plant from the factory (T1)
2. discharge water temperature from the flash tank (T2)
3. collectors inlet temperature (Tci)
4. collectors outlet temperature (Tco)
5. flash tank temperature (Ttank)
6. flash tank inlet pressure (P1)
7. flash tank outlet pressure (P2)
8. pressure of recycle pump (P3).
The temperatures are measured by T-type thermocouples with an accuracy of 0.018  C,
where Kipp and Zonen CM 3 Pyranometer are used to measure the solar radiation components
with about 1% accuracy.

C. Flash tank (drum)

Two cubic meters insulated flash tank is used to evaporate the pressured hot water that is
coming from the solar collectors. The pressure of the pressurized hot water is suddenly reduced
by a flash valve from about 23 bar into 10 bar inside the flash tank. An additional pump (mix-
ing pump) is used to mix the rest liquid water from the lower of the flash tank with the return
water from the factory. A steam valve is located upper the flash tank. It is opened when the
pressure inside the flash tank is not less than 8 bars.

III. SIMULATION MODELING

As described above, the solar thermal plant consists of parabolic trough collectors, pump
with on=off control unit, and flash tank including flash valve. Therefore, a mathematical model
including those components is developed for each and they are interconnected to simulate the
considered plant. Additional components to estimate the beam solar radiation and life-cycle
savings are indicated. The mathematical model for each component is described in the Secs.
III A and III B.
043102-5 Solar process heat numerical simulation J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

A. Parabolic-trough concentrating collector

As such, parabolic concentrating collectors do not receive a significant amount of diffuse
radiation; their useful energy output is dictated by beam radiation as all the beam radiation inci-
dent on the aperture area (the area formed by the—mouthk of the parabola) is reflected onto
the absorber contained in the received tube. Thermal losses from parabolic concentrating collec-
tors occur only from the absorbing surfaces which, while high in temperature, have compara-
tively small area. Because beam radiation is of such importance to the performance of a linear
parabolic concentrating solar collector, the reflector is often tracked so that beam radiation
remains within its acceptance angle.
The useful energy gain that can be produced from the collector can be estimated as edited
in Ref. 15

Qu ¼ R1 R2 Np ½IAM  Ib  Aa FR sa  FR UL Ar ðTci  Ta Þ: (1)

For parabolic concentrators, two modifiers (R1 and R2) are applied to Eq. (1) in order to correct
for other flow rates than under test conditions and to account for more than one collector in a
series string. R1 includes a term called Rtest as shown in Eq. (2)

 L Aa !
FU
_ P 1  e NS mC
NS mC _ P
R1 ¼ ; (2)
Aa Rtest

 Ns
1  1  R1mC FR UL Ar
_ P Ns
R2 ¼   ; (3)
R1 FR UL Ar
Ns mC _ P Ns

and
 

FU L
Rtest ¼ Gtest CP 1  eGtest CP : (4)

It is developed as a modified loss coefficient called F’UL. F’UL is based upon the standard
collector loss coefficient FRUL provided by collector manufacturers and corrects the manufac-
turer specified loss coefficient for flow rates other than the rated flow rate
8 FR U L Ar
> F R UL if 1
< "  # Gtest CP Aa
 L¼
FU FR UL Ar
: (5)
>
: Gtest CP 1  e
Gtest CP Aa
if FR U L Ar
Gtest CP Aa <1

In addition to losses due to the angle of incidence, there are other losses from the collectors
that can be correlated to the angle of incidence. These losses occur due to additional reflection
and absorption by the glass envelope, when the angle of incidence increases. The incidence
angle modifier (IAM)16 corrects for these additional reflection and absorption losses. The inci-
dence angle modifier is given as an empirical fit to experimental data for a given collector type.
The corrected data of the incidence angles are shown in Table I.
Provided that there is flow, the temperature of fluid at the collector outlet is given by
Eq. (6).

TABLE I. Modifiers (IAM) of the incidence angles.

h 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Modifier (IAM) 0.9 0.8 0.72 0.63 0.54 0.45 0.36 0.27 0.18 0.09
043102-6 Adel M. Abdel-Dayem J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

Q_ u
Tco ¼ Tci þ : (6)
_ P
mC

The flow rate in Eq. 5 is the mass flow rate of fluid in a single parallel branch of the collector
array. Under no flow conditions, the fluid outlet temperature is

Aa
Tco ¼ Ta þ FR ðasÞn IAM  Ib : (7)
F R UL A r

B. On=off differential controller

This controller is used to switch the pump by on=off signal. The controller generates a control
function co that can have values of zero or one. The value of cco is chosen as a function of the
difference between upper and lower temperatures, TH and TL, compared with two dead band
temperature differences, TH (It is taken as 10 C) and TL (It is taken as 10 C). The new value of
co is dependent on whether initial value ci = 0 or 1. The controller is normally used with co
connected to ci giving a hysteresis effect. For safety considerations, a high limit cut-out is
included with the controller. Regardless of the dead band conditions, the control function will
be set to zero if the high limit condition is exceeded.

