Design of a receiver for solar parabolic dish and Life Cycle Assessment of domestic hot water production system

To limit global mean temperature to 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial levels, global CO2 emissions must be decreased and become net zero at some point. As the energy sector is the main source of greenhouse gases, it also has the highest potential for improvement. [1] Improvements that can be reached by shifting to renewable energy sources. Concentrated solar plants coupled with thermal energy storage are a promising technology for dispatchable renewable energy. This technology can assure energy supply even in remote areas without contributing to greenhouse gases emissions during its operation. However, greenhouse gases, and other emissions, could be present during the fabrication process of components that make up the concentrated solar plant. For this reason, this thesis is composed of two main parts. In the first part of master thesis is described the receiver design for thermal energy production of existing parabolic solar dish CSP plant, located at Energy Center of Politecnico di Torino. After theoretical introduction and literature review, by using COMSOL Multiphysics software, a receiver design will be proposed. The configuration will be analysed by using the Ray Tracing Module from the COMSOL library. The whole system in which parabolic dish operates is meant to be used for domestic hot water production in a residential family home. In the second part of the thesis, Life Cycle Assessment analysis will be performed on the main components of the whole system used for domestic hot water production. The proposed configuration does not include any fossil back – up heat source so, during the operation phase of the system polluting emissions are absent. For this reason, the Life Cycle Assessment hereby presented, is focalised on the entire life cycle of main components: from cradle to grave. The main component included in the analysis are: solar collector, solar receiver, domestic hot water tank and piping system.