Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 63 (2016) 226236

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

The use of nanouids for enhancing the thermal performance

of stationary solar collectors: A review
Mahmud Jamil Muhammad a, Isa Adamu Muhammad a, Nor Azwadi Che Sidik a,n,
Muhammad Noor Aq Witri Muhammad Yazid a, Rizalman Mamat b, G. Naja c
a

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Skudai, Johor 81310, Malaysia
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia
c
Tarbiat Modares Universitty, Tehran, Iran
b

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 15 January 2016
Received in revised form
5 May 2016
Accepted 17 May 2016

Nanouid, an advanced type of uid containing small quantity of nanoparticles (usually less than
100 nm), has been proven to provide more efcient heat transfer compared to conventional uids. The
dispersion of a small amount of solid nanoparticles in conventional uids such as water or ethylene
glycol changes their thermal conductivity remarkably. Recently, nanouid has been used as a heat
transfer uid to enhance the performance of solar collector devices. This paper reviews recent progress
and applications of nanouids in stationary solar collectors. In addition to reviewing the efciency of
solar collectors which use nanouids, the paper also discusses the impact of nanouid usage in solar
collector based on economic and environmental viewpoints. Finally, the challenges and future trends
related to the application of nanouids in thermal solar collector is discussed.
& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Nanouid
Solar collector
Thermal conductivity
Heat transfer enhancement

Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Types of solar collectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. Performance enhancement of at-plate solar collector (FPSC) using nanouids . . . . . . .
4. Performance enhancement of evacuated solar collector (ETSC) using nanouids . . . . . .
5. Performance enhancement of direct absorption solar collector (DASC) using nanouids
6. Conclusion, current challenges and future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1. Introduction
The current power generation method from fossil fuels such as oil
or coal is damaging our environment. For example, nuclear power
stations to generate electricity are an unacceptable risk in most
locations [1]. Therefore, we need to diversify from this nonrenewable energy sources and look for alternatives. Many developing countries cannot fully rely on these conventional methods as they
are aware of the damaging effect of CO2 emission and try to search
for other types of green and renewable energy sources. The need for

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: azwadi@mail.fkm.utm.my (N.A.C. Sidik).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.05.063
1364-0321/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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226
227
228
231
232
233
233

a green and environmentally friendly power generation method is

thus obvious and will be further expanded in near future.
One of the most promising renewable energy sources available
is solar energy since it is freely available, abundant and has
minimum ecological impact. It is estimated that one hour of solar
energy received by the earth is equal to the total amount of energy
consumed by human in one year [2]. Similar to plants, they use
chlorophyll to photosynthesize the sun's irradiation in order to
provide energy for their growth. Only 14.4 percent of sunshine
survives ltering from the earth's atmosphere and falls on the land
where it can be harvested. This is, however, 2800 times more than
our energy needs [2].
A lot of research work have been reported in the literature on
harvesting energy from solar. In addition, many countries have

M.J. Muhammad et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 63 (2016) 226236

227

Table 1
Reviews on solarthermal conversion.
Authors

System

Soteris [33]
Shukla et al. [36]
Ogueke et al. [37]
Jaisankar et al. [38]
Barlev et al. [39]
Kumar and Rosen [40]
Ibrahim et al. [41]
Hossain et al. [42]
Chamoli et al. [43]
Tyagi et al. [44]
Shukla et al. [45]
Ho and Iverson [46]

Solar thermal collector

Solar water heaters
Solar water heating system
Solar water heaters
Concentrated collectors
Photovoltaicthermal collectors
Photovoltaicthermal collectors
Solar water heaters
Double-pass solar water heaters
Solar air heating system
Solar water heating system
Solar concentrating system

Fig. 1. Schematic of photovoltaic (PV) power system.

made extensive research on solar energy utilization [315]. Generally, there are two ways of harvesting solar energy depending on
needs; (i) solarelectric conversion (converting solar energy into
electrical energy using a photovoltaic solar cell or concentrated
solar power) and (ii) solarthermal conversion (converting solar
energy into thermal energy using a solar collector) [16]. Since the
rst work on solar cell by Charles Fritts in the 1880 s [17] with an
efciency of only 4.56%, many efforts have been done to tap this
priceless resource of energy [1820].
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of a photovoltaic (PV) power system.
A photovoltaic system produces direct current (DC) power which
uctuates with sunlight's intensity. For practical use, this usually
requires conversion to certain desired voltages or alternating
current (AC) through the use of inverters [21].
Extensive research on PV system has been done by many
researchers [2225]. Blankenship et al. [26] gave an excellent review
on the current challenge and future trends on the subject. Michael
[27] made a breakthrough research by introducing dye-sensitized
nanocrystalline electrochemical photovoltaic system to replace solidstate junction devices to convert solar energy into electricity. Bernard
and Jean-Luc [28] reviewed the application of low cost, highly exible form factors, and light weight organic photovoltaic to convert
sun light into electricity by employing thin organic semiconductor
lms. Garg and Adhikari [2931] dedicated their research on the
performance analysis of hybrid photovoltaic/thermal air heating
collector. Sopian et al. [32] developed a double pass photovoltaic
thermal solar collector for solar drying applications.
On the other hand, research on solarthermal systems has
attracted many investigators from all around the globe. Soteris
[33] provided an extensive review on the historical development
and current progress of solar collectors. Mills [34], in his review
article, discussed the current technologies that are being applied
to develop single and two-axis tracking solar collectors, several
types of low temperature technologies such as evacuated tube
collector, organic Rankine cycle turbine and solar updraft power
plants. Several other important reviews relating to solarthermal
conversion are listed in Table 1 (adapted from Table 1 [35]).
A major shortcoming of solar collectors, however, is their low
thermal conversion efciency. Traditional working uids (water or
oil based uids) have low heat absorption and heat transfer
capacity. Cheng et al. [47] also urged the need to improve the
thermophysical properties of working uids used in solar energy
for medium and high temperatures.
Nanouid, an advanced type of uid containing small quantity
of nanoparticles (usually less than 100 nm), was introduced by
Choi [48] and has been proven to provide efcient heat transfer
compared to conventional uids. The dispersion of a small amount
of solid nanoparticles in conventional uids such as water or
ethylene glycol changes their thermal conductivity remarkably