1. Pump
This pump model computes a mass flow rate using a variable control function, which must
be between zero and one, and a fixed maximum flow capacity.

2. Economic analysis
This component performs a standard life cycle cost analysis based on the simulation of one
year of solar system operation. It compares the capital and back-up fuel costs of a solar system
to the fuel costs of a conventional non-solar system. It is assumed that the solar back-up system
is identical to the conventional heating system, in that only the incremental costs of adding so-
lar to the conventional system are considered. The life cycle savings are calculated using P1
and P2 method that is as indicated in detail in Refs. 15 and 17. The parameters those consid-
ered in the economic analysis and their values are indicated in Table II.

3. Flash tank and flash valve

The pressurized hot water mass (m)_ from the solar collectors is flashed into the flash tank
by a flash valve as presented in Fig. 3. The saturated steam is extracted from the tank by mass
_ where x is the extracted steam fraction. The rest of water inside the tank is re-
flow rate of xm,
circulated by a rate of ð1  xÞm.
_ The corresponding value of the factory-return water xm_ is fed
to the plant. The governing equations of the flash tank as described in Ref. 1 are as follows.

TABLE II. Considered economic parameters values.

Economic parameters Value Economic parameters Value

Area dependent costs 200.0 $=m2 Annual interest rate on mortgage 12%
Fixed costs 4000.0 $ Term of mortgage 20.0 years
Solar system thermal 0.0%=yr Annual nominal (market) discount rate 9%
performance degradation
Period of the economic analysis 20.0 years Extra insurance maintenance in year 1 1%
(% of original investment)
Down payment (% of original investment) 10% Annual percentage increase in above expenses 10%
P1 factor 20.0 Useful life for depreciation purposes 20.0 years
P2 factor 0.663
043102-7 Solar process heat numerical simulation J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

FIG. 3. Schematic diagram of the flash tank.

The flash tank temperature is calculated as a function of time since the flash tank has a
constant enthalpy,

_ P þ UA
mC
Ttank ¼ T1 þ ðT0  T1 Þe t; (8)
MCP

where

_ P Tco þ UATa
mC
T1 ¼ : (9)
_ P þ UA
mC

The heat loss from the flash tank is estimated as follows

MCP ðT0  T1 Þ
Q_ loss ¼ UAðT1  Ta ÞDt þ UA : (10)
_ P þ UA
mC

To determine the amount of steam delivered, the steam quality must be calculated from an
energy balance on the flash tank. Therefore, the steam quality (x) can be

_ l  Q_ loss  Q_ inc
_ co  mh
mh
x¼ ; (11)
_ g  hl Þ
mðh

where

Q_ inc ¼ MCP ðT t  T tDt Þ: (12)

Energy delivered to the load is the difference between enthalpy of delivered steam and en-
thalpy of the makeup water

Q_ del ¼ xmh
_ g  xmh
_ makeup : (13)

Developing of heat balance on the make-up valve can determine the enthalpy of the inlet
water to the collectors as follows
043102-8 Adel M. Abdel-Dayem J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

hci ¼ ð1  xÞhl þ x  hmakeup : (14)

Now the temperature of the collectors’ inlet can be obtained as follows

Tci ¼ hci =CP ; (15)

The enthalpy is calculated for each time step depending on the temperature and pressure of
each point.

4. Solar radiation model

In that model, it uses the clearness index (kT = 1 – hz) and the solar altitude angle (a) to
estimate the diffuse fraction (Idh=Igh). The correlation developed by Reindl18 [Eq. (15)] is given
by the following equations:
• Interval: 0  kT  0.3; Constraint: Id=I  1.0

Idh
¼ 1:02  0:25kT þ 0:0123 sinðaÞ: (16)
Igh

• Interval: 0.3 < kT < 0.78; Constraint: 0.1  Id=I  0.97

Idh
¼ 1:4  0:749kT þ 0:177 sinðaÞ: (17)
Igh

• Interval: 0.78 < kT; Constraint: 0.1  Id=I

Idh
¼ 0:486kT þ 0:182 sinðaÞ: (18)
Igh

The considered angles are estimated based on the latitude of the location, local time, and
day number as defined in Ref. 15. The beam radiation on a horizontal surface is calculated by
the difference between the total radiation and the diffuse component

Ib ¼ Igh  Idh : (19)

The above equations are solved together to estimate the different variables by modified Euler
method for a specified time step. Measured data of the solar radiation ambient temperature are
used as inputs to estimate the transient variation of the variables.

