Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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Design analysis of solar parabolic trough thermal collectors MARK

a,⁎ a a a a a
A.Z. Hafez , A.M. Attia , H.S. Eltwab , A.O. ElKousy , A.A. Afifi , A.G. AbdElhamid ,
A.N. AbdElqadera, S-E.K. Fateenb,c, K.A. El-Metwallya,d, A. Solimana,c, I.M. Ismaila,c
a
Renewable Energy Engineering Program, University of Science and Technology, Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt
b
Environmental Engineering Program, University of Science and Technology, Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt
c
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt
d
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper presents a review of the design parameters, mathematical techniques and simulations used in the
Solar energy design of parabolic trough solar systems, along with a review on their applications. Recent studies that analyze
Parabolic trough the deployment of solar parabolic trough collectors (SPTC) in different countries and the operational SPTC plants
Design are also presented and discussed. The paper also discusses the different kinds of software and test methods of
Factors
solar collectors developed since 1981 which can be distinguished by their particular mathematical models or
Simulation
Power plants
tracking techniques. In particular, since the mathematical models are especially required for the design, analysis,
testing and validation of the systems results as they provide an approximation of the dynamic behavior of the
physical properties of the system, they are discussed in depth. The mathematical models allow the calculation of
different parameters of the solar parabolic trough system, the angle of inclination of the collecting surface and
the forces acting on the system. The validity and experimental validation of the major mathematical models on
practical solar parabolic trough concentrators, receivers and other components of different dimension are also
reviewed. The paper showed the optical efficiency values are close to 63% and the theoretical peak optical
efficiency reached 75%.

1. Introduction
Solar thermal power is one of the most important renewable sources
that utilize the concentration of solar radiation. The concentrated solar
radiation drives a heat engine that works as the prime move for an
electric generator. Thus, concentrated solar power is very close in
concept to conventional and traditional forms of power generation that
are based on fossil-fuel combustion. Both rely on the conversion of
thermal energy to mechanical energy then to electrical energy.
Currently, there are four main technologies that utilize the con-
centrated solar thermal energy: (a) parabolic trough systems, (b) solar
tower systems, (c) Stirling solar dish systems, and (d) linear Fresnel
systems. Many studies discussed the best performance, design,
simulation for parabolic trough systems. Also a number of studies were
carried out to find the best performance of solar parabolic trough col-
lectors in certain areas around the world, such as Mexico-Brazil [1–3],
Brazil [4,5], Greece [6,7], France [8], Iran [9], Tahran-Iran [10],
Germany [11,12], UAE [13], China [14–19], Tianjin – China [20],
Changping District, Beijing, China [21], Tunisia [22], India [23,24],
Colombia [25], USA [25,26], Spain [27–29], Almeria, Spain [30],
Switzerland [31], Taiwan [32], and more.
The solar parabolic trough collector systems receive heat from solar
radiation of the sun. CSP is used directly in some applications as solar
cooker or water pumping. Solar parabolic collector systems use a
parabolic trough, which consists of mirrors mounted on the supporting
structure to reflect and concentrate the solar radiation to the focus of

Abbreviations: APDR, Alternative Porous Disc Receiver; BPDR, Bottom Porous Disc Receiver; CCHP, Combined Cooling, Heat and Power; CFD, Computational Fluid Dynamics; CHP,
Micro combined heat and power; CPVT, Concentrating Photovoltaic-Thermal; CSP, Concentrating Solar Power; CTM, Camera Target Method; CTP, Concentrating Trough parabolic; DISS,
Direct Solar Steam; DNI, Direct Normal Irradiance; DSG, Direct Steam Generation; FEM, Finite Element Method; FVM, Finite Volume Method; HTF, Heat Transfer Fluid; IBPDR, Inclined
Bottom Porous Disc Receiver; LBM, Lattice Boltzmann Method; LES, Large Eddy Simulation; LSSVM, Least Squares Support Vector Machines; MCRT, Monte Carlo Ray Trace; PARASCAN,
PARAbolic Trough Flux SCANner; PI, A Proportional Integral; PSO, Particle Swarm Optimization; PSO–MCRT, Particle Swarm Optimization-Monte Carlo Ray Tracing; PSO-NMS, Particle
Swarm Optimization-Nelder-Mead Simplex; PTPP, Parabolic Trough Power Plants; PTC, Parabolic Trough Collector; PTRs, Parabolic Trough Receiver; PTSC, Parabolic Trough Solar
Collector; PV, Photovoltaic; SG, Steam Generation; SPT, Solar Parabolic Trough; SPTS, Solar Parabolic Trough Systems; SPTC, Solar Parabolic Trough Collector; SPTTS, Solar Parabolic
Trough Thermal Storage; SRT, Sensor-based Random Tree; TCPTC, Temperature-controlled parabolic trough collector; TDMA, Tri-Diagonal Matrix Algorithm; TPTC, Transparent
Parabolic Through Collector
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ahafez@zewailcity.edu.eg, ahmedzakaria5@gmail.com (A.Z. Hafez).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.09.010
Received 3 January 2017; Received in revised form 11 June 2017; Accepted 3 September 2017
1364-0321/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Nomenclature
d The diameter of perforated plate
P Two sequential perforated plates
Re Reynolds Number
β The angle of orientation
the parabolic trough (the receiver) to achieve the required temperature.
The concentrated energy is then used to boil water into steam, which is
usually used to drive conventional electrical generators. The design of
parabolic trough relies on many parameters such as solar distribution
flux, reflector material of the concentrator, diameter of the parabolic
trough concentrator, sizing the aperture area of concentrator, focal
length of the parabolic trough, the focal point diameter, sizing the
aperture area of receiver, absorber material of the receiver, geometric
or area concentration ratio, and rim angle.
A solar parabolic trough is described as a long, trough-shaped re-
flector that has a parabolic cross-section with a slope affected by the
rim angle. The trough focuses the reflected sunlight radiation along a
line running the length of the trough. In order to collect this heat, a
pipe, which is called a receiver, is positioned along the length of the
trough at its focus and a heat collection fluid is pumped through it. The
receiver tube is designed to absorb most of the energy focused onto it to
heat the passing fluid to a higher temperature. Receivers can be made of
black-coated steel tubing, insulated by a protective glass cover en-
closing a vacuum layer to reduce heat loss. An antireflective coating is
important and in some designs may be added to the outer glass surface
to increase efficiency further. Solar parabolic troughs always have a
tracking system, which are usually adjusted with their long axes from
north to south and they are mounted on structural supports that allow
them to track the sun from east direction to west direction during the
day hours’ time. These supports may be made of steel, aluminium, or
other material with higher strength.
The solar parabolic trough systems have many advantages such as
high power density, high efficiency, modularity, and versatility. They
are also durable against moisture effects and have a long lifetime. In
addition, many system parts can made by local manufacturers. Their
low construction cost, drives developers and investors to invest in solar
parabolic trough technology to reduce the capital cost of a CSP station.
Solar parabolic trough can reach high receiver temperature ranges. The
higher the receiver temperature the higher the system efficiency and
consequently better electricity generation and conversion. The use of
PTC leads to higher power densities and lower cost with respect to other
CSP technologies. Thus, solar trough systems can provide an econom-
ically reasonable source of electricity and are a candidate to be one of
the best renewable energy systems in few years. On the other hand,
there are some disadvantages of the solar parabolic trough systems,
including the need for moving parts in the heat engine and in the
tracking system resulting in a relatively high maintenance cost.
Many studies reviewed solar parabolic troughs or some of its com-
ponents separately. Sokhansefat et al. [33] showed many models for
simulating the flow in a trough collector absorber tube assume that the
solar flux is uniform and many correlations in the models are based on a
uniform temperature. Martín et al. [34] identified the different energy
policy targets applied to the Spanish CSP sector based on public data.
The technical and economic analysis concerning the integration of CSP
parabolic trough technologies (with or without thermal storage cap-
ability) in an existing isolated Mediterranean power generation system,
in the absence of a feed-in tariff scheme, is carried out [35]. Poullikkas
[36] investigated whether the installation of a parabolic trough solar
thermal technology for power generation in the Mediterranean region is
1216
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
economically feasible. Fernández-García [37] presented an overview of
the parabolic-trough collectors that had built and marketed during the
past century, as well as the prototypes currently under development.
Eddine Boukelia and Mecibah [38] reviewed the assessment of con-
centrating solar power (CSP) potential, and parabolic trough solar
thermal power plant (PTSTPP) projects development in Algeria. Col-
menar-Santos et al. [39] reviewed the most important plants in Spain,
used as case studies, and analyzes the fact that power generation must
be considered another element of local development and not an activity
in competition with other water resource uses. Behar et al. [40] re-
viewed the integrated solar combined cycle system (ISCCS) with a
parabolic trough technology, highlighting its current status around the
world, identifying its different configurations, and pointing out the key
findings of R & D activities. Jebasingh and Herbert [41] showed the
performance and efficiency of solar parabolic trough collector and re-
viewed the pertinent applications of solar energy such as air heating
system, desalination, refrigeration, industrial heating purposes and
power plants.
The main aim of this study is to review the current solar parabolic
trough technologies for electrical power generation and other applica-
tions. The study takes into consideration the available solar potential,
different designs of solar parabolic trough, as well as all available
analyses for different parts of the system. In Section 2, the use of solar
parabolic trough systems new technologies are described. The solar
parabolic trough systems applications are presented in Section 3. The
different simulations programs used in the solar parabolic trough sys-
tems are discussed in Section 4. The mathematical techniques used in
the different applications of solar parabolic trough systems are pre-
sented in Section 5. In Section 6, the solar parabolic trough systems
main components and recent studies findings are described while the
solar parabolic trough collector tests are presented in Section 7. The
solar parabolic trough systems – power plants specifications and de-
signs in the global applications are presented in Section 8. Finally, the
conclusion summarized in Section 9.
2. Overview of SPTS technologies
This section presents an overview on the most effective technologies
on the design parameters, applications, simulations and mathematical
techniques with a behavior of a parabolic trough solar system, under
different usage application. The optimum design for the solar parabolic
trough will be achieved when occurred selection of the best design for
the components and materials, best analysis using simulation programs,
mathematical techniques that approved the best design, and the final
design for the power plant. There are many research discussed the
previous factors as shown in Tables 1–3 to achieve more effective
parabolic trough design using different techniques. This section de-
scribes briefly these techniques to reach the most valuable applications
for the system in recent studies. Table 1 shows recent studies in the
solar parabolic trough systems for covering different technologies used
in the system. Table 2 shows the information regarding the company or
institutions related to the research and the technology that was applied
and the main specifications of it. Table 3 shows the fluid/steam for the
generation process and the temperature obtained from the collectors
system.
There are numerous applications of the solar parabolic trough col-
lectors for a specific geographic location, e.g. Low enthalpy processes
[1], water supply in building [8], an absorption refrigeration system
integrated to cool the ice-cream mixture, ice-cream factory [42], de-
salination [10], power generation [4,12], heat pump [20], cooling in-
stallation [22], water pasteurization [43], CPVT [44], cooking [45],
solar heat to industrial processes [31]. Kizilkan et al. [42] proposed a
design of a PTC integrated system for an ice-cream factory, with the
PTC system to provide the energy for both heating the ice-cream mix-
ture and cooling it down by an absorption refrigeration system. Mosleh
et al. [10] built a desalination system using heat pipe, evacuated tube
A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Table 1
Solar parabolic trough systems in recent studies.