[49,50]. Thermal conductivity of nanouids has been measured by

several authors with different nanoparticle volume fractions,
materials and dimensions in several base uids. Most of the
ndings showed that thermal conductivity of nanouid is higher
than base uids. Among them, Lee et al. [51] demonstrated that
oxide ceramic nanouids consisting of CuO or Al2O3 nanoparticles
in water or ethyleneglycol exhibited enhanced thermal conductivity. For example, using Al2O3 nanoparticles with a mean
diameter of 13 nm at 4.3% volume fraction increased the thermal
conductivity of water under stationary condition by 30% [52]. On
the other hand, larger particles with an average diameter of 40 nm
led to an increase of less than 10% [52]. Vajjha et al. [53] investigated the thermal conductivity enhancement of three different
nanouids, CuO, ZnO2 and Al2O3 nanouids. Thermal conductivity
increased with increasing temperature and volume concentration.
A model was proposed by Murshed et al. [54] to predict theoretical
thermal conductivity under dynamic and static processes taking
into account the effect of Brownian motion, particle size, nanolayer and particle surface. They concluded that thermal conductivity was due to both static and dynamic mechanisms. In a
different study, Hong et al. [55] reported a nonlinear model
resulted in thermal conductivity enhancement of 18% at volume
fraction of 0.05 vol% using Feethylene glycol nanouid. Eastman
et al. [56] compared the thermal conductivity of Cuethylene
glycol nanouid and that of pure ethylene glycol. The result indicated 40% increase in thermal conductivity of Cuethylene nanouid at a volume fraction of 0.3 vol%. Liu et al. [57] recorded 23.8%
thermal conductivity enhancement of Cu water nanouid using
the chemical reduction method. The enhancement of thermal
conductivity as reported by various researchers is presented in
Table 2 (adapted from Table 1 [58]).
Based on the brief review above, many researchers admitted the
enhancement of thermo properties of nanouids compared to base
uid. In this paper, further review is conducted to understand the
contribution of nanouids in a solar thermal conversion system.

2. Types of solar collectors

Solar energy collectors are mediums, generally designed to
collect and absorb solar radiation. The absorbed solar radiation is
converted into heat by these collector devices which is eventually
transferred to the working uid of a system, usually water or air.
Basically, there are two types of solar collectors: stationary and sun
tracking or concentrating solar collector [33]. In this paper, the
discussion will only focus on stationary solar collector.
Stationary solar collectors are characterized by having the same
area for intercepting and absorbing solar radiation. However, they
are installed at particular tilt and orientation angles to maximize
the harnessing of solar radiation, as shown in Fig. 2. Depending on

228

M.J. Muhammad et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 63 (2016) 226236

Table 2
Thermal conductivity of nanouids.
Researcher

Nanoparticles

Based uid

Particle size

Volume fraction (%)

Enhancement of thermal conductivity (%)

Lee et al. [59]

Chandrasekar [60]
Masuda [61]
Das et al. [62]
Li and Peterson [63]
Minsta et al. [64]
Chon et al. [65]
Wang et al. [66]
Vajjha and Das [67]
Xie et al. [68]
Beck et al. [69]
Beck et al. [69]
Choi et al. [70]
Choi et al. [70]
Paul et al. [71]
Paul et al. [71]
Eastman et al. [72]
Wang et al. [66]

Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
Al2O3
AIN
Al2Cu
Al2Al
Cu
Cu

Water
Water
Water
Water
Water
Water
Water
Water/EG
Water/EG
Water/EG
Water/EG
EG
Transformer oil
Transformer oil
Water/EG
Water/EG
EG
EG

30
43
13
38.4
36
9
11150
28
53
60.4
8282
12282
6501000
50
31/68/101
33/80/120
o 10
23

1.44
9.7
32.4
24
29
29
47
41
35
23/29
20
19
20
8
96/76/61
106/93/75
41
34/54

Yu et al. [73]
Liu et al. [74]
Liu et al. [74]
Minsta et al. [64]
Zhang et al. [75]
Sharma et al. [76]
Godson et al. [77]
Ding et al. [78]
Karami et al. [79]
Natrajan et al. [80]
Hwang et al. [81]
Murshed et al. [82]
Hong et al. [83]
Jahanshashi et al. [84]
Paul et al. [85]
Habibzadeh et al. [86]

