Experimental investigation and performance analysis of box-type standard solar cooker with an inclined cover (BTSCIC).

This work proposes a novel transparent solar cooker design, and its performance is evaluated using a set of experiments. The cooker is fabricated from transparent and non-transparent, and lightweight material. The study was conducted at the Renewable energy laboratory in India (MNNIT Prayagraj). For thermal performance assessment of Box-type standard solar cooker with an inclined cover (BTSCIC) is compared with a box-type standard solar cooker (BSSC). The area, heat input, and thermal efficiency have all increased significantly. The total absorbing area increases by 32%, total solar radiation by 189%, absorber plate temperature by 19.8%, inner air temperature by 16.5%, pot water temperature by 17.1%, and inner wall average temperature by 58%, as compared to box-type Standard Solar Cooker. The average exergy was 4.2% (BTSCIC) and 2.61% (BSSC), respectively. The cost payback period of BTSCIC was 2.22 years and BSSC 1.5 years.

Study of Zn-Cu ferrite nanoparticles for LPG sensing.

Nanostructured zinc-copper mixed ferrite was synthesized using sol-gel method. XRD patterns of different compositions of zinc-copper ferrite, Zn(1-x)Cu(x)Fe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75), revealed single phase inverse spinel ferrite in all the samples synthesized. With increasing copper concentration, the crystallite size was found to be increased from 28 nm to 47 nm. The surface morphology of all the samples studied by the Scanning Electron Microscopy there exhibits porous structure of particles throughout the samples. The pellets of the samples are prepared for LPG sensing characteristics. The sensing is carried out at different operating temperatures (200, 225, and 250°C) with the variation of LPG concentrations (0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 vol%). The maximum sensitivity of 55.33% is observed at 250°C operating for the 0.6 vol% LPG.