Performance analysis and economic consideration of solar ethanol distillation with different types of solar collectors

Abstract

SYNOPSIS: Continuous solar ethanol distillation systems having flat-plate collectors, evacuated tube collectors and heat pipe collectors were constructed to study their performances and economic viability. The mathematical modelling of each main component was carried out and the system simulation developed. The simulated outputs express a reasonable agreement with the experimental results within 14% accuracy (average error 5.2%). From the simulation, starting with 10% alcohol concentration, the production cost of 80% alcohol concentration is evaluated. For systems with yield 16,500 litre/year, the use of solar distillation systems appears to be economical compared to conventional fuel oil distillation for which the production cost is 0.17 US$/litre. The minimum alcohol production costs from the flat plate collector system, the evacuated tube collector system and the heat pipe collector system are 0.17 US$/litre, 0.14 US$/litre and 0.15 US$/litre, respectively. © 2006 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.