Simulated Experimental Assessment of a Laboratory-Scale Solar Convective Furnace System

Electricity and gas-based heat treatment of metal is an energy-intensive process. To mitigate the use of such high-grade energy, the concept of an open volumetric air receiver-based solar convective furnace (SCF) system is developed for the heat treatment of metal. This system includes an in situ waste heat recovery mechanism. This paper presents a Joule heating-based, controlled, experimental assessment of a laboratory-scale, retrofitted, SCF system for generating benchmark data. The reported measurements illustrate the heat transfer for (a) the charging and discharging process of thermal energy storage and (b) the two-stage heat treatment of metal with an in situ heat recovery process. The overall system efficiency, including heat recovery, heat storage, and heat transfer, is found to be 24%. Thus, the SCF system can serve as a viable alternative to an electrical energy-based heat treatment furnace.