Authors Year Research Focus T or Ea Ref.

Bouvier et al. (2016) Investigated an experimental prototype of micro combined heat and power system, (micro-CHP), and showed the work of E [8]
coupling a solar collector to an expander with a PI controller, and leads to solar to electricity efficiency 3% and solar to
thermal efficiency 38%.
Mwesigye et al. (2016) Studied the effect of optical errors of the PTC system on the thermal and thermodynamic performance, they showed the T [78]
significant effects of slope errors and specularity errors on the heat flux distribution on receiver tube and the intercept factor.
Caron and Röger (2016) Studied the different field methods to estimate receiver thermal performance and heat loss measurements. E [131]
Martín and Valenzuela (2016) Studied and compare between different types of flow meters used for flow measurements of parabolic trough collector. E [132]
Chafie et al. (2016) A design, manufacture and detailed experimental study to evaluate the performance of CTP unit and calculated the thermal E [126]
efficiency, constant time for heating and cooling, incidence angle modifier and intercept factor.
Kizilkan et al. (2016) Proposed a design of a PTC integrated system for an ice-cream factory, with the PTC system to provide the energy for both T [42]
heating the ice-cream mixture and cooling it down by an absorption refrigeration system.
Al-Maliki et al. (2016) Simulated a 50 MWe parabolic trough solar thermal power plant during clear and slightly cloudy days, the simulation also T [138]
describes the heat transfer fluid paths in details.
Ashouri et al. (2015) A study on the economic and performance effect on the Kalina cycle after variation of different parameters. It was found that E [69]
the change in ammonia mass fraction has the most effect on exergy efficiency, solar fraction and levelized cost of electricity.
Boukelia et al. (2015) Comparison between the parabolic power plants with and without thermal storage and backup system in point of view of T [139]
economics, thermodynamics, and environment.
Mosleh et al. (2015) Build a desalination system using heat pipe, evacuated tube and a parabolic trough collector. E [10]
Qu and Wang (2015) Constructed and studied a parabolic trough system that operates in medium temperature and it is observed in the practical E [127]
experiment where the peak efficiency reaches 70%.
Luo et al. (2015) Presented a simulation and modelling of a dynamic parabolic trough system with pumps and oil-water heat exchanger. T [123]
Almasabi et al. (2015) Showed the characterization of the transient parabolic trough collector loops for solar energy harvesting and introducing new T, E [128]
control strategies to maximize the solar collection efficiency such as decentralizing loop inlet valve.
Bouvier et al. (2015) Experimental study of a micro-cogeneration system using a parabolic trough collector with direct steam generation. In E [70]
addition, evaluating the thermal performance of sunny and cloudy conditions.
Yılmaz et al. (2014) A thermo-mathematical model for parabolic trough solar collectors is presented. The model is suitable for calculating the T [108]
thermal efficiency and thermal losses for different operating conditions.
Bigoni et al. (2014) Studied the effectiveness of water pasteurization using solar radiation through PTC system, and found aggregated heat by E [43]
parabolic trough was able to deactivate 9 log10 of E. coli and other germs, but bacterial regrowth was began again after 72 h
of incubation at 30 °C.
Peterseim et al. (2014) Performed energy analysis to study the effectiveness of using biomass fuel as a backup source, and found that using biomass E [129]
as an external super heater, increased plant's efficiency that reduced generated power cost by 23.5%.
Col et al. (2014) Studied the thermal and electric production of a parabolic trough linear concentrating photovoltaic-thermal (CPVT) system, T, E [44]
and found that the electric efficiency reduced by temperature difference reduction. The obtained global efficiency was 70%.
Vogel et al. (2014) Showed the opportunities offered by the hybridization of parabolic trough power plants with natural gas. It enhances the live T [140]
steam parameters, flexibility and cost. Also discusses the integration of industrial gas turbines.
Alguacil et al. (2014) Overcoming the challenges faced in the direct steam generation models of parabolic troughs. T, E [124]
Ramos et al. (2014) Presented the shedding light effects on the development of parabolic trough technology in Mexico. T [133]
Siqueira et al. (2014) Implemented a mathematical model to calculate the flow parameters and the heat transfer applied to solar parabolic trough T [4]
collectors and determined the thermal and optical efficiency, thermal losses, among others, likewise presented the radial and
axial profile of temperature.
Larcher et al. (2014) Developed a valid efficiency curve of the collector from measurements of the optical behavior, likewise efficiency E [31]
measurements carried out at low and high operating temperatures. In addition, heat loss measurements of the receiver
carried out at high operating temperatures of parabolic trough collector.
Lobón & Valenzuela (2014) Studied the thermo-hydraulic behavior of PTC systems using water-steam as heat transfer fluid by a software model. T [125]
Risi et al. (2014) Designed a Transparent Parabolic Through Collector (TPTC) working with gas-based nanofluid as heat transfer fluid directly T [130]
absorbing the solar by using only CuO nanoparticles and a proper mixture (0.25% CuO and 0.05% Ni) was designed and used
in the present investigation.
A. Al-Sulaiman (2013) Sizing and performance analyses of different binary vapor cycles as compared to steam Rankine cycles all operated by PTSC. T [146]
Al-Sulaiman et al. (2012) Assessment of the CCHP using different modes of operation: solar, solar and storage, and storage. T [142]
Kalogirou. (2012) Used a thermal model for analysis of parabolic trough collector receiver. The model was validated using known performance T [110]
of collectors at Sandia National Laboratories, the matching of the results was very satisfactory.
Reddy and Kumar (2012) Analysis of the effect of different parameters on the performance of parabolic trough in Indian conditions. 58 locations across T [134]
India have been analysed, and the optimum configurations investigated.
Kumaresan et al. (2012) Studied the performance of a solar parabolic trough collector with a thermal energy storage system. The collector's E [135]
instantaneous efficiency, charging efficiency, stored energy in the storage tank, collected energy by the PTC and overall
system efficiency evaluated on a full sunny day.
Calise et al. (2012) Showed an excellent performance of the results of the simulation model of the novel CPVT. Also shows the effect of different T [56]
parameters on the performance of the CPVT.
He et al. (2012) Simulated a parabolic trough using TRANSYS for an organic Rankine cycle and leads to the more increase in interlayer T [17]
pressure and the more heat loss of the solar collector. Then it will be constant.
Krishnamurthy et al. (2012) Presented cost analysis for parabolic trough technology in India and it is expected the reductions in the cost from (24–25 US T [24]
Cents/kWh) to (14–15 US Cents/kWh) and expected that the cost of power station which will be launch in 2022.
Zaversky et al. (2012) Used the Latin Hypercube method and SimulCET to create equal probable parameter combinations and to run multiple T [29]
annual electricity yield that presented general distribution for the annual performance. The results show the cleanliness
factor is important on output.
Liu et al. (2012) Used the least squares support vector machine method (LSSVM) for modelling and optimizing solar parabolic trough collector E [18]
systems on two different solar fields 30 m2 and 600 m2. The results made a new approach for solar parabolic trough collector
systems in china.
Gong et al. (2012) Presented some results of the field measurements in Beijing, PR China as wind loads and wind pressure on the parabolic solar E [19]
collector.
Giostri et al. (2012) Comprised between different technology in parabolic trough power plants such as using the heat transfer fluid instead of E [143]
synthetic oil in ARCHIMEDE power plant verses Nevada Solar One and that leads to improve the efficiency in a range of 6%
(continued on next page)

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A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Table 1 (continued)

Authors Year Research Focus T or Ea Ref.

