Thermal and Electrical Analysis of N-PVT-FPC Hybrid Active Heating of Biogas Plant

Abstract

Abstract In order to increase biogas production during winter months/cold climatic conditions, a self-sustained N-photovoltaic thermal and flat plate collector (PVT-FPC) hybrid active heating biogas plant has been analyzed in terms of thermal energy and electrical energy. A general analytical expression for thermal and electrical energy of the biogas plant has been derived as a function of climatic and design parameters from one order coupled differential equations. Various photovoltaic thermal and flat plate collector (N-PVT-FPC) configurations have been considered for optimizing maximum electrical and thermal energy gain for a given total number of N-PVT-FPC collectors. Based on mathematical computation for Indian cold climatic conditions, it has been found that the N-PVT-FPC combination is always better than the flat plate collector-photovoltaic thermal (N-FPC-PVT) collector for maximum electrical and thermal energy. Overall exergy analysis of hybrid active heating of biogas plants has also been carried out.