Abstract

The need for alternative sources of energy is of vital importance in the present time when the world’s non-renewable energy sources are rapidly getting depleted. The reason for this depletion is that humans are utilizing the energy at a much faster rate than is being produced. Additionally, in some cases, it is inevitable that the primary source of certain forms of energy will just get exhausted. Clearly this is a problem that requires a lot of attention and it becomes imperative that effective solutions are devised. Solar energy is one such alternative form. It is renewable, environment friendly, easily available and free of cost. One major drawback is that solar energy is available for use only during the day. Hence it becomes necessary that a way is found by which we can utilize solar energy even during the absence of the Sun. This project attempts to do just that. The objective of this project is to utilize solar energy during the day and store some of the unused energy for use at night. There are two ways in which thermal energy can be stored, the first being via the sensible heat of a material and the second being via the latent heat. Of course, it is possible that a combination of the two is also used. Additionally, due to the plethora of applications of solar energy, this project limits the use of solar energy for cooking purposes only. This project employs a parabolic trough collector to capture solar energy and phase change materials to store that energy. The captured energy is then retrieved when required during the night. Finally, the effectiveness of the project is determined by the maximum surface temperature achieved on the cooking unit due to the energy extracted from the Phase Change Material (PCM). After conducting the experiment, a water boiling test was performed on the flat plate cooking unit. From the results, it was concluded that Lauric acid can be effectively used as a phase change material for solar cooking application. Cooking using sola