Economical and Environmental Life Cycle Analysis of Compound Parabolic Collector for the Textile Process Industry

This paper emphasizes the analysis of the use of CPC for low and medium-temperature applications for the textile process industry and its impact on the environment. Also, the study focuses on the present worth and life cycle analysis of solar technologies considering embodied energy for manufacturing the system. A prototype model of CPC with a 2 m2 aperture area was fabricated with all required balances of the system. The thermal energy produced by the system per year has been 7236 MJ, compared to the entire embodied energy needed to make the system, which would be 6555 MJ, for the life cycle measurement of the system. Calculations reveal that the total energy used in the system’s installation and manufacturing is regained in nearly 10 to 11 months, which is extremely satisfactory. It is recommended to scale up the CPC system to cater to the textile sector’s requirement for low and medium-temperature applications. Solar radiation available at Ichalkaranji has been around 8 h for about 325 days of the year. Five hours of heat required by 220 boilers of different capacities have been proposed to substitute using a solar CPC system. A total of 124057 MT could save fuel annually and can achieve a reduction of 145146 MT of CO2. A solar CPC system can meet it with an aperture area of 37000 m2.