García-Barberena et al. (2012) Used SimulCET to analyze influence of operational strategies in parabolic trough power plants and the results are compared E [91]
with experimented data for 12 days.
Morin et al. (2012) Made a Comparison between parabolic trough collector and linear Fresnel power plants. The research presented cost and T [144]
performance targets shown must be met by linear Fresnel technology developers to reach the parabolic trough collector
benchmark. The land requirement form the Linear Fresnel is about 35% smaller, The annual efficiencies of parabolic trough
collector are lower for the Fresnel case.
Bonilla et al. (2011) Used Matlab to calibrated and validated Parabolic-trough solar thermal power plant on 9th July 2001 and the optical T, E [74]
efficiency values are close to 63% and the theoretical peak optical efficiency reached to 75%
Valenzuela et al. (2006) Showed the development and implementation of new technology for producing steam at high pressure and temperature E [145]
directly in parabolic trough solar collectors.
Zarza et al. (2004) Presented a summary of the results of the DISS (Direct Solar Steam) project which proved the feasibility of the Direct Steam E [136]
Generation (DSG) process and gathered an important know how regarding the thermo-hydraulic parameters of water/steam
flow
Flores and Almanza (2004) Obtained results on direct steam generation for low powers in parabolic trough concentrators with bimetallic Cu-Fe wall E [137]
receivers. The bimetallic receiver reduced the transient deformation from 7 cm in steel receivers to only 18 mm with a mass
flow of 150 kg/h, and 200 °C wall temperature.

a
Where, E: Experimental, T: Theoretical.

and a parabolic trough collector. Bigoni et al. [43] studied the effec-
tiveness of water pasteurization using solar radiation through PTC
system, and found the aggregated heat by parabolic trough was able to
deactivate 9 log10 of E. coli and other germs, but bacterial regrowth
began again after 72 h of incubation at 30 °C. Col et al. [44] studied the
thermal and electric production of a parabolic trough linear con-
centrating photovoltaic-thermal (CPVT) system, and found that the
electric efficiency is reduced by temperature difference reduction. The
obtained global efficiency was 70%.
The mathematical models allow the calculation of effects of dif-
ferent parameters of the solar parabolic trough system, like the angle of
inclination of the collecting surface and the forces acting on the system.
The validity of the major mathematical models are verified experi-
mentally on practical solar parabolic trough concentrators, receivers or
other components of different dimension. In particular, the mathema-
tical models are especially required for the design, analysis, testing and
validation of the systems results because they provide an approximation
of the dynamic behavior of the physical properties of the system. There
are many studies that discussed mathematical techniques for analysis of
different parameters of the parabolic trough systems and for example as
Monte Carlo method [7,46,47], computational fluid dynamics [7], fi-
nite element method, analysis [16,48–53], finite volume method
[21,53–59], finite difference [4,60,61], LBM [50], LES [50], SRT [51],
MCRT [21,53,55,57,59,62–64], PSO [65], PSO–MCRT [66], PSO-NMS
[67], global sensitivity [30], LSSVM [18], Semi-Implicit method [68].
It is well-known that the simulation software programs of mathe-
matical models and techniques are very useful during the analysis of
physical systems especially in our investigation on solar parabolic
trough collectors systems. Different kinds of software models and test
methods of solar collectors have been developed since 1981, which can
be distinguished by their particular mathematical models or simulation
techniques as shown in recent studies. There are many programs used
to design, simulate, and study different components of the solar para-
bolic trough as concentrators, receivers, structure, and other compo-
nents. The main software programs are used such as Matlab
[14,63,67,69–76], Matlab/Simulink [77], SolTrace [48,51,78–81],
SAM (Solar Advisor Model) [82–85], GAMBIT [57,71,86–90], Si-
mulCET [29,91], Monte Carlo Ray Trace (MCRT) [64,92–95], TRNSYS
[17,20,84,96–100], ANSYS [53,101,102], ANSYS FLUENT
[13,54,63,78,80,88,103], ANSYS CFX 15.0 [104–106], ANSYS work-
bench [95], FLUENT [64,71,89,95,107], EES [56,69,108–110], CFD
software or code [65,111–114], SolidWorks [88,105], Solidworks flow
simulation studio [6], ZEMAX/SolidWorks Flow simulations [32],
Labview [70,115], Thermoflex [116], Meteonorm [98], Code ATHLET
[117], Zemax Ray tracing [118], APROS Model [119], XFlow [50],
PVSyst [83], photogrammetry mapping [120], Tri-Diagonal Matrix
Algorithm (TDMA) and FORTRAN [121], and Visual C++ program-
ming language [122]. Mwesigye et al. [78] studied the effect of optical
errors of the PTC system on the thermal and thermodynamic perfor-
mance, they showed the significant effect of slope errors and specularity
errors on the heat flux distribution on receiver tube and the intercept
factor. Ashouri et al. [69] presented a study on the economic and
performance effect of the Kalina cycle after variation of different
parameters. It was found that the change in ammonia mass fraction has
the most effect on exergy efficiency, solar fraction and levelized cost of
electricity. Luo et al. [123] presented a simulation and modelling of a
dynamic parabolic trough system with pumps and oil-water heat ex-
changer. Yılmaz et al. [108] presented a thermo-mathematical model
for parabolic trough solar collectors. The model is suitable for calcu-
lating the thermal efficiency and thermal losses for different operating
conditions. Alguacil et al. [124] tried overcoming the challenges faced
in the direct steam generation models of parabolic troughs. Lobón and
Valenzuela [125] studied the thermo-hydraulic behavior of PTC sys-
tems using water-steam as heat transfer fluid by a software model.
Kalogirou [110] used a thermal model for analysis of parabolic trough
collector receiver. The model was validated using known performance
of collectors at Sandia National Laboratories, the matching of the re-
sults was very satisfactory. Calise et al. [56] showed an excellent per-
formance of the results of the simulation model of the novel CPVT. Also
shows the effect of different parameters on the performance of the
CPVT. He et al. [17] simulated a parabolic trough using TRANSYS for
an organic Rankine cycle and lead to the conclusion that the more the
increase in interlayer pressure, the more heat loss of the solar collector.
Then it will be constant. Zaversky et al. [29] used the Latin Hypercube
method and SimulCET to create equal probable parameter combina-
tions and to run multiple annual electricity yield that presented general
distribution for the annual performance. The results show the cleanli-
ness factor is important on output. García-Barberena et al. [91] used
SimulCET to analyze influence of operational strategies in parabolic
trough power plants and the results are compared with experimented
data for 12 days. Bonilla et al. [74] used Matlab to calibrate and vali-
dated Parabolic-trough solar thermal power plant on 9th July 2001 and
the optical efficiency values are close to 63% and the theoretical peak
optical efficiency reached 75%.
The design and components of the parabolic trough systems are
discussed in many studies to achieve the best performance for the
system. Chafie et al. [126] studied the design, manufacture and detailed
experimental study to evaluate the performance of CTP unit and cal-
culated the thermal efficiency, constant time for heating and cooling,
incidence angle modifier and intercept factor. Qu and Wang [127]

1218
 Table 2
Solar parabolic trough systems manufacturers, technologies and specifications in recent studies.

Authors Year Country & Location PTC, Company or Institution Technology/Technique Capacity Aperture Theoretical or Ref.
A.Z. Hafez et al.

(MWe) Area (m2) Experimental

Jaramillo et al. (2016) Mexico, Brazil Institute of Renewable Energy (Instituto de Energías Twisted tape inserts N/A 5.187 T, E [1]
Renovables)
Bellos et al. (2016) Greece National Technical University of Athens Use of Al2O3 nanoparticles in the working fluid. N/A 14.03 T [6]
Bouvier et al. (2016) France Exosun Micro Combined Heat and Power (micro-CHP) 1.3 kW 46.5 E [8]
Toghyani et al. (2016) Iran University of Isfahan, Hezar Jerib Ave Nano-fluid based parabolic 40–55 kW N/A T [9]
Kaloudis et al. (2016) Greece National Center for Scientific Research (Demokritos) Two-phase model N/A N/A T [7]
Meiser et al. (2015) Germany German aerospace center Simulation for support structure N/A N/A T [101]
Habib et al. (2015) UAE Masdar institute Simulation for selective surface flow receiver N/A N/A T [13]
Mosleh et al. (2015) Tahran- Iran Sharif University of Technology Desalination system using a combination of heat pipe, N/A 1.8 E [10]
evacuated tube and parabolic trough collector
Sun et al. (2015) China Chinese Academy of Sciences Numerical study N/A 5.76 T [14]
Richert et al. (2015) GermanyPP, Morocco FLABEG Effects of Solar Field inlet and outlet temperature on the N/A N/A E [12]
cost of electricity in a Molten Salt Parabolic Trough
Power Plant
Wang et al. (2015) Tianjin - China Ministry of Education, Tianjin University Simulation performed by TRNSYS using the measured 255 kW 15 E [20]
meteorological data
Xiao et al. (2014) China Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, ChinaSolar V-cavity absorber with rectangular fins, used in the N/A N/A T [15]
Energy Research Institute, Yunnan Normal University linear parabolic trough collector (PTC) system.
Balghouthi et al. (2014) Tunisia Center of Researches and Energy Technologies, Tunisia Optical evaluations of the collectors using 16 kW 39 E [22]
photogrammetric Techniques
Wang et al. (2014) China Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy A three-dimensional simulation based on Finite Element N/A N/A T [16]
of Sciences, ChinaUniversity of Chinese Academy of Method (FVM) is established to solve the complex
Sciences, ChinaNorth China Electric Power University, problem coupling with radiation, heat conduction and
China convection in the PTCs

1219
Selvakumar et al. (2014) India Kongu Engineering College, IndiaEBET Group of Performance study on evacuated tube solar collector N/A 0.72 T [23]
Institutions, Tirupur, India using therminol D−12 as heat transfer fluid coupled
with parabolic trough
Padilla et al. (2014) Colombia USA Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, ColombiaUniversity of Energy analysis of parabolic trough receiver N/A N/A T [25]
South Florida, USA
Valenzuela et al. (2014) Spain CIEMAT, Plataforma Solar de Almería, Crta. de Senes, Optical and thermal performance of large-size parabolic- N/A 409.908 E [27]
Tabernas trough solar collectors from outdoor experiments.
Silva et al. (2014) Almeria, Spain University of Almería, CIEMAT evaluate the robustness of the simulation-based design 100 kW 13.2 E [30]
stage, identifying major modelling sources of uncertainty
Siqueira et al. (2014) Brazil Federal University of Viçosa, Chemistry Department, Develop and implement a mathematical model to N/A N/A T [4]
calculate flow parameters and heat transfer applied to
parabolic trough solar collectors
Montes et al. (2014) Mexico, Brazil Mexican company Powergie S.A.P.I. de C.V., with the Reduce the logistics times and labour for this type of 140 W 1.6 m × T, E [147]
advice of Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México solar thermal systems as well as manufacturing costs. As 2.44 m
(UACM), and financing from Instituto de Ciencia y a result is obtained a PTSC module with best features
Tecnología del Distrito Federal (ICyTDF). strength / weight and stiffness / weight, and other
technical advantages.
Filho et al. (2014) Brazil Universidade Federal de Santa CatarinaLEPTEN - Methodology and the results of an experimental and N/A 3m × 4m T, E [5]
Laboratórios de Engenharia de Processos de Conversão e numerical investigation of the thermal losses of a small
Tecnologia de Energia scale parabolic trough collector
Larcher et al. (2014) Switzerland Institute for Solar Technology SPF at the University of Elaborate a valid efficiency curve of the collector from N/A 1.845 m × T, E [31]
Applied Sciences Rapperswil HSR Oberseestr measurements of the optical behavior heat loss 10 m
Measurements of the receiver, carried out at high
collector operating temperatures.
Macedo-Valencia (2014) México, Brazil Universidad de Quintana Roo,Universidad Nacional Design, modelling, and evaluation of a parabolic trough N/A 0.5 m × 0.95 T, E [3]
et al. Autónoma de México collector (PTC) for heating water as a demonstrative
prototype
He et al. (2012) China School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong simulation on parabolic trough system with organic N/A N/A T (Simulation) [17]
University Rankine Cycle
(continued on next page)
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Table 3

[24]

[28]

[29]

[18]

[21]

[19]

[32]

[26]
Ref.
Solar parabolic trough systems specifications for the fluid and in process temperature in
recent studies.