IV. VALIDATION OF NUMERICAL SIMULATION

To validate the numerical modeling with the installed plant, measured and simulated results
are compared under the same measured weather conditions of solar radiation and ambient tem-
perature. Fortunately, measured data of the above mentioned parameters in Sec. II are available.
In addition, the measured data were taken from the data acquisition system with high resolution
and accuracy. The data were measured for each component of the system for every 2 min. The
allowable measured data are for January, April, May, and August. Therefore, the detailed meas-
ured data allow developing two different validations, validation of each component of mathe-
matical model and other for the overall model.

A. Validation of the mathematical model components

The available measured temperature of inlet and outlet flow for each system component
allows verifying the results of each component. Therefore, the measured inlet temperature to
043102-9 Solar process heat numerical simulation J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

each component is used as an input to the component, and then the outlet estimated temperature
is compared with the measured outlet one. By this way, each component model can be vali-
dated separately to find any defect in it.

1. Solar radiation model

Similarly, the model of solar radiation that estimates the beam radiation (that is not avail-
able in general) is validated. The measured global, Igh (total) radiation on horizontal is used as
an input, and the output is the beam radiation. The beam radiation (Ibs) is estimated for some
hours in August as shown in Fig. 4. It is compared with both global and beam radiation (Ibm),
which are measured at the corresponding time. As shown in the figure, the simulated data can
be accepted and compared with the measured ones. The difference between them on instantane-
ous basis is low.

2. Solar collector model

The most important component of the solar system is the collector that is considered as a
heat source of the system. The area of the collector array is considered as that of the plant with
the same collectors’ arrangement, 36 collectors in series in four loops. The technical specifica-
tions of the collectors are about 0.7, FRsa and 5, FRUL, where the concentration ratio is about
15. The volume flow rate is considered as in the installed plant that equals 17.2 m3=h. The out-
let temperature of the collector (Tco) is estimated based on the measured inlet temperature as
an input to the mathematical model. Moreover, the measured beam and ambient temperature
are used as inputs to the model to study the collector model alone. Figure 5 represents the com-
parison between the simulated (Tcosm) and measured (Tcom) outlet temperatures of the collec-
tors. It looks very fine. Small difference appears when the solar radiation is not enough (after
sunset). The simulated outlet temperature is relatively going to equal the ambient temperature
as indicated in Eq. (7), where it is different in the real time.

3. Model of flash tank and flash valve

In that model, the estimated outlet temperature of the tank to the collector (Tcis) and the
tank temperature (Ttanks) itself are calculated. Similar to Secs. II A 1 and II A 2, the inlet

FIG. 4. Measured and estimated data of global and beam solar radiation for August (elapsed time from August 21).
043102-10 Adel M. Abdel-Dayem J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

FIG. 5. Measured and estimated data of collector outlet temperatures for August (elapsed time from August 21).

temperature of the hot water is the measured one. Accordingly, both temperatures are estimated
from the Eqs. (8)–(15). The simulated temperature for both locations is compared with the
measured temperatures as shown in Figs. 6 and 7. The simulated inlet temperature is relatively
similar to the measured one except during the sunset, where the estimated temperature is
dropped to the tank temperature as assumed in the simulation. Similarly, the estimated tank
temperature relatively equals to the ambient temperature during night, where there is no flow of
water to the tank as can be obtained from Eqs. (8) and (9).

