The global climate crisis has led society toward cleaner energy sources. Another reason is the limited reserves of fossil energy resources. Efforts to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic modules (PVs) have gained momentum. The high temperature is the biggest factor causing a decrease in the efficiency of PVs. In this study, a commercial PV was cooled with distilled water, a multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)/water mixture, and a graphene nanoplatelets (GNP)/water mixture. The environmental impact of electricity, total energetic efficiency, energy payback time, energy return on investment, and embodied energy of the PV/thermal (PV/T) system were compared using life cycle assessment and cumulative energy demand. The electrical efficiency of the PV/T changed between 13.5% and 14.4%. The total efficiency of PV/T changed between 39.5% and 45.7%. The energy returns on investment were 1.76, 1.80, and 1.85 for PV/T-distilled water, the PV/T-MWCNT/water mixture, and the PV/T-GNP/water mixture, respectively. Moreover, the embodied energy evaluation values were 3975.88 MJ for PV/T-distilled water, 4081.06 MJ for the PV/T-MWCNT/water mixture, and 4077.86 MJ for the PV/T-GNP/water mixture. The main objective of this research was to study the energy and environmental performances of PVs cooled with different nanofluids and draw general conclusions about the applicability of these systems.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to numerically investigate the heat transfer enhancement by using two different nanofluids flow throughout the square duct under a constant heat flux (500 × 10³ W/m²). Design/methodology/approach: In numerical computations, ANSYS Fluent code based on the finite volume method was used to solve governing equations by iteratively. Water, Al₂O₃-water and TiO₂-water nanofluids were used for different flow velocities changing 1 m/s to 8 m/s (i.e. Reynolds number varying from 3,000 to 100,000). Findings: The results were compared with results published previously in the literature and close agreement was observed especially considering Dittus and Boelter correlation for water. It was found that from the obtained results, increasing flow velocity and volume fractions of nanoparticles has caused to increase Nu number for all cases. Besides, variations of pressure drop, Darcy friction factor are presented graphically and discussed in detail. The results are consistent with a deviation of 1.3 to 15 per cent with the results of other researchers. Originality/value: The effects of the Re numbers and volume fractions of nanoparticles (0.01 ≤ Φ ≤ 0.04) on the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics such as average Nu number, pressure drop (ΔP) and Darcy friction factor (f) were investigated.

The current paper proposes a novel multi-generation system, integrated with compound parabolic collectors and a biomass combustor. In addition to analyzing the comprehensive system in a steady state, the feasibility of using nanofluids as heat transfer fluids in the solar cycle and their effect on the overall performance of the system was studied. The multi-generation system is generally designed for generating electricity, cooling, freshwater, drying, hot water, and hydrogen, with the help of six subsystems. These include a double stage refrigeration system, an organic Rankine cycle, a steam Rankine cycle, a dryer, a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, and a multistage flash distillation system. Two types of nanoparticles (graphene, silver), which have various high-quality properties when used within ethylene glycol, were chosen as absorbing fluids in the solar cycle. The performance parameters of the base case thermodynamic analysis and some of the variable parameters were calculated, and their effect on system performance was determined. According to the results, a spike in solar irradiation, ambient temperature, output temperature of biomass combustor and nanofluids’ concentration positively affected the overall system performance. The results also clearly showed an improvement in system performance when using nanofluids as working fluids in solar collectors.