Authors Year Fluid/Steam Process Ref.

Theoretical or
Experimental

Generation Temperature (°C)

Jaramillo et al. (2016) Water 70 − 110 [1]

Bellos et al. (2016) Thermal oil with N/A [6]

T, E
nanoparticles and
T

T
E
pressurized water
Bouvier et al. (2016) Demineralized water 60 − 80 [8]
Area (m2)

Toghyani et al. (2016) Four different nano- N/A [9]

Aperture

30 MWe
fluids (CuO, SiO2, TiO2

5.76 m
N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A
and Al2O3)
Kaloudis et al. (2016) Syltherm 800/Al2O3 375 − 570 K [7]
nanofluid
Habib et al. (2015) HTF ( Syltherm 800) 350 − 650 K [13]
Capacity

1.25 MW

Mosleh et al. (2015) Ethanol N/A [10]

(MWe)

20 GW

Sun et al. (2015) Fluid 153 − 410 [14]

N/A
N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Richert et al. (2015) Molten Salt 285 − 570 [12]

Wang et al. (2015) Synthetic oil N/A [20]
LSSVM method to provide meaningful data for

collectorwith nonuniform solar flux conditions by

developing the parabolic trough solar thermal power

Numerical simulation of a parabolic trough solar

Probabilistic modelling of a parabolic trough collector

Xiao et al. (2014) Water, Oil and air 92.7; 121.5; 150.9 [15]
Balghouthi et al. (2014) Pressurized water 164 [22]
An analysis of costs of parabolic trough technology

Optimized variable-focus-parabolic-trough reflector

Wang et al. (2014) Molten Salt From 623–825 K [16]

Adaptative state-space model predictive control

Selvakumar et al. (2014) D−12 Therminol 60 [23]

Padilla et al. (2014) Water 400 [25]
Valenzuela et al. (2014) N/A 400 [27]
Silva et al. (2014) Saturated steam 100 [30]
Siqueira et al. (2014) Fluid 22 [4]
coupling FVMand MCRT method

Montes et al. (2014) Fluid N/A [147]

Larcher et al. (2014) N/A 100 to 300 [31]
Technology/Technique

Wind loads (filed data)

Luz International Ltd.

plant in China.
power plant

Table 4
Solar parabolic trough systems applications in recent publications.

Authors Year Parabolic trough research application Ref.

National Renewable Energy Center (CENER), Public

Institute of Electrical Engineering, Building Safety and

Dongguan University of Technology, North China Electric

Energy Efficiency (Hunan University), Ministry of

National Thermal Power Corporation's Vidyut Vyapar

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong

Luz International Ltd., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Universidad de Sevilla, Camino de los Descubrimientos

Richert et al. (2015) Power generation [12]

Wang et al. (2015) Heat pump [20]
Col et al. (2014) CPVT [44]
Mussard & Nydal (2014) Cooking [45]
Mosleh et al. (2015) Desalination [10]
Bigoni et al. (2014) Water pasteurization [43]
Jaramillo et al. (2016) Low enthalpy processes [1]
Larcher et al. (2014) Solar heat to industrial processes [31]
PTC, Company or Institution

Siqueira et al. (2014) Power generation [4]

University of Navarra (UPNA)

Bouvier et al. (2016) In building as water supply [8]

Changping District, Beijing

Kizilkan et al. (2016) An absorption refrigeration system is [42]

integrated to cool the ice-cream mixture, ice-
Nigam Ltd. (NVVN)

cream factory
Power University

Balghouthi et al. (2014) Solar cooling installation used to supply [22]

chilled water, and to a research labs within
University

Education

the same center

Country & Location

constructed and studied a parabolic trough system that operates in

medium temperature and it is observed in the practical experiment
where the peak efficiency reached 70%. Almasabi et al. [128] showed
the characterization of the transient parabolic trough collector loops for
Taiwan
China

China

China
Spain

Spain
India

solar energy harvesting and introducing new control strategies to

USA

maximize the solar collection efficiency such as decentralizing loop

(2012)

(2012)

(2012)

(2012)

(2012)

(2012)

(2012)

(2004)

inlet valve. Peterseim et al. [129] performed energy analysis to study

Year

the effectiveness of using biomass fuel as a backup source, and found

that using biomass as an external super heater, increased plant's effi-
Krishnamurthy et al.

ciency that reduced generated power cost by 23.5%. Col et al. [44]
Table 2 (continued)

studied the thermal and electric production of a parabolic trough linear

Zaversky et al.

Stuetzle et al.
Camacho

Tsai and Lin

Cheng et al.
Gallego and

Gong et al.

concentrating photovoltaic-thermal (CPVT) system, and found that the

Liu et al.
Authors

electric efficiency is reduced by temperature difference reduction. The

obtained global efficiency was 70%. Siqueira et al. [4] implemented a
mathematical model to calculate the flow parameters and the heat

1220
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 1. A schematic for a desalination unit using a parabolic trough [10].
transfer applied to solar parabolic trough collectors and determined the
thermal and optical efficiency, thermal losses, among others, likewise
presented the radial and axial profile of temperature. Risi et al. [130]
designed a Transparent Parabolic Through Collector (TPTC) working
with gas-based nanofluid as heat transfer fluid directly absorbing the
solar by using only CuO nanoparticles and a proper mixture (0.25%
CuO and 0.05% Ni) was designed and used in the presented in-
vestigation. Liu et al. [18] used the least squares support vector ma-
chine method (LSSVM) for modelling and optimizing solar parabolic
trough collector systems on two different solar fields 30 m2 and 600 m2.
The results made a new approach for solar parabolic trough collector
systems in china.
There are studies that focused on the tests on the solar parabolic
troughs. Caron and Röger [131] studied the different field methods to
estimate receiver thermal performance and heat loss measurements.
Martín and Valenzuela [132] studied and compared between different
types of flow meters used for flow measurements of parabolic trough
collector. Ramos et al. [133] presented the shedding light effects on the
development of parabolic trough technology in Mexico. Larcher et al.
[31] developed a valid efficiency curve of the collector from measure-
ments of the optical behavior, likewise efficiency measurements were
carried out at low and high operating temperatures. In addition, heat
loss measurements of the receiver were carried out at high operating
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of PTCs system that was used for water pasteurization [43].
Fig. 4. Parabolic trough 1×1.05 m size, with a 2 cm-diameter pipe for cooking purposes
[45].
temperatures of parabolic trough collector. Reddy and Kumar [134]
showed an analysis of the effect of different parameters on the perfor-
mance of parabolic trough in Indian conditions where 58 locations
across India have been analysed, and the optimum configurations were
investigated. Kumaresan et al. [135] studied the performance of a solar
parabolic trough collector with a thermal energy storage system. The
collector's instantaneous efficiency, charging efficiency, stored energy
in the storage tank, collected energy by the PTC and overall system
efficiency were evaluated on a full sunny day. Krishnamurthy et al. [24]
presented a cost analysis for parabolic trough technology in India and
expected the reductions in the cost from (24–25 US Cents/kWh) to
(14–15 US Cents/kWh) and estimated the cost of power station which
will be launch in 2022. Gong et al. [19] presented some results of the
Fig. 2. (a) Experimental prototype of parabolic trough linear
CPVT at university of Padova (b) Concentered photovoltaic
thermal module [44].
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 5. Schematic overview of the proposed PTC integrated system for an ice-cream factory [42].
field measurements in Beijing, PR China as wind loads and wind pres-
sure on the parabolic solar collector. Zarza et al. [136] presented a
summary of the results of the DISS (Direct Solar Steam) project which
proved the feasibility of the Direct Steam Generation (DSG) process and
gathered an important know how regarding the thermo-hydraulic
parameters of water/steam flow. Flores and Almanza [137] obtained
results on direct steam generation for low powers in parabolic trough
concentrators with bimetallic Cu-Fe wall receivers. The bimetallic re-
ceiver reduced the transient deformation from 7 cm in steel receivers to
only 18 mm with a mass flow of 150 kg/h, and 200 °C wall tempera-
ture.
Comparatively, the number of references analyzing the SPTC de-
ployment in the context of the research papers of the different countries
currently having operational PTC plants is much more significant.
Bouvier et al. [8] investigated an experimental prototype of micro
combined heat and power system, (micro-CHP), and showed the work
of coupling a solar collector to an expander with a PI controller, which
leads to solar to electricity efficiency 3% and solar to thermal efficiency
38%. Al-Maliki et al. [138] simulated a 50 MWe parabolic trough solar
thermal power plant during clear and slightly cloudy days, the simu-
lation also describes the heat transfer fluid paths in details. Ashouri
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
et al. [69] presented a study on the economic and performance effect of
the Kalina cycle after variation of different parameters. It was found
that the change in ammonia mass fraction has the most effect on exergy
efficiency, solar fraction and levelized cost of electricity. Boukelia et al.
[139] showed a comparison between the parabolic power plants with
and without thermal storage and backup system in point of view of
economics, thermodynamics, and environment. Bouvier et al. [70]
presented an experimental study of a micro-cogeneration system using
a parabolic trough collector with direct steam generation. In addition,
evaluating the thermal performance of sunny and cloudy conditions.
Vogel et al. [140] showed the opportunities offered by the hybridiza-
tion of parabolic trough power plants with natural gas. It enhances the
live steam parameters, flexibility and cost. Also discusses the integra-
tion of industrial gas turbines. A. Al-Sulaiman [141] showed sizing and
performance analyses of different binary vapor cycles as compared to
steam Rankine cycles all operated by PTSC. Al-Sulaiman et al. [142]
presented an assessment of the CCHP using different modes of opera-
tion: solar, solar and storage, and storage. He et al. [17] simulated a
parabolic trough using TRANSYS for an organic Rankine cycle and lead
to the more increase in interlayer pressure, the more heat loss of the
solar collector. Then it will be constant. Giostri et al. [143] comprised
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 7. Parabolic trough systems with pre-heater [5].
between different technology in parabolic trough power plants such as
using the heat transfer fluid instead of synthetic oil in ARCHIMEDE
power plant verses Nevada Solar One and that leads to improve the
efficiency in a range of 6%. Morin et al. [144] made a comparison
between parabolic trough collector and linear Fresnel power plants. The
research showed that cost and performance targets shown must be met
by linear Fresnel technology developers to reach the parabolic trough
collector benchmark. The land requirement form the Linear Fresnel is
about 35% smaller, the annual efficiencies of parabolic trough collector
are lower for the Fresnel case. Bonilla et al. [74] used Matlab to cali-
brate and validate Parabolic-trough solar thermal power plant on 9th
July 2001 and the optical efficiency values are close to 63% and the
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
Fig. 6. Solar cooling installation system lo-
cated at CRTEn, Tunisia [22].
theoretical peak optical efficiency reached 75%. Valenzuela et al. [145]
showed the development and implementation of new technology for
producing steam at high pressure and temperature directly in parabolic
trough solar collectors.
3. Applications of SPTS
The solar parabolic trough tracks the sun direction to focus the solar
radiation on the receiver, where a thermal process and generator unit is
connected. There are numerous applications regarding the solar para-
bolic trough collectors for a specific geographic location, as for example
power generation [4,12], heat pump [20], CPVT [44], cooking [45],
desalination [10],water pasteurization [43], low enthalpy processes
[1], solar heat to industrial processes [31], water supply in building [8],
an absorption refrigeration system is integrated to cool the ice-cream
mixture in ice-cream factory [42], solar cooling installation used to
supply chilled water [22]. Table 4 shows the different applications of
the solar parabolic trough in the corresponding recent studies. Efficient
solar parabolic trough systems are characterized by reasonable weight,
hardiness against wind deflection, low construction cost, reflectors with
high reflation coefficient and with material treated for withstanding
temperature and moisture variations.
The largest benefit and potential market from the solar parabolic
trough units when are connected to the grid in the power plants facil-
ities. To achieve the requested demand in peak hours, solar parabolic
trough collectors units can be added to the utility grid as requested.
Many researchers discussed new technologies to research the optimum
ranges for the solar parabolic trough systems in electricity generation
[12,31].
Solar desalination is one of the applications that can be achieved
using parabolic trough systems. Mosleh et al. [10] build a desalination
 Table 5
Solar parabolic trough system components (Concentrator) in recent studies.