Cu
Cu
Cu
CuO
CuO
Ag
Ag
MWCNT
MWCNT
MWCNT
MWCNT
TiO2
Fe
SiO2
ZrO2
SnO2

EG
Water
Water
Water
Water
EG
Water
Water
Water
Water
Water
Water
EG
EG
Water
Water

510
100200
50100
29
100
100500
o 100
40 (diameter)
10 (diameter) 510 m length
270
1030 (dia)  (1050) mm
15
10
12
20
4.35.3

0.0103
0.333
1.343
14
210
210
14
38
110
5.00
1.864
23.01
0.54
0.5
12
12
0.010.05
4.59.7
6.214.8
0.30.5
0.05
0.1
016
7.5
0.11.0
0.30.9
0.050.49
0.015
1
1
0.55
0.10.55
14
02.2
0.0120.024

46 at 50 C
12
24
24
52
18
30 at 50 C
79
32
41
7
30
18
23
60
7

Fig. 2. Orientation angle for harnessing solar energy.

the applications, the optimum tilt angle of a collector is equal to

the latitude of the location with angle variations between 10 15
degrees. Flat plate solar collector (FPSC), direct absorption solar
collector (DASC) and evacuated tube solar collector (ETSC) are the
most common and widely use stationary solar collectors.

3. Performance enhancement of at-plate solar collector

(FPSC) using nanouids
Flat-plate solar collectors have been in service for the last 30
years, without signicant changes in their design and operating
principles. In addition, at plate solar collectors are the most productive solar heaters, but have relatively low thermal efciency and
outlet temperatures. However, since their installation/production is

Fig. 3. Flat-plate solar collector.

less complicated and their suitability to collect low temperature solar

thermal energy, this type of solar collector remains one of the chosen
systems for homes and industrials applications. Flat-plate collectors
were rst developed by Hottel and Whillier in the 1950s [87]. Since
then, various techniques have been proposed to enhance their efciency and thermal performance.
A system of at plate solar collector, as shown in Fig. 3, consists
of glass, absorber, insulation, back sheet, riser and header pipes
and aluminum rails. Toughened and transparent glass is used to
protect the absorber from the outside environment, while allowing more than 90% of sunlight to pass through. The absorber is

M.J. Muhammad et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 63 (2016) 226236

usually made of aluminum, coated with a highly selective material

that is extremely efcient at absorbing sunlight and converting it
into usable heat. The aluminum sheet is ultrasonically welded to
the copper riser pipe to easily transfer heat to the working uid.
The header and riser pipes are brazed together to form a harp
shaped heat exchanger which the solar system heat transfer uid
circulates through [88].
Beginning 2012, enhancing heat transfer performance of at-plate
solar collector has been the subject of study by many researchers.
Youse and his co-workers [8991] provided extensive experimental
investigations on the subject. From the effect of nanoparticle types to
the thermophysical properties of nanouids were studied in their
research works shed new hope in understanding this type of solar
collector. Youse et al. [89] investigated the effect of pH variation of
MWCNT/water nanouid on the efciency of a atplate solar collector which used Triton X-100 as an additive. The pH of the nanouid was adjusted to several pH values using HCL and NaOH. Their
ndings indicated that as the nanouid increased in acidity, the
efciency of the at plate solar collector became higher. In another
study, Youse et al. [90] measured the efciency of the same collector
by varying the owrate of MWCNT/water nanouid from 0.0167 to
0.05 kg/s and weight fraction from 0.2% to 0.4%. The results showed
that the use of surfactant increased the efciency of the solar collector for 0.2 wt% MWCNT nanouid. However, for 0.4 wt% MWCNT
nanouid without surfactant, an increase for the efciency was
observed.
Many researchers used Triton X-100 as a surfactant to minimize
aggregation and improve the dispersion behavior of nanoparticles
in nanouid [9294]. The efciency of the collectors in the presence of this surfactant in Al2O3/water nanouid has been the
subject of study by Youse and his group [91]. Youse et al. [91]
found that using 0.2 wt% Al2O3 nanouid increased the efciency
of the solar collector in comparison with water as the working
uid by 28.3%. By using the surfactant, the maximum efciency
enhancement was 15.63%.
Ali et al. [95] investigated the thermal enhancement of a solar
collector using CuO/water nanouid as an absorbing medium. The
volume fraction was set to 0.4% with particles dimension of 40 nm.
The results demonstrated that using CuO/water nanouid
increased solar efciency by 16.7% in comparison to that of water.
Sarawut and Tanongkiat [96] used silver nanouid as a working
uid and observed an improvement in the thermal performance of
the solar collector compared to water, especially at high inlet
temperature. Said and his coworkers [97] investigated both the
thermophysical properties of SWCNT/water nanouid and thermal
efciency of a at plate solar collector for the rst time. They
reported that the maximum energy efciency was enhanced up to
95.12%. However, the exergy efciency was still low, at 26.25%.
Despite the low thermal conductivity of SiO2 nanoparticle
compared to other nanoparticles, Faizal et al. [98] and Saleh et al.
[99] reconsidered SiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in base uid as an
absorbing medium to enhance the performance of a at plate solar
collector. Faizal et al. [98] performed an experimental study on the
solar collector performance using SiO2/water nanouid. They
reported that the efciency of the solar collector increased by
23.5% using 0.2% volume fraction of SiO2 nanoparticles. Their
analysis also indicated a reduction in energy consumption of
around 280 MJ compared to that of water based collector. This also
contributed to around 170 kg less CO2 emission compared to a
conventional solar collector. Saleh and his co-workers [99] reported experimental results for a at plate solar collector with SiO2/
EG-water nanouid as the working uid with volume fraction up
to 1%. The mass ow rates were set between 0.018 and 0.045 kg/s.
Their ndings showed that when the heat loss parameters were
limited to zero, an increase in nanouid concentration from 0% to
1% resulted in an efciency enhancement between 4 and 8%. This

