Pukyong National University

Academia pays attention to PKNU students' research on improving performance of 'air-type photovoltaic thermal collector'

- Kim Seong-Bin · Kim Joon-Yeop received awards for the best papers and presentations from the Korean solar energy society

△ Kim Seong-Bin (left) and Kim Joon-Yeup, winners of the Korea Solar Energy society's the best paper and presentation awards. ⓒPhoto Lee Sung-Jae (PR Team)

Pukyong National University (President Jang Young-Soo) has announced that Kim Seong-Bin (1st year student in Ph.D. course) and Kim Joon-Yeop (2nd-student in master course) of the refrigeration and air-conditioning engineering department received the best paper and presentation awards at the recently held spring conference of the Korea solar energy society in 2022 (organizing chairman Wang Je-Pil), respectively.

Their papers on 'analysis of heat transfer performance and pressure drop according to shape and flow conditions of resistors in air-type photovoltaic thermal collector', and 'evaluation of heat transfer performance according to shape and flow conditions of semicircular turbulence promoter in air-type photovoltaic thermal collector', the students were honored with awards.

They, affiliated to the Renewable energy lab (advisory prof. Choi Kwang-Hwan) of the refrigeration and air-conditioning engineering department, were praised for their research achievements by suggesting ways to improve the performance of the air-type photovoltaic thermal collector, which is being studied to increase the efficiency of the existing solar modules in each paper.

In the case of photovoltaic modules that are still in use, the efficiency decreases when it gets hot, so research on the utilization of the recovered waste heat while cooling using air or liquid is being actively conducted in academia.

The students from Pukyong National University proposed a method to improve the heat collection effect by 40~60 percent and increase the power generation efficiency by installing a resistor in the air duct applied to the collector to form a turbulent flow.

Professor Choi Kwang-Hwan said, "We will do our best to advance this research to accelerate the commercialization of air-type photovoltaic thermal collectors, and we will strive for research and development so that excellent results can come out continuously in our laboratory."

The Korean solar energy society was founded in 1977 and has been leading the research and technology development based on solar energy for 44 years. It has been publishing journals of the Korean solar energy society, a KCI-grade academic journal, and in 2015, successfully hosted the International solar energy society (ISES, co-chairman of the contest organization, prof. Choi Kwang-Hwan) in Korea. <Pukyong Today>