Hybrid photovoltaic thermal systems : Present and future feasibilities for industrial and building applications

The growing demands of modern life, industrialization, and technological progress have significantly increased energy requirements. However, this heightened need for energy has raised concerns about its impact on the environment and the rising costs associated with it. Therefore, the engineering sector is actively seeking sustainable and cost-effective energy solutions. Among the promising innovations in solving the problem is the photovoltaic thermal system (PVT), which aims to capture electrical and thermal energy from solar radiation. Despite its potential, the application of PVT systems is currently limited due to the unpredictable nature of solar energy and the absence of efficient thermal energy storage capabilities. To address these challenges, researchers have explored the use of phase change materials and nano-improved phase change materials (NEPCMs) to optimize energy extraction from solar systems. By incorporating these materials, the PVT system can maximize energy utilization. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the potential applications of PVT techniques in both industrial and building settings. It also offers a detailed assessment of their commercial and environmental aspects. The research findings highlight several advantages of PVT systems, including reduced electricity consumption, efficient utilization of cooling and heating loads during off-peak periods, improved temperature stability, and enhanced thermal comfort. Furthermore, the integration of NEPCMs in PVT systems has demonstrated superior thermal performance, enabling 8.3% more heat energy storage during charging and 25.1% more heat energy release during discharging. Additionally, the implementation of solar-assisted combined heating and power systems showed the potential to prevent the emission of 911 tons of CO2 per year compared to conventional PV systems. These systems offer a promising pathway towards mitigating environmental impacts while meeting energy demands. Overall, this review article serves as a valuable resource for fellow researchers by providing detailed insights into the viability of PVT systems for various applications in the industrial and building sectors

Advances in fabric-based airbag materials for emerging automobile applications andtheir promising future

This paper presents the fabric-based airbag materials' future development and prospects for automotive applications. Safety measures like airbags are vital for both occupants and the vehicle itself. For a long time, airbags in vehicles were made of conventional materials. The airbag is merely a piece of clothing but a functional interface for the latest technological advancements. The integration of more innovative materials is currently limited, despite the rapid progress in this field. Different textile-based airbags are being introduced in multiple arbitrary positions of a vehicle to mitigate injuries in car accidents. Apart from saving lives, the global airbag market is also expanding at a staggering speed, and the forecasted value is worth USD 48.10 Billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 7% during the year (2022~ 2030). Airbag fabric is growing lighter from coated to uncoated fabric to fit with the emergence of lightweight materials. And more preferences are given to the materials to be more durable for years and functionally. This paper signifies the choice of airbag manufacturing materials, types of airbags used in automobiles, forthcoming innovations, problems with airbag misplacement in futuristic vehicles. It is speculated that this review will help understand the current challenges and give insight into future progress in advanced airbag utilization

Truncated and Spheroidal Ag Nanoparticles: A Matter of Size Transformation

The ordered arrays of anisotropic mesostructure metal nanoparticle (diameter size in the range of 15 to 200 nm) characteristics are indeed influenced by the combined effect of packing constraints and inter-particle interactions, that is, the two morphological factors that strongly influence the creation of the particles’ shape. In this work, we studied on how the degree of truncation of Ag nanoparticles authorised the mesostructured morphologies and particle orientation preferences within the mesosparticle arrays. The Ag represented the best and most versatile candidate and known for its highest electrical conductivities among other transition metals in periodic table. The interest is motivated by the need to understand the inevitable morphological transformation from mesoscopic to microscopic states evolve within the scope of progressive aggregation of atomic constituents of Ag system. The grazing information obtained from HR-TEM shows that Ag mesosparticles of highly truncated flake are assembled in fcc-type mesostructure, similar to the arrays formed by microscopic quasi-spherical structure, but with significantly reduced packing density and different growth orientations. The detailed information on the size and microstructure transformation have been gathered by fast Fourier transform (FFT) of HR-TEM images, allowing us to figure out the role of Ag defects that anchored the variation in crystallite growth of different mean diameter size particles. The influences on the details of the nanostructures have to be deeply understood to promote practical applications for such outstanding Ag material