Component Authors Year Application/Purpose T or E Ref.

A.Z. Hafez et al.

Solar Field(Concentrator (Mirrors)) Meiser et al. (2016) Investigated the deformation to the mirror due to gravity load and mounting forces with its effect on the shape of the mirror, the resulting slope and T [101]
focus deviation values were evaluated.
Meiser et al. (2015) Showed an evaluation of the gravity load on mirror shape and minimizing the deviation that occurs from gravity load on mirror shape. T [11]
Cheng et al. (2015) Performed numerical optimization to enhance the optical performance of the parabolic trough collector using PSO–MCRT algorithm. T [66]
Balghouthi et al. (2014) Studied the optical and thermal performance for PTSC by photogrammetric techniques and found that the optical and thermal efficiencies were the E [22]
same (0.58) with respect to ASHRAE technique 93 (1986).
Filho, et al. (2014) Performed an experimental and numerical analysis of thermal losses of PTC, and found that the efficiency obtained varied from 0.3 to 0.55, this low T, E [5]
efficiency due to external factors such as dirt on mirror.
Valencia, et al. (2014) Carried out design, modelling, and evaluation of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) for heating water as ademonstrative prototype E [3]
Ceylan & Ergun (2013) Carried out a thermodynamic analysis for a new temperature controlled (TCPTC) design, and found that the highest amount of water obtained was T [148]
96 kg for 40 °C proposed temperature.
Cheng et al. (2012) Used Finite Volume Method and Monte Carlo Ray-Trace for simulating and analyzing the total photo-thermal conversion process of LS2 PTC system. T [21]
Tsai et al. (2012) Optimized the variable focus points of parabolic trough solar collector by using ZEMAX/Solid-Works-Flow simulations that made some improvements T [32]
over heating efficiency and irradiance distribution.
Garcнa-Cortйs et al. (2012) Estimated intercept factor of a parabolic solar trough collector with new structure support which used as an equipment, dependent on the off-the-shelf T [149]
photogrammetric.
Huang et al. (2012) Carried out a simulation for PTC performance which resulted to every position on the parabolic mirror has different optical efficiency that changed T [150]
with the incidence angle, the nearer the axis of the parabolic reflector the shorter distance than those away from axis.
Riffelmann et al. (2006) Studied the optical performance and its losses of PTC by measuring the solar flux in the focal region, the following two methods: PARASCAN E [151]
(PARAbolic Trough Flux SCANner) and camera-target-method (CTM). It was found that for incident angles between 10 °C and 40 °C, the intercept
factor was mostly between 93% and 97.5%. For some receivers it was found to be 85%, so it showed potential for improving the optical performance
by improving image quality of the mirror and more precise assembly of collector components.

1224
water [10].
Fig. 9. PTSC used for cooling installation [22].
Fig. 8. Installation of the reflector mirror [126].

et al. [44] studied the thermal and electric production of a parabolic

Solar parabolic trough systems can also be used as stand-alone

contact with closed loop coolant(water). The PV cells has square shape,
junction solar cells constructed over ceramic substrate that has a direct
radiation and solar sensor for establishing the best receiver alignment
[44]. Fig. 2b indicates the concentrated photovoltaic – thermal (CPVT)
systems for applications such as for CPVT or in the grid connections. Col
system: a mirror that reflects the sun rays into the twin-glass evacuated

module, which consist of aluminium mirrors, GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple

plane. The tracking is governed by solar algorithm for following solar
zenithal motion), to make the beam radiation always normal to the
The tracking system of CPVT consisted of Two axes (azimuthal and
ceiver tube, 6.857 m2 aperture area and closely 130 geometrical ratio.
reduction. The obtained global efficiency was 70%. Fig. 2a indicates
trough linear concentrating photovoltaic-thermal (CPVT) system, and
passes through TETC to get rid of its salts and finally gets out as purified
brackish water. Water gets into the system as a brackish water then it
which comes out as purified water and the inlet and outlet of the
parabolic trough, a condenser to condense the high temperature steam
tube collector (TETC), a tracking system to control the orientation of
collector as a source of heat. Fig. 1 demonstrates the components of the
lector. It is shown in Fig. 1, a desalination unit using a parabolic trough
system using heat pipe, evacuated tube and a parabolic trough col-
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

linear parabolic trough photovoltaic concentrator with 2.4 m long re-

found that the electric efficiency reduces by temperature difference
A.Z. Hafez et al.
connected electrically to form 22 cells package and its efficiency was
34.6% at 25 °C [44].
Recent studies discussed some models for the solar parabolic trough
to be used for water pasteurization. Bigoni et al. [43] studied the ef-
fectiveness of water pasteurization using solar radiation through PTC
system, and found aggregated heat by parabolic trough was able to
deactivate 9 log10 of E. coli and other germs, but bacterial regrowth
began again after 72 h of incubation at 30 °C. Fig. 3 indicates parabolic
trough system used for water pasteurization. Solar radiation is collected
over the focal length (receiver) due to reflection by aluminium mirrors
reflector, then the untreated river water entering the pipe, heated up
gradually until the pasteurization temperature. The PTC had the fol-
lowing structure components: anodized aluminium sheets as mirror
reflector, black galvanized steel pipe absorber; it consisted of 3 m long
tube, 3.8 cm internal diameter, and 0.18 cm wall thickness and 3.4 L
volume. The parabolic trough frame has 1.9 m aperture width. The PTC
system has one rotational degree of freedom, using two pivots that were
fixed on the supporting frame [43].
Mussard and Nydal [45] calculated the efficiency losses and toler-
able margin error when changing incident angles of the sun rays. To
tolerate tracking inaccuracy, the diameter of the absorber has to be
increased. Considering the rays of the sun parallels is often quite rea-
listic, but in certain cases, the precision of this assumption is not sui-
table. Close to the critical angles, efficiency error reaches 9% con-
sidering parallel rays. Fig. 4 shows the application of the PTC for
cooking of 1×1.05 m size, with a 2 cm-diameter pipe. The Ray tracer
software for parabolic trough is used for design [45].
Solar parabolic trough systems can be used as stand-alone systems
for applications such as for ice making factory. Kizilkan et al. [42]
proposed a design of a PTC integrated system for an ice-cream factory.
The PTC system provides energy for both heating the ice-cream mixture
and cooling it down using an absorption refrigeration system. The
system uses several PTC units at the solar collector field as shown in
Fig. 5. The temperature of the PTC are 118.5 °C and 212.7 °C at the inlet
and exit respectively. The heat transfer fluid is Thermonil-VP1. In ad-
dition, an absorption refrigeration system is integrated to cool the ice-
cream mixture, working with LiBr-H2O refrigerant couple. The heat
energy, which powers up the generator of absorption system, is from
the PTC system [42].
Solar parabolic trough systems were used to provide chilled water
from the mechanical energy produced from the thermal energy such as
Balghouthi et al. [22] studied the optical and thermal performance for
PTSC by photogrammetric techniques and found the optical and
thermal efficiencies were the same (0.58) with respect ASHRAE tech-
nique 93 (1986). Fig. 6 indicates solar cooling installation that used to
provide chilled water located at CRTEn, Tunisia. The specifications of
parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) are 39 m2, backup heater, sto-
rage tank, drain back storage bank, cooling tower, and a set of fan coils
units for conditioning. The PTSC units were installed in a series form,
with east to west axis orientation. The system also contains a gas-fired
boiler as a backup system in case of insufficient solar energy [22].
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
Fig. 10. Parabolic trough system constructed over 600 m2 in
Langfang city, Hebei Province [18].
4. Components of SPTS
A solar parabolic trough design description as a long, trough-shaped
reflector or there are new shapes in recent papers with a parabolic
cross-section where the sunlight radiation reflected within the trough
then focused along a line running the f fluid is pumped through it. The
receiver tube is designed to absorb the most of the energy focused over
it to raise the temperature of the fluid. Many receivers used for different
purposes and applications are made of steel material with black
coating, surrounded by a protective glass cover and usually separated
by evacuated space between the receiver tube and the protective glass
to minimize heat losses. An antireflective coating is important and in
some designs may be added to the outer glass surface to increase effi-
ciency further. Filho et al. [5] illustrated the methodology and the re-
sults of an experimental and numerical investigation of the thermal
losses of a small-scale parabolic trough collector. The collector in-
vestigated is 3 m wide and 4 m long, with evacuated tubes with selec-
tive coatings. However, system performance was very sensitive to small
variations in the operational conditions and deformation of the axis of
the parabolic trough. The main design of solar parabolic trough system
in Fig. 7 consists of a closed circuit where the auxiliary equipment
(pump, pre-heater, valves and cooler) provides water at controlled
pressure, temperature and mass flow rate at the collector inlet [5]. In
this section, the main components of the parabolic trough are described
as:
1. Solar Field
1. SPT concentrator (Mirrors)
2. SPT receiver
3. SPT tracking system
4. SPT support structure
5. SPT HTF oil
2. Thermal Storage
1. SPTTS molten salt or others
2. SPTTS hot and cold tanks
4.1. Solar field
4.1.1. Concentrator (mirrors)
Table 5 shows solar parabolic trough system (concentrator) com-
ponent in the recent studies. Chafie et al. [126] studied a design,
manufacture and detailed experimental study to evaluate the perfor-
mance of CTP unit and calculated the thermal efficiency, constant time
for heating and cooling, incidence angle modifier and intercept factor.
Fig. 8 shows the attachment process of the reflector to the metal frame.
The reflector in this example is made of lightweight and hard alumi-
nium sheets which has a thickness of 2.5 mm. Aluminium sheets are
wrapped by an aluminized thin film to increase its reflectance [126].
Balghouthi et al. [22] studied the optical and thermal performance
for PTSC by photogrammetric techniques and found the optical and
 Table 6
Solar parabolic trough system components (Receiver) in recent studies.
A.Z. Hafez et al.

