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<p>Recent modifications in solar air collectors (SACs) have significantly improved performance, expanding their applications in solar energy harvesting and conversion. This review investigates SAC applications in industrial thermal processes, space heating, and drying, with a focus on recent advancements and performance enhancement techniques. Key aspects include absorber plate design, operating conditions, and environmental parameters. Parameters such as collector tilt angle, glazing type, and air mass flow rate are found to critically influence thermal and exergetic performance. Corrugated absorber plates outperform plain ones due to increased turbulence, heat transfer area, and vortex formation. Double glazing reduces radiative and convective losses compared to single glazing. While higher air mass flow rates improve energy efficiency, they also increase pressure drops. Seasonal variations show greater efficiency in summer, attributed to higher solar insolation. The review also covers construction elements i.e. ducts, glazing, absorber plates, and insulation and highlights innovative enhancement methods like artificial roughness, extended surfaces, multi-pass airflow, and advanced geometries such as V-grooves and 3D roughness. Thermo-hydraulic analyses are used to assess energy, exergy, and effective efficiency, helping identify optimal operating conditions. Applications in space heating, agricultural drying, building integration, and solar-assisted conditioning are discussed alongside numerical and theoretical modeling techniques, including the potential for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to support future system optimization. While the energetic performance of SACs is widely investigated, the review identifies exergy analysis and material aging effects (especially of glazing and coatings) as areas requiring deeper study. Finally, the work emphasizes the broader economic and environmental impacts of SAC deployment. The review concludes by outlining several future research directions, such as CFD-integrated modeling, expert system-based optimization, nano-coating development, and PCM hybridization, aiming to accelerate the adoption of SACs in sustainable energy systems.</p>

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Solar collectors for a sustainable future: innovations and energy efficiency trends

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月21日

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  • Suman Debnath,
  • Papiya Bhowmik,
  • Gaurav Arora,
  • Manoj Kumar Singh

摘要

Recent modifications in solar air collectors (SACs) have significantly improved performance, expanding their applications in solar energy harvesting and conversion. This review investigates SAC applications in industrial thermal processes, space heating, and drying, with a focus on recent advancements and performance enhancement techniques. Key aspects include absorber plate design, operating conditions, and environmental parameters. Parameters such as collector tilt angle, glazing type, and air mass flow rate are found to critically influence thermal and exergetic performance. Corrugated absorber plates outperform plain ones due to increased turbulence, heat transfer area, and vortex formation. Double glazing reduces radiative and convective losses compared to single glazing. While higher air mass flow rates improve energy efficiency, they also increase pressure drops. Seasonal variations show greater efficiency in summer, attributed to higher solar insolation. The review also covers construction elements i.e. ducts, glazing, absorber plates, and insulation and highlights innovative enhancement methods like artificial roughness, extended surfaces, multi-pass airflow, and advanced geometries such as V-grooves and 3D roughness. Thermo-hydraulic analyses are used to assess energy, exergy, and effective efficiency, helping identify optimal operating conditions. Applications in space heating, agricultural drying, building integration, and solar-assisted conditioning are discussed alongside numerical and theoretical modeling techniques, including the potential for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to support future system optimization. While the energetic performance of SACs is widely investigated, the review identifies exergy analysis and material aging effects (especially of glazing and coatings) as areas requiring deeper study. Finally, the work emphasizes the broader economic and environmental impacts of SAC deployment. The review concludes by outlining several future research directions, such as CFD-integrated modeling, expert system-based optimization, nano-coating development, and PCM hybridization, aiming to accelerate the adoption of SACs in sustainable energy systems.