B. Validation of the mathematical model

After validating each mathematical model components, it is imperative to validate the per-
formance of the mathematical model at all. Therefore, the same measured global solar radiation
and ambient temperature are only considered for both simulated and measured data. The other
variables of outlet and inlet temperatures of the collector, tank temperature, and beam radiation
are completely estimated. That means the measured and estimated data are compared under the
same conditions of weather and system technical specifications and geometry.
The available measured data of three months of January, April, and May are considered.
These months are the months of winter and spring. In addition, in the last section, the system is
validated for the data of August as a summer month. Therefore, the numerical simulation is
validated for different weather conditions of the year.
As shown in Figures 8–10, a comparison between the measured and estimated data is
developed for the collector inlet and outlet temperatures and the tank temperature. Figure 8
shows the time variation of the outlet temperature of the collectors array. Actually, the esti-
mated temperatures are similar to that in Fig. 5. The difference between the estimated and
measured data is relatively in the range of that in Fig. 5. That can be said for January, April,
and May. A big difference is obtained only during night due to the reasons presented before. In
April, partially cloudy days are chosen to demonstrate the validation under those conditions. It
presents a good agreement between the simulated and measured temperatures.
In Fig. 9, a comparison between the estimated and measured temperatures of the collector
inlet is shown. The comparison has a good agreement along the day. Just after the solar radia-
tion is lowered, the estimated temperature is suddenly reduced. This is a direct result of
043102-11 Solar process heat numerical simulation J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

FIG. 6. Measured and estimated data of collector inlet temperatures for August (elapsed time from August 21).

suddenly drop of the flash tank temperature as shown in Fig. 10. As described before, it is due
to a defect of the flash tank model. It is not successful to simulate the time variation of the
tank if there is no mass flow rate to the tanks; without using m_ in Eqs. (8) and (9). This defect
is clearly shown in Fig. 10 after sunset or during the cloudy days in April.

C. Optimization of the system

It can be seen from the last two subsections that the numerical simulation is validated with
acceptable agreement with the installed system. Therefore, the results of the numerical

FIG. 7. Measured and estimated data of flash tank temperatures for August (elapsed time from August 21).
043102-12 Adel M. Abdel-Dayem J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

FIG. 8. Simulated against measured data of collector outlet temperatures for January, April, and May.

simulation are verified and can be confidently used to show the system performance. To opti-
mize the system, the solar collectors’ area must be optimally used. To obtain the optimal area
of the collectors’ array, the system might be economically optimized. However, the optimal col-
lectors’ area is found, the solar system can be optimized. First, the optimal number of collectors
connected in series might be estimated. Therefore, the useful delivery energy (Qdel, Eq. (13)) to
the factory is estimated for different collectors’ arrangements.
As known, increasing the number of collectors connected in series reduces the collector ef-
ficiency itself. On the other hand, that increases the outlet temperature of the collectors. As

FIG. 9. Simulated against measured data of collector inlet temperatures for January, April, and May.
043102-13 Solar process heat numerical simulation J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

FIG. 10. Simulated against measured data of tank temperatures for January, April, and May.

shown in Fig. 11, the same number of collectors with the same collectors-array area is used.
The energy delivered from the solar system is obtained for different arrangements of collectors
by changing the number of collectors in series. It begins from three collectors to 144 collectors
in series. As shown in the figure, Qdel is gradually lowered with increasing the collectors in se-
ries. That can be expected because the system output is basically dependent on the collector ef-
ficiency. As simply obtained from the figure, three collectors connected in series can be taken
with higher system output of steam energy.

FIG. 11. Useful energy gain from the solar system for different arrangements.
043102-14 Adel M. Abdel-Dayem J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

In the second step, the optimal collectors’ area is obtained on the economic basis. The area
that can have the highest life-cycle savings, LCS (system payback) during 20 years system life
time is considered as the optimal of collectors’ area. The life-cycle savings are estimated for
different areas of the collectors. Three collectors connected in series are considered for all areas
used. That means the minimum area used is the area of three collectors, 41.4 m2.
It is shown in Fig. 12 that LCS is improved with the collectors’ area till about 538 m2
where they start to reduce. While they are reduced at about 600 m2, they remain relatively con-
stant after that. From the figure, it can be said that the area of 538 m2 is the optimal collectors’
area that has three collectors in series and 13 loops in parallel. On the other hand, the life cycle
savings are high for the solar system where it reaches about nine millions of US$ during the
lifetime of the system. Those higher values agree with the conclusion of Kalogirou11 who
described that the parabolic trough collectors has the highest life-cycle savings at higher
temperatures.
The figure shows also the solar fraction (S.F.) of the solar system. It is defined as follows

Qdel
S:F: ¼ : (20)
totalload

The solar fraction variation is similar to the life-cycle savings as expected. It is increased by
increasing the collectors’ area due to increasing the input incident solar radiation to the collectors.
After 538 m2, the energy delivered Qdel is maximized and thereafter it remains constant.

D. Annual performance of the solar process heat

The system efficiency and solar fraction are developed annually to demonstrate the annual
performance of the system under actual measured weather conditions. The system efficiency
can be defined as follows

Q_ del
Efficiency ¼ : (21)
Ibs  Aa

FIG. 12 Optimization of the solar collectors’ area.