Component Authors Year Application/Purpose T or E Ref.

Solar Field(Receiver) Jaramillo et al. (2016) Carried out a study to measure improvement of the heat transfer in the receiver tube by inserting a twisted tape in the tube to increase its thermal. T, E [1]
Bellos et al. (2016) Performed a study about dimpled absorber tube with sine geometry as this shape the available surface for the heat transfer and so increases the heat T [6]
transfer rate.
Hermoso et al. (2016) Studied the performance of three different receivers of different manufacturers and diameters, they valuate the transmittance of the cover glass, the E [154]
absorbance of the metal tube and the heat losses from the tube.
Khanna et al. (2016) Investigated the use of bimetallic absorber tube to reduce the temperature gradient across the circumference of the tube, also study the effects of T [111]
thicknesses and material used through the temperature gradient.
Guo et al. (2016) Investigated the effect of some important parameters on the performance of solar receiver and its thermal efficiency, such as the mass flow rate of the T [155]
working fluid, the inlet and ambient temperatures, the diameter of the absorber and the cover glass, the wind speed and the incident angle
Fuqiang et al. (2016) Studied the use of symmetric outward convex corrugated tube for the parabolic trough receiver to increase the heat transfer performance and decrease the T [152]
thermal strain of metal tube.
Habib et al. (2015) Carried out a numerical analysis for long receiver used in parabolic trough plants and optimized the plant system performance. T [13]
Huang et al. (2015) Studied heat transfer enhancement in the inner tube that used dimples, protrusions and helical fins and found that the dimples performance was the best. T [153]
Reddy et al. (2015) Studied the effect of inserting a porous disc into the receiver surface to enhance the heat transfer to HTF and concluding that the thermal gradient T, E [156]
between the receiver wall surface and fluid and across the receiver cross section was less in case of porous disc enhanced receiver compared to the
conventional tubular receiver.
Mwesigye et al. (2015) Studied thermodynamic optimization of a parabolic trough receiver with inserting perforated plate. T [157]
Chen et al. (2015) Analysed thermal performance of a new design for linear cavity absorber and found that the thermal efficiency of the new design is comparable to the T, E [158]
evacuated tube design.
Mwesigye et al. (2014) Investigated the thermal and thermodynamic performance of a receiver for a parabolic trough solar collector with perforated plate inserts. It was found T [80]
out that in a certain range of certain parameters the thermal efficiency increased by 1.2–8%.
Song et al. (2014) Showed numerically that the transversal angle affects the flux distribution more greatly than longitudinal angle. Transverse angle of 11.567 mrad T [63]
increased the maximum temperature of the absorber tube (Tmax), relative change of heat loss (Qloss) and maximum circumferential temperature difference