Dust cleaning robots (DCR) for BIPV and BAPV solar power plants-A conceptual framework and research challenges

This paper proposes a conceptual framework to design and develop robots for addressing the soiling or the dust cleaning issue on the building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and building applied photovoltaics (BAPV). BIPV and BAPV turn the present and future buildings (high rise or low rise) into power stations with the introduction of photovoltaics either in the façade (90° wall) or roof (flat or pitched) configuration. But one of the significant challenges that influence the energy performance is the dust accumulation. This is a serious issue in the places where air pollution is very high. Addressing this would be very difficult for the human workforce, and the complexity and tediousness would increase depending on the size of the BIPV and BAPV array or the height of the building. Currently, there are few dust cleaning robots which could offer services in addressing the soiling issues in conventional photovoltaic installations. The existing dust cleaning robots (DCR) could not offer a better feasible solution in BIPV and BAPV as they offered in traditional PV systems that were installed in an open area. Hence for addressing dust cleaning issue, some novel conceptual schemas related to robot developments were proposed in this paper considering the installation configuration of PV systems for building applications. Here, DCR’s for three configuration of PV installation with building applications namely BIPV/BAPV façade, BIPV/BAPV horizontal roof, and BIPV/BAPV pitched roof are dealt. The proposed conceptual robots were briefly described with the schematic views highlighting operation, energy consumptions, and slipping issue etc. Scope for the development and various research challenges that are to be considered during the design stage are highlighted along with the discussio

BIPV power plants and policy recommendatons

The radiant light energy from the sun is converted into useful electricity using photovoltaic technology. Harnessing solar energy is simple and easy operation with the installation of PV modules in various configurations (open rack, roof mount, tracking, building integrated, building applied, floating). Among these configurations, BIPV is the most trending and ecologically efficient installation methods. This paper presents a study on the building integrated photovoltaic systems with the electric power system classification. This classification includes on-grid, off-grid, and hybrid BIPV power plants. The studied three classifications were compared in terms of the operation, components, installation configuration etc. General recommendations and various policy options for BIPV are also discussed. This study shows, BIPV power systems discussed in three combinations would contribute to the energy needs of the developed/developing nations by adding pleasing look to the buildings without having negative impacts on the ecology

BIPV market growth: SWOT Analysis and favorable factors

Building integrated photovoltaics is an advanced and newly emerged technology in the photovoltaic industry focusing on the application of power generation as well as the building infrastructure. In recent years PV systems have seen huge market potentials, and these are depended on various factors. Like PV systems, the market growth for BIPV is also influenced by various factors. In this paper, an analysis is carried out on such factors that leads to the BIPV market expansions. Primarily, SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analysis of BIPV is analyzed in general way. Secondly, all the favorable factors were grouped and classified under six categories. These factors include the Energy, Sustainable Built Environment, Architecture & Design, Material & Civil Structure, Economic Gains, and Safety & Security. Finally, these factors were clearly discussed, and conclusions were made which would help in the BIPV growth

Surface Morphology and Thermo-Electrical Energy Analysis of Polyaniline (PANI) Incorporated Cotton Fabric

With the exponential development in wearable electronics, a significant paradigm shift is observed from rigid electronics to flexible wearable devices. Polyaniline (PANI) is considered as a dominant material in this sector, as it is endowed with the optical properties of both metal and semiconductors. However, its widespread application got delineated because of its irregular rigid form, level of conductivity, and precise choice of solvents. Incorporating PANI in textile materials can generate promising functionality for wearable applications. This research work employed a straightforward insitu chemical oxidative polymerization to synthesize PANI on Cotton fabric surfaces with varying dopant (HCl) concentrations. Pre-treatment using NaOH is implemented to improve the conductivity of the fabric surface by increasing the monomer absorption. This research explores the morphological and structural analysis employing SEM, FTIR and EDX. The surface resistivity was measured using a digital multimeter, and thermal stability is measured using TGA. Upon successful polymerization, a homogenous coating layer is observed. It is revealed that the simple pre-treatment technique significantly reduces the surface resistivity of Cotton fabric to 1.27 kΩ/cm with increasing acid concentration and thermal stability. The electro-thermal energy can also reach up to 38.2°C within 50s with a deployed voltage of 15V. The modified fabric is anticipated to be used in thermal regulation, supercapacitor, sensor, UV shielding, antimicrobial and other prospective functional applications

