Bringing together nanofluids and solar collectors has been widely discussed without any major advance or long-term study being carried out. In this context, this paper provides a useful feasibility study to help future decisions in using nanofluids in Solar Water Heating Systems (SWHSs) in different locations. The performances of SWHSs using the nanofluid-based flat plate solar collector (FPSC), evacuated tube collector (ETC), and compound parabolic collector (CPC) under the Mediterranean, arctic, and desert climate conditions are presented and discussed. The analysis is carried out using a transient-based numerical approach, solving energy balance equations for different systems. Various performance factors such as energy saving, solar fractions, and environmental impacts of auxiliary energy supplies are evaluated to feasibly assess the use of nanofluids in such devices. Simulation results demonstrate that the use of nanofluids increases the solar heater performance which reduces considerably the payback period () of the investment in solar heating systems up to 3.34 years in Tunisian climate. Under Quebec’s climate region, the annualized solar return of the ETC system increases from 4874.65 US$ to 9785.93 US$ by adding 0.06 v% Al₂O₃ in water. Also, the use of nanofluids in solar collectors with electric auxiliary heaters reduces harmful CO₂ emissions up to 0.49 tons/year.

中文翻译：

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三种太阳能集热器技术中 Al2O3/水和多壁碳纳米管/油纳米流体的长期性能和技术经济和环境评估

将纳米流体和太阳能收集器结合在一起已经被广泛讨论，但没有进行任何重大进展或长期研究。在此背景下，本文提供了一项有用的可行性研究，以帮助未来在不同地点的太阳能热水系统 (SWHS) 中使用纳米流体做出决策。介绍和讨论了使用基于纳米流体的平板太阳能集热器 (FPSC)、真空管集热器 (ETC) 和复合抛物线集热器 (CPC) 在地中海、北极和沙漠气候条件下的 SWHS 性能。使用基于瞬态的数值方法进行分析，求解不同系统的能量平衡方程。各种性能因素，如节能、太阳能分数、评估辅助能源供应的环境影响，以切实评估纳米流体在此类设备中的使用。模拟结果表明，纳米流体的使用提高了太阳能加热器的性能，从而大大缩短了投资回收期（)在突尼斯气候中投资太阳能供暖系统长达 3.34 年。在魁北克的气候区，通过在水中添加 0.06 v% Al ₂ O ₃，ETC 系统的年化太阳能收益从 4874.65 美元增加到 9785.93 美元。此外，在带有电辅助加热器的太阳能集热器中使用纳米流体可将有害的 CO ₂排放量减少多达 0.49 吨/年。