229

led to their recommendation to consider low nanouid volume

fraction to reduce preparation cost and instability problems.
He et al. [88] considered a two-step method to prepare Cu/
water nanouid for the application of at-plate solar collector.
While they observed that nanouid thermal conductivity was
enhanced, the efciency of solar collector was also enhanced by
23.83% when using Cu nanoparticles of 25 nm and 0.1 wt%. They
also found that the efciency of solar collector decreases with
increasing nanoparticle size.
The use of TiO2/water nanouid as an absorbing medium to
enhance the efciency of solar collector has been studied by Hossein
et al. [100]. In their research, a small at plate solar collector was
fabricated and tested to study the effect of different nanoparticle
concentrations and nanouid mass ow rates. They found that by
adding nanoparticles to water, the collector efciency increased
between 2.6% and 7% relative to base uid. However, at the highest
ow rate (108 l/m2 h), the performance of the collector deteriorated
when compared to 36 and 72 lit/m2hr. Since sedimentation is the
main problem in nanouid, Said et al. [101] added polyethylene
Glycol (PEG 400) dispersant to enhance the thermalphysical properties and stability of TiO2/water nanouid. Interestingly, they
reported that the friction factors and required pumping power of
nanouid were very similar to water. In addition, the highest exergy
efciency achieved was 16.9% for 0.1 vol% and 0.5 kg/min ow rate.
In an earlier study, Sarawut and Tanongkiat [96] conducted
experimental research on the performance of a at plate solar
collector which used silver nano-uid as the working uid. In their
study, water was mixed with 20 nm silver nanoparticles at concentrations of 1000 and 10,000 ppm, while the inlet temperature
was controlled in the range of 3565 C. Their results indicated
that the 1000 ppm concentration showed insignicant results
compared with water. However, when the concentration of
nanouid increased, more heat from solar collector was obtained
and the difference between inlet and outlet temperatures of
working uid from the collector increased. In addition, they found
that the performance of the collector could be improved using
silver nanouid especially at high inlet temperature.
In a recent study, Kabeel and his co-workers [102] conducted
laboratory experiments on solar water heater consisting of at
plate solar collector and helical coil heat exchanger using Al2O3
nanoparticles dispersed in water as an absorbing medium. The
maximum improvement of solar collector efciency, outlet water
temperature, and helical heat exchanger effectiveness were found
to be 11%, 5.46% and 98% when the volume concentrations were at
3%, 2% and 1% respectively.
Heat pipe, a heat transfer device which evaporates the working
uid in the heating zone and condenses the vapor in the cooling
zone, has been proven to have the ability to transfer large quantity
of heat over considerable distance [103]. Usually, the heat pipe
works under gravity with the condensing region above the evaporating region, and the ow occurs because of gravitational force.
The experimental results showed that the total thermal resistance
of the heat pipe reduced a lot due to the addition of nanoparticles
under the same cooling condition. The mechanism of the heat
transfer enhancement was explained as follows: a major thermal
resistance of heat pipe was caused by the formation of vapor
bubbles at the liquidsolid interface; the suspended nanoparticles
tended to bombard the vapor bubbles during the bubble formation; therefore, it was expected that the nucleation size of vapor
bubbles was much smaller for the uid with suspended nanoparticles. All experiments show that adding nanoparticles to the
base liquid can enhance both heat transfer performance and
maximum input power of heat pipes [104113]. However, the
performance of at-plate solar collector using heat pipe was rarely
analysed by researchers all over the world. Choungule et al. [114]
designed and fabricated a heat pipe solar collector to measure the

230

M.J. Muhammad et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 63 (2016) 226236