PI/NCC-based tubular carbon membrane: Influence of aging times towards oxygen separation performance

Tubular carbon membrane was prepared from carbonization of P84 co-polyimide (PI) and nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) which had been carbonized under Argon atmosphere at 800°C with a heating rate of 3°C/min. The resultant TCMs were aged for a specified duration (new, three days, one month, and three months) to study the effects of aging times on the oxygen separation properties (permeance and permselectivity) of TCMs. The investigation finding reveals that the aging times could be a factor that affects the transport properties of the fabricated membrane. The pores of the fabricated TCMs samples tend to shrink over time to reach a stable thermodynamic state. The results also showed that newly fabricated TCMs (no aging) possess the highest gas permeance and permselectivities over the aged TCM samples. The highest selectivity was achieved at 9.29±2.5

Experimental investigation and prediction model for mechanical properties of copper-reinforced polylactic acid composites (Cu-PLA) using FDM-based 3D printing technique

Processing complex parts with high dimension accuracy and cost-effectiveness can be achievable using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique. It is one of the highly efficient methods in the additive manufacturing process. However, limitation in working temperature is the main drawback associated with the FDM technique, which has caused the applicability of low melting temperature materials in this technology, such as PLA. Lack of mechanical strength and critical parameters such as thermal/electrical conductivity in the final printed products through the FDM technique is another deficiency in this manufacturing process. The problems mentioned above have gained researchers’ attention to explore new composite materials as filament for FDM technology. In this research work, copper-reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) specimens are printed with copper composition variation (25 and 80 wt.%) and various infill patterns including rectilinear, grid, concentric, octagram-spiral, and honeycomb to investigate its mechanical properties. The geometry of test specimens was fabricated according to ASTM standard using a low-cost FDM printer. The mechanical properties consist of tensile properties, flexural properties, and compression properties. The highest ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is obtained by applying 25 wt.% copper composition and concentric infill pattern recording 25.20 MPa. In contrast, the flexural strength revealed the maximum value of 38.53 MPa. The highest compressive strength is obtained by grid infill pattern with 25.94 MPa for 25 wt.% Cu compositions. Response surface methodology (RSM) has been executed to evaluate the influencing parameters, and mathematical models to predict the mechanical properties have been proposed to estimate the properties

Immense impact from small particles: Review on stability and thermophysical properties of nanofluids

Nanofluid is a conventional fluid, blended with single or more nano additives with a dimension of less than 100 nm. Early studies revealed that dispersing a small amount of nano additives to base fluids can enhance the effective heat transfer properties of nanofluids by up to 250% relative to the base fluid. However, from a number of studies on nanofluid published, inconsistent thermophysical properties of formulated nanofluids reported due to many factors such as preparation approach, types of base fluids and morphology of nano additives. Selection of accurate parameters during nanofluids formulation can resolve this issue. The discussion on experimental studies by different authors include the stability evaluation of nanofluids and thermophysical measurement including its density, rheological and thermal conductivity studies can provide a guideline to the researchers towards the future development of nanofluids system with optimum thermophysical properties. This review article provided critical comments on biodegradable vegetable oil base fluid as one of the alternatives to non-renewable mineral oil as well it presents an overview of the remarkable research progress on conducting polymers base nanofluids witnessed in recent years. The outcome of this review paper would give an overview of further enhancements in nanofluid systems for industrial