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(∆ T). But with a decreasing effect with the increase of Re. At the range of studied Re, certain helical screw-tape inserts reduce Qloss, Tmax and ∆ T.
Xiao et al. (2014) Investigated optical activity and heat transfer process of HTF through V-cavity absorber and found that V-cavity design prevented escapee of sunlight, T, E [15]
temperature of outlet HTF increased from 109.8 °C to 110.9 °C, and the heating surface temperature dropped by 14.7 °C due to fins
Wu et al. (2014) Performed structural reliability study about stainless steel tube, and found that the deflection of stainless steel tube is slightly dependent on thermal stress T and E [95]
and strongly dependent on supporting structure of the system.
Padilla et al. (2014) Performed energy analysis over PTC's receiver, and found that collector energy efficiency was significantly affected by HTF inlet temperature, vacuum in T [25]
annulus and solar irradiance, but it is not affected by absence of wind, and mass flow rate.
Waghole et al. (2014) Investigated the effect of using silver nano fluid in absorber with twisted tape inserts on friction factor and heat transfer, and found that by inserting E [159]
twisted tape, Nussult number varied from 1.25 to 2.1, and friction factor varied from 1.0 to 1.75.
Valdés et al. (2014) Investigated the effect of temperature distribution along the receiver tube over its deflection magnitude, and found that deformation occurred at very low T [160]
mass fluxes.
Canavarro et al. (2014) Presented new optical designs for large parabolic troughs, showed a reduction of cost of solar thermal electricity, produced by parabolic trough fields. T [141]
Akbarimoosavi and Yaghoubi. (2014) Performed analysis over absorber tube of PTC and studied effect of deflection on the tube and the optical efficiency. T [53]
Zavattoni et al. (2014) Studied the reliability and effectiveness of a novel CSP receiver design. T, E [102]
Zhang et al. (2013) Carried out an experimental study of the heat losses of a double glazing vacuum U-type solar receiver mounted in a PTC natural circulation system for [161]
generating medium-temperature steam. Field experiments were performed to determine the overall heat losses of the receiver. Effects of wind, vacuum
glass tube, radiation, and structural characteristics on the heat losses were analysed.
Lei et al. (2013) Tested total heat loss, end loss and coating thermal emittance of a newly designed receiver in order to model its thermal characterization. However, E, T [162]
temperature deviations arised when using end coil heaters were significantly lower than those observed without the end coil heaters
Cheng et al. (2012) Studied experimentally the effect of adding unilateral longitudinal vortex generators inside parabolic trough receivers on heat transfer. The effects of E [57]
different parameters were also examined including: Re, HTF inlet temperature, incident solar radiation and LVG geometry.
Li et al. (2012) Studied the reliability of the vacuum parabolic trough receivers and the gas sources, and suggested several measures to be taken for increasing their E [163]
reliability.
Hong et al. (2012) Developed a mid-temperature solar receiver/reactor parabolic trough to produce hydrogen. In addition, proved that by combing solar thermal energy [164]
with alternative fuel at around 200–300 °C the production of hydrogen will be feasible.
Forristall et al. (2011) Carried out an analysis on heat of parabolic trough solar receiver by using finite difference method and the results showed a better agreement with [165]
experimental data compared to models.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 11. Scheme for a solar PTC [130].
thermal efficiencies were the same (0.58) with respect ASHRAE tech-
nique 93 (1986). Fig. 9 indicates a parabolic trough solar collector in-
stalled in center of researches and energy Technologies at Bordj-Cedria,
Tunisia for cooling purposes. The PTSC consists of polished aluminium
mirror with dust proof coating that reflects solar radiation over the tube
absorber. The proposed system consists of three modules arranged in
series. Each one consists of 13.34 m2 aperture area, 0.68 m2 receiver
area, 19.6 geometric ratio of concentration, and 0.89 collector mirror
reflectance [22].
Liu et al. [18] used the least squares support vector machine method
(LSSVM) for modelling and optimizing solar parabolic trough collector
systems on two different solar fields 30 m2 and 600 m2. The results
made a new approach for solar parabolic trough collector systems in
China. Fig. 10 represents a solar collector platform in Langfang city,
Hebei Province on 600 m2, and positioned over a south-north direction
with 91 concentration ratio for 1000 W/m2 peak solar radiation [18].
4.1.2. Solar field - (receiver)
Table 6 shows solar parabolic trough system (Receiver) component
in recent studies. Risi et al. [130] designed a transparent parabolic
through collector (TPTC) working with gas-based nanofluid as heat
transfer fluid directly absorbed solar radiation by using only CuO na-
noparticles and a proper mixture (0.25% CuO and 0.05% Ni). Fig. 11
describes the scheme for a solar parabolic trough collector. The receiver
consists of an outer quartz tube; a vacuum annular space for reducing
convective heat transfer from the receiver tube, and inner quartz tube
with a spectral selective coating characterized by low emissivity for the
infrared region that cut at 1600 nm, suitable to reduce radiation losses
[130]. Fig. 12 shows equivalent resistance to the heat transfer model for
a parabolic trough design.
Siqueira et al. [4] implemented a mathematical model to calculate
the flow parameters and the heat transfer applied to solar parabolic
trough collectors and determined the thermal and optical efficiency,
thermal losses, among others, likewise present the radial and axial
profile of temperature. Fig. 13 described one-dimensional analysis
system covers all the parameters of energy balance between the HTF
and the atmosphere, necessary to estimate the terms of this balance,
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which may depend on the type of solar collector, the condition of the
HCE, the optical properties and conditions of environment.
Jaramillo et al. [1] improved the heat transfer in the receiver tube
by inserting a twisted tape in the tube to increase its thermal. A twisted
tape is inserted in the receiver tube to augment the heat transfer rate as
a passive way, so that the flow rotates in an axial direction which
modifies the Reynolds and the Nusselt numbers of the flow in order to
produce a high convection heat transfer rate between the receiver and
the thermal fluid as shown in Fig. 14.
Bellos et al. [6] used Solidworks flow simulation studio to study the
thermal efficiency enhancement by using nanofluids and they in-
vestigated about three different working fluids (thermal oil, thermal oil
with nanoparticles and pressurized water) to examine the heat transfer
efficiency of each. The second design of the absorber tube as shown in
Fig. 15b suggests a wavy shape with sine shape to increase the inner
surface of the tube and so increases the heat transfer rate. This new
shape increases the turbulence of the flow inside the tube and mix the
flow better to create more uniform temperature profile. In addition, this
sine shape helps to create vortexes inside the flow enhances the heat
transfer rate.
Khanna et al. [111] investigate the use of bimetallic absorber tube,
also studied effects of thicknesses and material used on the temperature
gradient. The design of bimetallic tube made from two layers of two
different materials in cylindrical shape to reduce the temperature gra-
dient across the circumference of the absorber tube as shown in Fig. 16.
Fuqiang et al. [152] studied the use of symmetric outward convex
corrugated tube for the parabolic trough receiver to increase the heat
transfer performance and decrease the thermal strain of metal tube. An
outward convex corrugated tube design shown in Fig. 17, this design
help to increase the turbulence in the metal tube therefore enhances the
heat transfer performance of the HTF in the tube and decrease the
thermal deformation of the tube.
Huang et al. [153] studied the heat transfer enhancement in the
inner tube due to using dimples, protrusions and helical fins and found
that dimples performance is the best. It is shown in Fig. 18 different
designs of the inner tube of the parabolic trough receiver tubes (PTRs)
using dimples, protrusions and helical fins. These designs increase the
surface area that enhancements the heat transfer rate from solar ra-
diation to heat transfer fluid (HTF). Results shown that, the dimpled
tube design is much better than the other two designs. In addition, the
dimples that are deeper, narrower and more numbers in the cir-
cumferential direction is much better for improving the performance of
PTRs while the dimple arrangements have no remarkable effect.
Table 11 shows solar parabolic trough design specifications for
Aperture area, width, and length, receiver internal and external dia-
meter, and focal length, rim angle in recent studies. Table 12 shows
solar parabolic trough design; intercept factor specifications in recent
studies.
Reddy et al. [156] studied an effect of inserting a porous disc into
the receiver surface to enhance the heat transfer to the fluid and con-
cluding that the thermal gradient between the receiver wall surface and
fluid and across the receiver cross section was limited in case of porous
disc enhanced receiver compared with the conventional tubular re-
ceiver. It is shown in Fig. 19 the different configurations of the porous
disc inserted into the receiver tube. Those configurations were bottom
porous disc receiver (BPDR), U-shaped bottom porous disc receiver
Fig. 12. Scheme for total resistance to heat transfer [130].
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 15. (a) Ordinary cylindrical tube (b) Converging-diverging tube with sine shape [6].
Fig. 16. Cross sectional view of bimetallic absorber tube [111].
(UBPDR), inclined bottom porous disc receiver (IBPDR) and alternative
porous disc receiver (APDR). Results showed that porous disc enhanced
receiver was much better than the conventional tubular receiver as the
thermal gradient between the fluid and receiver wall surface and across
the receiver cross section was smaller. In addition, the performance of
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Fig. 13. Schematic of a fragment of HCE [4].
Fig. 14. Schematic representation of the twisted tape insert [1].
Fig. 17. Schematic view of the corrugated tube used as absorber tube [152].
parabolic trough receiver with APDR was better than other receiver
configurations [156].
Mwesigye et al. [157] showed the thermodynamic optimization of a
parabolic trough receiver with inserted perforated plate. It is shown in
Fig. 20 the design aspects of the parabolic trough receiver with perfo-
rated plates inserts. There are three main geometrical parameters that
contribute to the receiver structure with perforated plates inserts de-
sign: the spacing between two sequential perforated plates (P), the
angle of orientation (β) which is positive in anticlockwise direction and
measured from y-axis and the diameter of perforated plate (d) [157].
U-type heat pipe solar receiver in Fig. 21 is made of double glazing
vacuum tube, an annular steel tube, steam and water pipe flanges, as
well as stuffing and support The outer surface of the steel tube was
coated with black (Fe2O3/Fe3O4). The areas between the annular and
double glazing vacuum tubes was filled with air. Stuffing placed at the
open end of the glazing vacuum tube was used to prevent convective
flow occurring between the annular and double glazing vacuum tubes.
Support placed at the end of the annular tube was used to avoid contact
between the steel and glass structures. Regarding the double glazing
vacuum tubes, the space between inner and outer glass tube was kept
evacutaed, and there is a metal elastic support placed between the two
glass tubes at the free end [166].
Lei et al. [162] tested the total heat loss, end loss and coating
thermal emittance of a newly designed receiver in order to model its
thermal characterization. However, temperature deviations arise when
using end coil heaters were significantly lower than those observed
without the end coil heaters. The receivers have high efficiency as they
are designed to reduce heat loss to the surrounding while maintaining
the ability to absorb as much sunlight as possible as shown in Fig. 22.
A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Fig. 18. The inner tube of PTRs using dim-

ples, protrusions and helical fins [153].

Fig. 19. Different configurations of porous disc receiver (a) BPDR,

(b) UBPDR, (c) IBPDR and (d) APDR [156].

Fig. 20. Parabolic trough receiver with perforated plates inserts (a) longitudinal section for the receiver. (b) cross section for the receiver [157].

Filho et al. [5] illustrated the methodology and the results of an However, system performance was very sensitive to small variations in
experimental and numerical investigation of the thermal losses of a the operational conditions and deformation of the axis of the parabolic
small-scale parabolic trough collector. The collector investigated is 3 m trough. The thermal loss test consists of providing hot water at the
wide and 4 m long, with evacuated tubes with selective coatings. collector inlet and measuring the temperature drop between the inlet

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A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 21. Structure of the U-type heat pipe solar receiver [166].
Fig. 22. A new design Himin PTR-2011 receiver [162].
Fig. 23. Test section instrumentation to the receiver [5].
Fig. 24. A prototype of parabolic trough collector with cavity design absorber [158].
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Fig. 25. Schematic representation of V-cavity absorber with its own concentrator mirror
[15].
and outlet to evaluate the heat loss as shown in Fig. 23. In these tests,
there is no concentration of solar radiation T1 to T8 are thermocouples.
T1 and T2 are armored thermocouples with direct measurements taken
in the fluid in the middle of the tube. Thermocouples T3 to T8 measure
the external wall temperature of the steel tube, outside the evacuated
insulation of the HCE. P1 and P2 are pressure transducers.
Chen et al. [158] analysed the thermal performance of a new design
for linear cavity absorber and concluding that the thermal efficiency of
the new design was comparable to the evacuated tube design. It is
shown in Fig. 24 a prototype of parabolic trough collector with a hy-
pothesized design of the absorber. As it shown in the Fig. 24a the
parabolic trough consists of reflecting mirror, structure support, pipe-
line and cavity absorber. The absorbing surface of the cavity structure is
of V-shape as shown in Fig. 24b. Moreover, the back of the absorbing
surface has rectangular fins to increase absorber surface area that im-
prove the thermal efficacy of the cavity absorber. In Fig. 24b, the ra-
diation shield is set to reduce the irradiant heat loss from the surface of
the cavity absorber and glass cover is placed between the radiation
shields. Results showed that thermal efficiency of the cavity design is
comparable to the evacuated tube design.
Xiao et al. [15] investigated optical activity and heat transfer pro-
cess of HTF through V-cavity absorber and found that V-cavity design
A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Fig. 26. Schematic diagram of stainless steel, PTC's receiver [95].

prevented escapee of sunlight, temperature of outlet HTF increased

Fig. 27. Experimental setup platform (absorber tube) [95].
from 109.8 °C to 110.9 °C, and the heating surface temperature dropped
by 14.7 °C due to fins. Fig. 25 presents a schematic of V-cavity absorber
with concentrator mirror. In practical application, parabolic trough
system was constructed using mirror reflector, support structure, and V-
Cavity absorber with its rectangle fins. The basic idea of the system can
be illustrated as follows: Solar radiation is collected by the absorber
through reflection over concentrator mirror, and then converted into
thermal energy used for raising the temperature of HTF. The system
was consisted of aluminium C-cavity tube that has 40 mm aperture
width, 1400 mm length, 60 mm outer diameter, and 0.136 m2 as total
area. For the sake of reducing the heat losses; a selective coating with
0.9 absorptivity was painted on the tube outer surface, then a glass
wool insulations with 30 mm in thickness were stacked on the back
surface of the absorber tube. A crescent shape was selected to be a
design of rectangular fins to increase heat transfer between the working
fluid and heating surface.
Wu et al. [95] performed structural reliability study about stainless

Fig. 28. Experimental setup structure for parabolic trough absorber [159].

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Fig. 29. SolidWorks-Flow simulation results for temperature distribution within heat-pipe receiver given stable outlet water temperature in: (a) ideal, (b) CT, (c) SPT, and (d) VFPT
concentrator systems [32].

