Nanofluid Augmented Cooling of Solar Thermoelectric Refrigerator - An Experimental Study

Abstract

The performance of heat transfer enhancing is used thermoelectric refrigeration devices with nanofluid in a minichannel heat exchanger is experimentally investigated. The thermoelectric cooler (TEC 1-12708T125) with a ΔTmax of 125 °C is used to haul out heat from the refrigeration, which is operated on solar battery energy system. The designed evaporator section normally operates with the heating power range on nearly 300W which is calculated as the input power to the thermoelectric module. The aluminium oxide-water based nanofluid with volume concentrations of 0.1% is use as the coolant to remove the heat from the hot body of the test section. The flow is operated on forced convection system. The result showed 40 % enhancement in the coefficient of performance (COP) of thermoelectric module for 0.1% of nanoparticle volume concentration. So the combination in solid state and liquid (nanofluid) of refrigeration system and solar energy is promising cooling techniques for future applications.