thermal performance of wickless collector at various range of CNT

nanouids concentrations and tilt angles. They revealed that the
maximum efciency was 73% at 63% CNT concentration and 50
degree tilt angle. Increasing the concentration and tilt angle would
deteriorate the performance of the collector. In another study by
the same group [115], they compared the thermal performance of
three different wickless heat pipe at plate solar collectors using
pure water, watersurfactant and CNTwater nanouid for different coolant mass ow rates and tilt angles. Surprisingly, they
concluded that the performance of the solar collector which used
2-ethyl-hexanol surfactant with water as coolant was better
compared to solar collectors which utilized pure water and CNT/
water nanouid.
Although nanouids can improve solar collector efciency, the
solid phase sedimentation has been observed by several
researchers. To avoid sedimentation problem, Michael and Iniyan
[116] only considered 0.05% volume fraction of CuO/water nanouid in a at plate solar water heater system under natural and
forced circulations. The thermal performance was improved by
6.3%. In another innovative research, Gianpiero et al. [117] modied the geometry of the bottom and top headers of the at plat
solar collector to maintain the velocity inside the system. Then
Al2O3/water nanouid with 1, 2, and 3 vol% were prepared as
absorbing media in a transparent tube for optical observations.
With the new solar collector design, the convective heat transfer
coefcient can be achieved up to 25% with 3 vol% of nanouid.
Two years later, Gainpiero et al. [118] extended the previous
research by inserting a wedge shape element in both the top and
bottom headers of the solar collector. Their experimental results
showed that by using nanouid, an increase in thermal efciency
of up to 11.7% could been obtained.
Recent advanced developments in computer and computational
schemes have attracted interest from many researchers in computational physics. Unlike the conventional experimental approach, computational or numerical predictions allow more comprehensive
research to be conducted and at low cost. Numerical research has
become an alternative approach to understand the thermal performance of a at plate solar collector. Since the rst numerical work by
Hottel and Woertz [119], many others have conducted extensive
numerical investigations to study the effects of various collector
parameters on the collector performance. In 1977, Rao [120] predicted
uid temperature rise using a newly proposed two-dimensional
model. Lund [121] considered another two-dimensional model for
the transfer of heat in at plate solar collector absorbers. The research
was later extended by Nag et al. [122] who applied the same model,
but with convection boundary condition at the upper and lower edge
of the absorber plate using nite element method. Other previous
numerical researches on the at plate solar collector can be found in
the following references [123126].
The effect of nanouid ow through a at plate solar collector
was comprehensively analysed by Nasrin and Alim [127]. The
governing equations of Cu/water nanouid ow inside a riser pipe
of solar collector were solved by Galerkin's weighted residual
scheme of nite element method which was earlier proposed by
Taylor and Hood [128] and Dechaumphai [129]. Their numerical
results showed that the average velocity eld and collector efciency increased due to growing solar irradiation and diminishing
diameter of the riser pipe. Prior than that, Nasrin and Alim [130]
compared the heat loss characteristics across a riser pipe of a at
plate solar collector lled with water based nanouid of double
nanoparticles (alumina and copper) and single nanoparticle (alumina). In addition, they also compared the heat transfer phenomenon among four nanouids namely watercopper oxide,
wateralumina, watercopper and watersilver nanouids. The
governing partial differential equations were solved using the
nite element simulation scheme. The results demonstrated better

performance of heat loss through the riser pipe of the at plate

solar collector when using double nanoparticles (alumina and
copper) compared to single nanoparticle (only alumina). When
comparing the four nanouids considering the same solid volume
fraction of 5%, the study claimed that the average Nusselt number
for waterAg nanouid is higher than others. However, they
recommended the use of waterCu nanouid for the at plate
solar collector due to lower cost of Cu nanoparticles than that of
silver nanoparticles.
Theoretical studies on the performance of at plat solar thermal collector have been conducted by several researchers. Jahar
[131] analysed the energetic and exergetic of the collector using
supercritical CO2 as a heat transfer uid. Maximum performance
improvement was achieved up to 18%. Kabeel et al. [102]
attempted Cu/water nanouid as an absorbing medium and
measured the thermal performance of the collector under several
factors, i.e. nanoparticle volume fraction, mass ow rate ratio and
solar heater collecting area. An improvement in the solar collector
efciency was obtained by increasing the nanoparticle concentration up to 17.5 for 5% concentration and a mass ow rate
ratio of 10. Faizal et al. [132,133] focussed on the potential of size
reduction of at-plate solar collectors when applying Al2O3, SiO2,
TiO2 and CuO nanouid. By using numerical method and data from
literatures, they claimed that 25.6%, 21.6%, 22.1% and 21.5% area
reduction can be achieved for CuO, SiO2, TiO2 and Al2O3 respectively. In a recent study, Kabeel and El-Said [134] tested Cu/water
nanouid as a working uid to enhance the heat transfer rate for t
small-scale single stage ash desalination system. Their economic
analysis indicated that the optimum solar water heater collecting
area gave high productivity and low cost about 3.54 m2. In addition, based on the energy cost in Egypt, increasing the collector
area could reduce the water production cost by 63% while
increasing the xed capital cost by 87%.
Exergy maximizing or entropy generation minimization
method is a tool to optimize the performance of a thermal engineering system by applying the second law of thermodynamics.
Recently, this technique has been applied to optimize the thermal
system due to the ow of nanouid. The rst study on entropy
generation in three scales of channel by Singh et al. [135] revealed
that adding Al2O3 nanoparticles increased the entropy generation
ratio in microchannel and conventional channels for both laminar
and turbulent regimes.
In an interesting work, Alim et al. [136] investigated entropy
generation, heat transfer enhancement capabilities and pressure
drop of an absorbing medium with four different nanoparticles
(Al2O3, CuO, SiO2 and TiO2) dispersed in water inside a at plate
solar collector. Based on their results, CuO was found to reduce
entropy generation by 4.34% and enhance the heat transfer coefcient by 22.15% compared to water as an absorbing uid. A small
penalty in pumping power by 1.58% was also reported. The effects
of tube roughness, nanoparticle size and different thermophysical
models on the entropy generation of Al2O3/water nanouid ow in
a solar collector were studied by Omid et al. [137]. While tube
roughness increased entropy generation especially at high mass
owrate, the nanoparticle size and thermophysical models gave
very insignicant effect on entropy generation. In another study,
Omid and his co-workers [138] analysed the heat transfer coefcient and entropy generation of boehmite alumina nanoparticles
in the mixture of ethylene glycol and water (50:50). The effects of
nanoparticle shape (platelets, blades, cylinders and bricks) and
tube material (copper and steel) were investigated. The entropy
generation analysis for copper tubes elucidated that the entropy
generation rate was minimized by using brick shaped particles
with volume fraction of 2%, while for steel tubes, the minimum
entropy generation was achieved by using blade shaped particles
with volume fraction of 4%.

