Energy, exergy, economic, environmental (4E) approach to assessing the performance of a photovoltaic-thermal system using a novel ternary nanofluid

Ternary nanofluids are a new type of fluids with three nanoparticles dispersed in a base fluid, and they have been experimentally shown to have improved thermophysical and rheological properties as compared to conventional or hybrid nanofluids. This study presents a numerical computation of investigating the performance of Photovoltaic/thermal collectors by utilizing Al2O3-ZnO-Fe3O4/water ternary nanofluid. The preparation of the nanofluid was done using a two-step method and analyzed for stability using Zeta potential analysis. The effect of the mixture ratio of the nanofluid on the thermal and electrical efficiency of the Photovoltaic/thermal system is investigated. The price-performance factor of the ternary nanofluid is firstly computed to determine the optimum volume concentration for practical application. This study also investigates the effect of nanofluid mass flow rate, volume fraction, mixture ratio and solar irradiation on the Photovoltaic/thermal system. From an economic standpoint, the system was estimated using the Price-performance factor and results showed that the 0.5 vol% Al2O3-ZnO-Fe3O4 ternary hybrid nanofluid was most suitable for laminar flow and turbulent flow regimes. The optimum electrical and thermal efficiency measured in this study was 13.75% and 59.38% respectively. This study also recorded an optimum cell temperature reduction of 8.81 ?C. The mixture ratio measured for optimum PV/T performance was 0.33. The maximum exergy efficiency and PV/T total exergy efficiency recorded are 1.53% and 14.77%. The ternary nanofluid based PV/T system saved 19948.04 kgCO2 annually, as compared to 18719.88 kgCO2 when water was used as heat transfer fluid. The payback period was calculated to be 2.63 years for the ternary hybrid nanofluid based PV/T system. <comment>Superscript/Subscript Available</comment