Solar Energy in Industrial Processes

Abstract

A design methodology to integrate solar heat into industrial process is showed in this chapter, attending restrictions like availability for area of installation, economic, environmental, and operating conditions. The evaluation of each of the restrictions allows responding to real situations that arise in the industrial sector and thereby determining the scenario that best suits the industry. To achieve this objective, the evaluation of two real scenarios was carried out; in the first one there are no installation area limitations, while in the second, only the 50% of required installation area is available. The results obtained when evaluating the scenarios exhibit a direct relationship between the available space, the capital of the investment and the CO2 emissions, but this is not reflected in the same proportion in the operation of the process. In scenario one, the payback of the integrated system is 5.99 years with zero emissions to the atmosphere. For scenario two, the reduction of CO2 emissions is 80.62% with a recovery time of the investment of the integrated system of 2.61 years. In this context, Chemical Vapour Deposition is proposing as a innovative technology to improve the solar devices efficiency.