M.J. Muhammad et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 63 (2016) 226236

For extraction of maximum exergy, Badescu [139] analysed n

geometry optimization in a solar collector system. Said et al. [140]
investigated SWCNTs nanouid, while Ehsan et al. [141] focussed
on Al2O3/water nanouid ow rate optimization. In addition, Alim
et al. [142] looked at ZnO/water, CeO2/water, NiO and CoO/water
nanouids and found that CeO2/water nanouid gave maximum
heat transfer with maximum exergy. Other theoretical research on
exergy maximizing of at plate solar collector have been done by
Saha and Mahanta [143], Luminosu and Fara [144], Farahat et al.
[145], Jafarkazemi and Ahmadifard [146], Gupta and Kaushik [147],
Omid et al. [148] and Badescu [149].

4. Performance enhancement of evacuated solar collector

(ETSC) using nanouids
Solar collectors with evacuated tubes have many advantages
compared to at-plate collectors. Zambolin and Del Col [150] and
Ayompe et al. [151] experimentally examined the thermal performance of both at-plate and evacuated tube collector under
similar condition. The results demonstrated that evacuated collector was more efcient.
The main component in an evacuated solar collector is the parallel evacuated glass tube as shown in Fig. 4. The outer tube is
transparent, while the inner tube is coated with selective material
coating to maximally absorb incoming sun light. A vacuum is created
between the outer and inner tubes to only allow solar radiation. A
highly efcient thermal conductor for heat pipe (usually copper pipe)
welded with an absorber plate is then placed inside the inner tube.
The application of nanouid research in heat pipes was rst
published by Chien et al. [104]. However Lu et al. [152] possibly
the rst who considered nanouid in tubular evacuated high
temperature solar collector. In their study, water based CuO
nanouid was used as the working uid. Their experimental
results showed that the optimal lling ratio to the evaporator was
60% and the thermal performance of the thermosiphon increased
with increasing operating temperature. By using CuO/water
nanouid, the thermal performance was enhanced by about 30%
compared to that of deionized water and the optimal enhancement was found at CuO nanoparticles mass concentration of 1.2%.
Within the same year, Li and his co-workers [153] investigated the
heat transfer performance of different nanouids in a tubular solar
collector. Nanouids containing Al2O3, ZnO and MgO nanoparticles
were prepared with distilled water as the base uid by violent
stirring and ultrasonic dispersing. Based on their results of low
viscosity and excellent heat transfer performance, 0.2% volume
concentration of ZnO nanouid was proposed as an attractive
option to be applied in solar energy utilization.

Fig. 4. Evacuated tube solar collector.

