Development of a low-cost black-liquid solar collector, phase 2

Research efforts were directed toward: evaluating the long-term durability of various plastic materials and solar collector designs; obtaining sufficient outdoor performance data to design a full-scale demonstration of a black liquid solar collector for a commercial application; working closely with a company willing to investigate the possible commercialization of a black liquid plastic collector; and incorporating improved black liquides with the identified plastic collector designs. Indoor weathering tests of various plastics have continued and two outdoor automated test facilities were constructed. One unit was installed at Columbus, Ohio, and the other unit was installed in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition, test facilities in Florida were utilized for static outdoor testing of candidate materials. Results indicate that the black liquid collector is a viable concept and the collectors manufactured during the course of this study were able to perform as theoretically predicted. There are some long-term durabilty problems still associated with the black liquid collector systems. However, current indications are that a suitable system can be built that should have an expected lifetime of up to 15 years with only marginal (less than 10%) performance degradation.