043102-15 Solar process heat numerical simulation J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

FIG. 13. Annual hourly variation of the system efficiency and system solar fraction.

Figure 13 shows the hourly variation of the system efficiency and system solar fraction. The
system efficiency is varied from 0% during the nights and cloudy days to 100% at very clear
sunny days. It can be accepted theoretically under the ideal conditions where all feeding hot
water is evaporated completely but actually is impossible. As expected, the summer months
have the highest system efficiency during long sunny days. Moreover, the solar fraction varia-
tion is indicated in the figure. It is varied between 0% and 10%. So the system can cover about
10% of 20 ton=h of steam to the factory. That equals about 2 ton=h of saturated steam. That
value is slightly more than that was proposed value of the system that equals 1.3 ton=h. That
value verified the value obtained in Fig. 12.

V. CONCLUSION
A numerical simulation of the largest solar process plant was developed. The plant consists
of a parabolic trough array that can heat pressurized water which is evaporated in a flash tank
producing steam to a factory. A mathematical model of each plant component is well validated
with the corresponding measurements under the same weather conditions. Moreover, the numer-
ical simulation was validated with accepted agreement with the corresponding measured data
for different conditions of weather along a year. The solar system was optimized based on the
life-cycle savings of the system. Both management and geometry of the system are optimized.
The annual variation of the solar plant performance was obtained with good efficiency. It is
found that the optimized solar plant can cover about 10% of the required steam of the factory
where it was installed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Author would thank the teamwork of solar energy section in the NREA (New and Renewable
Energy Authority, Cairo) who helped him for the measurements and gives him detailed information
about the plant.

Nomenclature
A ¼ Surface area of the flash tank, m2
Aa ¼ Collector aperture area, m2
Ar ¼ Receiver surface area, m2
CP ¼ Specific heat of the collector fluid, kJ=kg.C
FRsa ¼ Intercept of collector efficiency vs. (Ti  Ta)=IT
043102-16 Adel M. Abdel-Dayem J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 043102 (2011)

FRUL ¼ Negative of the first-order coefficient of collector efficiency vs. (Ti  Ta)=IT
 L
FU ¼ First and second-order coefficients of collector efficiency vs. (Ti  Ta)=IT
Gtest ¼ Collector test mass flow rate per unit area, kg=m2 s
hci ¼ Enthalpy of the collector inlet, J=kg
hco ¼ Enthalpy of the collector outlet, J=kg
hg ¼ Saturated steam enthalpy of the fluid in the tank, J=kg
hl ¼ Saturated liquid enthalpy of the fluid in the tank, J=kg
hmakeup ¼ Enthalpy of return fluid to the solar system, J=kg
IAM ¼ Incidence angle modifier
Ib ¼ Beam radiation, W=m2
Idh ¼ Horizontal diffuse radiation, W=m2
Igh ¼ Horizontal total radiation, W=m2
kT ¼ Sky clear index
LCS ¼ Life-cycle savings, $
M ¼ Fluid mass inside the flash tank,  C
m_ ¼ Mass flow rate of the collectors, kg=s
Np ¼ Number of collectors in parallel
Ns ¼ Number of collectors in series

Symbols
a ¼ Solar altitude angle, degrees
Dt ¼ Time step, s
Q_ del ¼ Delivered energy rate from the flash tank, W
Q_ inc ¼ Increased energy rate quantity to the flash tank between the time steps, W
Q_ loss ¼ Heat loss from the flash tank, W
Qu ¼ Useful energy rate of the collector array, W
R1 and R2 ¼ Correction factors, see Eqs. (3) and (4)
Rtest ¼ Correction factor due to using mass flow rate rather than the test one
S.F. ¼ Solar fraction
t ¼ Running time, s
Ta ¼ Ambient temperature,  C
Tci ¼ Collector inlet temperature,  C
Tco ¼ Collector outlet temperature,  C
Ttank ¼ Flash tank average temperature,  C
T0 ¼ Initial temperature of the flash tank at the time step,  C
Tt ¼ Tank temperature at time t,  C
t-Dt
T ¼ Tank temperature at time t  Dt,  C
U ¼ Overall heat loss of the tank, W=m2 K
x ¼ Steam quality

Subscripts
m ¼ Measured
n ¼ Normal
s ¼ Simulated
sm ¼ Simulated for inlet measured
hz ¼ Incidence angle, degrees

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