231

In a different study, Mahendran et al. [154] prepared waterbased titanium oxide nanouid with a particle size of 3050 nm.
In this experimental study, the effect of collector efciency using
nanouid under clear sky and cloudy conditions within Universiti
Malaysia Pahang, Pekan campus, was analyzed. It was observed
that the solar insolation was parabolic during clear sky with
maximum at 2:00 pm. They claimed that the efciency of the
collector increased by 16.75% maximum compared to the system
which used water. In their study, the ow rate was xed at 2.7 l/
min. Mahendran et al. [155] duplicated the previous study [156]
but varied the nanouid volume concentrations from 1% to 3% and
volume ow rates from 2 to 3 l/min. Surprisingly, the results
demonstrated that the efciency of evacuated solar collector
increased up to 42.5% by using 2% concentration nanouid compared to water at 2.0 l/min of ow rate.
In another innovative research by Zhen et al. [156], an evacuated tubular solar air collector was integrated with a simplied
compound parabolic concentrator to provide air with high and
moderate temperatures. A special thermosiphon using water
based CuO nanouid was used as the working uid. Their
experimental results indicated that the air outlet temperature
could reach 170 C even during winter season.
The performance of metal oxide nanouid as an absorbing uid
in evacuated tube solar collector was comprehensively studied by
Saad and Abbas [157]. Among the measured parameters were the
Al2O3/water nanouid concentration and tube tilt angle for
Baghdad climate condition from April 2011 till the end of March
2012. Their research found that the best tilt angle for an evacuated
tube is 41 annually. The collector efciency was also found to
increase when using Al2O3/water nanouid of 1%, 0.6%, 0.3%
volume fraction as 28.4%, 6.8% and 0.6% respectively. Hasim et al.
[158] extended the study by comparing the thermal efciency of
evacuated tube solar collector by using metal oxide nanouid
(ZrO2/water) and metal nanouid (Ag/water). They claimed that
the use of these nanouids (both oxide metal and metal nanoparticles) as working uids could improve the thermal performance of the collector compared with its base uid, especially at
high inlet temperature. However, the collector efciency with Ag
with 30 nm size was greater than ZrO2 with 50 nm size due to the
high thermal conductivity of Ag.
To enhance the energy performance of an evacuated tube solar
collector, Sabiha et al. [159] proposed the use of water-based
single walled carbon nanotubes nanouid as an absorbing medium. The effect of the nanoparticle volume fraction ranging from
0.05 vol% to 0.2 vol% and mass ow rates of 0.008, 0.017 and
0.025 kg/s on energy efciency was investigated. Due to higher
thermal properties of SWCNTs nanouids, the collector efciency
increased up to 93.43% for 0.2 vol% SWCNTs nanouid, which was
71.84% higher compared to water. At this concentration, the efciency of the collector with nanouid were better on cloudy days
compared to that with water on sunny days.
The evacuated U-tube solar collector, as shown in Fig. 5, is a novel
model for solar thermal system which was proposed earlier by several researchers [160,161]. Kim and Seo [162] numerically investigated different shapes of U-tube to nd the best absorber tube shape
for the solar collector. Tong and his co-workers [163] were possibly
the rst to consider multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanouid as a working uid to enhance the thermal performance of
enclosed evacuated U-tube solar collector. Based on this novel
method, their calculations revealed that the annual CO2 and SO2
emission could be reduced by 600 kg and 5.3 kg, respectively, when
50 of this type of solar collector were employed.
Recently, Kim et al. [164] theoretically calculated the efciency
and energy saving of a U-tube solar collector with nanoparticles in
20% propylene glycolwater nanouid. Using thermal energy balance, the effect of MWCNT, Al2O3, CuO, SiO2 and TiO2 nanouids

232

M.J. Muhammad et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 63 (2016) 226236

Fig. 5. Evacuated U-tube solar collector.

concentration on the efciency of the collector was analysed. Their

results indicated that the greatest efciency was obtained at 62.8%
when 0.2 vol% MWCNT was used. By dispersing nanoparticles in the
working uid, they arrived at the conclusion that coal usage could be
reduced up to 131.3 kg/year when 50 solar collectors were used. This
is equivalent in reducing up to 345.3 kg of CO2 and a maximum of
1.1 kg SO2/year.

5. Performance enhancement of direct absorption solar collector (DASC) using nanouids

As discussed in previous sections, at plate and evacuated tube
solar collectors are installed with receivers which have absorbing
surface to convert solar energy into thermal energy. In this system,
solar irradiance is rst absorbed at the outer surface of a plate or tube
and then transferred to a working uid through conduction and
convection heat transfer. Conductance and convection resistance
between the absorbing surface and working uid result in large heat
loss and result in an inefcient system. In order to improve the
efciency of a solar collector, Minardi and Chuang [165] proposed ae
concept of directly absorbing solar energy within the uid volume
called direct absorption solar collector (DASC).
A DASC system, as shown in Fig. 6, consists of a top glass cover,
nanouid and a bottom boundary. The system is inclined at an
angle of relative to the horizontal axis. The top glass cover allows
most of the incident solar ux to pass through. This cover also
transmits short wavelength solar radiation and does not allow
long wavelength radiation to leave the collector. The presence of
nanoparticles in base uid enhances solar absorption and heat
transport in the collector. The bottom boundary can be made
insulated and perfect reector as proposed by Otanicar et al. [166].
Before the era of nanouid, the conventional direct absorption
solar collector (DASC) which was proposed by Minardi and Chuang
[165], considered black liquid to directly absorb solar energy. This
was done by adding black ink or dye into the base liquid such as
water, ethylene glycol, etc. However, some shortcomings were
observed such as light-induced and thermal degradations as well
as low thermal conductivity. Consequently, DASC based on black
liquid did not exhibit high performance.
The potential of using nanouids in DASC was rst demonstrated
by Tyagi and his co-workers [167]. In their study, they compared the
performance of DASC using Al/water nanouid as the absorbing
medium, to that of a at plat solar collector. Tyagi et al. [167] revealed
that under the same operating condition, DASC with nanouid performed with 10% higher efciency compared to a conventional at
plat collector with pure water. In addition, they also observed that
the presence of nanoparticles yielded the absorption of irradiation by
more than nine time over that of pure water.

Fig. 6. direct absorption solar collector (DASC).

