Abstract

Thermal Performance of Solid and Liquid Energy Storage Materials in a Parabolic Dish Solar Cooker

Author(s): Ramalingam Senthil and Marimuthu Cheralathan

The thermal energy storage is essential for late evening cooking due to intermittent nature of solar energy. A solar cooker was fabricated with sensible heat storage (SHS) materials in the periphery of the cooker and the materials selected are liquid and solid materials. The SHS materials were pebbles, sand and iron grits, steel balls, sunflower oil, olive oil and coconut oil. The SHS materials are useful for cooking at off-sunshine periods. The enhanced thermal performance of cooking pot was observed with around 300 kJ and 900 kJ for the selected solid and liquid SHS materials respectively.