On the other hand, many recent research indicated that the

selection of nanouid is very important in order to observe thermal
performance enhancement in DASC. A report by Taylor et al. [168]
indicated that the optical properties of nanouid, which are inuenced
by the material, size, shape, volume fraction and base uid, have signicant effects on the transmittance, extinction, scattering and
absorption coefcients of the nanouid. These coefcients directly
affect the performance of a solar harvesting system, especially DASC.
Taylor et al. [168] proposed a new model (using bulk properties)
to explore how a nanouid absorbs sunlight. The method was in
good agreement with experimental measurement for graphite
nanouid. Ladjevardi et al. [169] demonstrated enhancement in
extinction coefcient from around 0.4 to 1.0 by increasing the size of
the graphite nanoparticles from 50 nm to 300 nm. Similarly, Karimi
et al. [170] found that the extinction coefcient of pure water and
ethylene glycol increased by about 3.9 cm 1 and 3.4 cm 1 respectively, when using 300 ppm carbon nanoballs. In another study,
Karimi et al. [171] not only found thermal conductivity enhancement
by up to 32%, but also extinction coefcient enhancement by about
4.1 cm 1 for 150 ppm of CNT suspension in water.
Zhang and his co-workers [172] was probably the rst team to
measure the radiative properties of ionic liquid and its nanouids.
They revealed that the ionanouid containing carbon coated Ni
nanoparticles exhibited the lowest transmittance and highest
extinction coefcient compared with ones containing Ni and Cu
nanoparticles at volume fraction 10ppm.
The optical properties of titanium oxide have been the subject
of study by Said et al. [173]. The study found that at volume
fraction 0.08%, the transmissivity could achieve up to 61% and was
proven to be a good option for DASC compared to water. Despite
having very high extinction coefcient at shorter wavelengths, the
addition of titanium particles in water could also improve light
absorption ability in visible and shorter wavelength region [173].
More recently, Milanese et al. [174,175] measured the optical
absorption of oxide particles under the effect of nanoparticles
concentration and temperature. Several water based nanouid
with metal-oxide (Al2O3, CuO, TiO, ZnO, CeO2 and Fe2O3) were
prepared to evaluate their attitude in a transparent solar collector
system. Their study concluded that TiO2 at 0.05% volume concentration required specic minimum pumping power and
maintenance cost, and was capable of completely absorbing solar
radiation within a depth of 1 cm. In addition, a temperature range
of 25500 C did not inuence the optical properties of nanoparticles, particularly absorption coefcient.

M.J. Muhammad et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 63 (2016) 226236

Theoretical and numerical research on the performance of

direct absorption solar collector using nanouid have been done
by many researchers. In 2012, Asnaghi et al. [176] compared the
performance of pure water and nanouid in direct solar energy
absorption. Their study showed that by using nanoparticles, the
system could absorb more than 90% of the incident irradiation
energy over the depth of 10 cm. However, pure water could only
absorb 66% over the depth of one meter.
Gupta et al. [177,178] developed a prototype DASC to investigate the effect of using Al2O3H2O nanouid as a heat transfer
uid at different ow rates and volume fractions. At 0.005%
volume fraction for 20 nm size of Al2O3 nanoparticles, a collector
efciency enhancement of 8.1% and 4.2% were observed for 1.5 and
2.0 lpm ow rate of nanouid respectively. Their experimental
results also indicated that collector efciency decreased for higher
and lower volume fraction values. The nding was consistent with
the previous nding by Otanicar et al. [179]. Mustafa [180]
extended the research by analysing the effect of two different
types of base collectors; i.e adiabatic and isothermal walls. With
the suspension of aluminum nanoparticles into pure water, 85.63%
and 100% thermal efciency were obtained for adiabatic and isothermal wall, respectively.
Parvin et al. [181] numerically investigated the efciency of
direct absorption solar collector using Cu water nanouid as the
absorbing medium. The Galerkin nite element method, which
was earlier proposed by Taylor and Hood [182], was applied to
monitor the effect of volume fraction and Reynolds number on the
performance of the collector. They observed that the collector
efciency was enhanced around two times by increasing the
Reynolds number and solid volume fraction.
Due to the unique properties of graphene nanoparticles, Liu et al.
[183] considered graphene/ionic liquid nanouid as an absorber for
direct absorption solar collector. Because graphene nanoparticles have
remarkable absorptive solar spectrum capacity, only 0.0005 wt% of
graphene concentration was required to obtain a receiver efciency of
0.7. In a more recent study, graphene nanoplatlets nanouid-based
direct absorption solar collector was used for domestic hot water
systems. Vakili et al. [184] claimed that the zero-loss efciency using
nanouid with weight fractions of 0.005 was 93.2%. While with multi
wall carbon nanotubes in a mixture of water and ethylene glycol, the
maximum zero-loss efciency was achieved at 89.3%.

[2]
[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]

[14]

[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]

[20]
[21]

[22]
[23]

[24]

6. Conclusion, current challenges and future work

The major challenges in nanouids for solar devices are mostly
related to the high cost of nanouid due to production limitations,
instability and agglomeration of nanoparticles, pumping power
and pressure drop [185]. Therefore, in order to apply nanouid in
solar collectors, there is a need to restructure the design of most of
the collectors so as to achieve practical utilization for water
heating system to be used both domestically and industrially.
Thermal conductivity is always an important parameter which
guarantees the use of nanouid as HTFs for solar applications.
Meanwhile, more recent studies have conrmed the possibility of
using hybrid nanouid for heat transfer enhancement [186192].
Even though none has been used for solar energy systems, there is a
need for more experimental research to ensure maximum performance when using nanouid in solar thermal engineering devices.

[25]

[26]

[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]

[32]

[33]

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