Table 7
Solar parabolic trough system components (Solar Tracking) in recent studies.

Authors Year Country & Location Mode of tracking Collector orientation Tracking mechanism accuracy Ref.

Bouvier et al. (2016) France Two axis tracking N/A N/A [8]
Wang et al. (2016) China N/A South–North direction N/A [48]
Coccia et al. (2016) Italy N/A East–West N/A [167]
Chafie et al. (2016) Tunisia Horizontal North–South axis East–West N/A [126]
Mosleh et al. (2015) Iran E–W tracking mechanism Axis in N–S direction 0.98 [10]
Liang et al. (2015) Sandia East–West South-North 0.994 [168]
Sun et al. (2005) Spain East–West South-North N/A [14]
Wang et al. (2013) China South to North East–West N/A [20]
Reddy et al. (2014) India N/A N/A 0.98 [156]
Bouvier et al. (2015) France N/A N/A 0.1 arc degree [70]
Wang et al. (2014) China East–West South–North N/A [51]
Xiao et al. (2014) China Single-axis tracking system N/A N/A [15]
Balghouthi et al. (2014) Tunisia East–West North – south N/A [22]
Silva et al. (2013) Spain West-East North-South N/A [30]
Ramos et al. (2013) Mexico East-West, Horizontal N/A N/A [133]
Hongguang Jin et al. (2012) China E–W horizontal South–North direction N/A [18]
Zitao Yu (2012) China N–S horizontal N/A N/A [169]
Kalogirou (2002) Cyprus E–W horizontal Axis in N–S direction 0.05° [170]
Almanza and Lentz (1997) Mexico N/A E-W N/A [171]
Kalogirou (1998) Cyprus E–W horizontal N/A N/A [172]
Kalogirou et al. (1996) UK E–W horizontal N-S 1.2% [173]
Kalohirou (1996) Cyprus N/A N/A 0.2° [174]
Kalogirou (1991) Wales, UK N/A N/A 0.125° [175]

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A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 30. Exterior view of the prototype, solar parabolic trough – Two axis tracking [8].
steel tube, and found that the deflection of the stainless steel tube is
slightly dependent on thermal stress and strongly dependent on sup-
porting structure of the system. Figs. 26 and 27 indicates that the ab-
sorber tube consists of 4.06 m length, 3.934 m glass envelope length,
0.07 m absorber tube diameter, 0.003 m thickness of absorber tube,
0.12 m glass envelope diameter with emissivity of 0.89, 0.95 selective
coating absorptivity, 220 GPa young's modulus and 17.2*10−6 K−1
thermal expansion coefficient [95].
Waghole et al. [159] investigated effect of using silver nano fluid in
absorber with twisted tape inserts on friction factor and heat transfer,
and found that by inserting twisted tape, Nussult number varied from
1.25 to 2.1, and friction factor varied from 1.0 to 1.75. Fig. 28 describes
the structure of experimental setup. It consists of test section, heating
arrangement, and fluid circulation system. The schematic diagram
showed system's main components and its specifications; the absorber
was made from copper that had 20 mm inner diameter, 22 mm outer
diameter and 1500 mm length. The tapes were made from aluminium
with different helix angle 30°, 45°, and 60°. The dimension of twisted
tapes were 1500 mm for the length, 19 mm for the width, 1 mm and
1.5 mm for the thickness. The twisted tapes were inserted into the ab-
sorber to increase collector thermal efficiency. Asbestos tape was used
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to minimize heat loss to atmosphere. In addition, an electrical heater
band (500 W capacity for each unit) is used to supply absorber with
sufficient heat [159].
Tsai et al. [32] optimized the variable focus points of parabolic
trough solar collector by using ZEMAX/Solid-Works-Flow simulations
and that made some improvements on the heating efficiency and irra-
diance distribution uniformly. Fig. 29 represents the simulation with
ZEMAX/solidworks to optimize the variable focus points of parabolic
trough solar collector by using ZEMAX/SolidWorks Flow simulations
and that made some improvements on the heating efficiency and irra-
diance distribution uniformly. With some parameters of unit, distance
of 1 mm in the z direction 100,000 rays and the diameter was 600 mm
for each concentrator [32].
Table 13 shows solar parabolic trough design specifications for the
reflector and receiver materials and the working fluid in recent studies.
Table 14 shows solar parabolic trough design specifications for the
reflectance of the mirror, absorbance of the receiver, optical efficiency,
emissivity in recent studies.
4.1.3. Solar tracking
Parabolic solar troughs always have a tracking system, which are
usually adjusted with their long axes from north to south and they
are mounted on supports of the structure that allow them to track the
sun from east direction to west direction during the day hours’ time.
These supports may be made of steel, aluminium, or other more
strength material. Table 7 shows solar parabolic trough system (Solar
Tracking) component in recent studies. Bouvier et al. [8] in-
vestigated an experimental prototype of micro combined heat and
power system, (micro-CHP), and showed the work of coupling a solar
collector to an expander with a PI controller where the prototype as
shown in Fig. 30 consists of four main components: a solar parabolic
trough collector, a steam expander, a heat exchanger system and a
cooling loop. The collector has two axis tracking system to collect all
the available solar energy, Electricity is produced in the steam ex-
pander by means of electric generator, demineralized water is used in
the heat exchanger system. The system is controlled by a high
pressure pump, a frequency drive to control the expander and an
on–off controller to adjust the power.
Fig. 31. Ray tracing for a 1.05-m large
parabolic trough, 0.5 cm diameter absorber,
(a) 0° (b) 0.3° (c) 0.5° inclination [45].
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 33. Metal structure of a parabolic trough unit [126].
Col et al. [44] studied the thermal and electric production of a
parabolic trough linear concentrating photovoltaic-thermal (CPVT)
system, and found that the electric efficiency reduced by temperature
difference reduction. The obtained global efficiency was 70%. Fig. 5
indicates linear parabolic trough photovoltaic concentrator with 2.4 m
long receiver tube, 6.857 m2 aperture area and closely 130 geometrical
ratio. The tracking system of CPVT consisted of Two axes (azimuthal
and zenithal motion), to make the beam radiation always normal to the
plane. The tracking is governed by solar algorithm for following solar
radiation and solar sensor for establishing the best receiver alignment.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
Fig. 32. Ray tracing for a 1.05-m large parabolic trough, 2 cm
diameter absorber, 0.8° inclination [45].
Mussard and Nydal [45] calculated the heat losses, and tolerable
margin error, its accompanied efficiency when changing incident angles
of the sun rays. To tolerate more tracking inaccuracy, the diameter of
the absorber has to be increased. Considering the rays of the sun par-
allels is often quite realistic, but in certain cases, the precision of this
modelling was not excellent anymore. Close to the critical angles, an
error of 9% concerning the efficiency can be made by considering
parallel rays. Cooking is one of the main application for parabolic
trough and as showed in Fig. 6 1×1.05 m2 size, with a 2 cm-diameter
pipe, for computing the path of the rays using a ray tracer software for
parabolic trough as shown in Fig. 31. The simulation was done con-
sidering that was trough perfectly oriented and rays were parallel. Then
solar radiation was focused on the focal line. Increasing the diameter of
the absorber allows more free motion concerning the accuracy of the
tracking as shown in Fig. 32. By taking a 2 cm-diameter absorber in-
stead of 0.5 cm, the system will collect more rays for a given angle.
4.1.4. Support structure
Parabolic troughs are mounted on supports of the structure that
allow them to track the sun. These supports may be made of steel,
aluminium, or other more strength material. Chafie et al. [126] studied
the design, manufacture and detailed experimental work to evaluate the
performance of CTP unit and calculated the thermal efficiency, constant
time for heating and cooling, incidence angle modifier and intercept
factor. A metal frame composed of trough support and eleven parabolic
ribs with 36.36 cm space between each other, the ribs are set on a
torque-box linked to the trough support by a cylindrical rod as shown in
Fig. 33. The frame is made of galvanized iron [126].
Forman et al. [176] described the use of Light concrete shells as
support structure instead of the steel frames, which proved its stiffness
and fill the gap between the supporting structure and reflecting surface.
The collector is made of high-strength concrete in a thin parabolic shell
shape. It ensures structural stiffness as serve as a support for the re-
flection elements. It is mounted on circular segments of novel rocker
bearings and designed to keep the center of gravity horizontally le-
velled while tracking the sun as shown in Fig. 34 [176].
Fig. 34. Computer animation and a finished prototype of a
parabolic trough with thin concrete parabolic shell collector
[176].
A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Fig. 35. Parabolic trough collector structure [105].

Table 8
Solar parabolic trough system components (tracking, support structure, heat exchanger, and piping) in recent studies.

Component Authors Year Application/Purpose T or E Ref.

Solar Field(Tracking) Khanna et al. (2013) Studied the effect of incidence angle of solar radiation on absorber tube bending of PTC, and found E [177]
that during non-zero angle of sun rays incidence, the sun facing end of absorber tube didn’t receive any
solar radiation flux.
Mussard & Nydal (2014) Calculates the efficiency losses and tolerable margin error when changing incident angles of the sun T, E [45]
rays. To tolerate more tracking inaccuracy, the diameter of the absorber has to be increased.
Considering the rays of the sun parallels is often quite realistic, but in certain cases the precision of this
modelling is not excellent anymore. Close to the critical angles, an error of 9% concerning the
efficiency can be made by considering the rays parallels.
Solar Field(Support Forman et al. (2015) The use of Light concrete shells as support structure instead of the steel frames which proved its T, E [176]
Structure) stiffness and fill the gap between the supporting structure and reflecting surface
Fu et al. (2015) Optimizing the weight of parabolic support structure and improvement of stiffness based on using T [105]
combination of cross section sizes for beams in the torque box and cantilever beam that contribute the
most weight of parabolic trough support structure.
Heat Exchanger Sahin et al. (2015) Investigated heat transfer and friction characteristics of a concentric tube heat exchanger with E [88]
variation of pitches of coiled wire turbulators. For pitch distances of 15 mm, 30 mm and 45 mm, the
heat transfer was enhanced by 2.28, 2.07 and 1.95 times the smooth tube, respectively.
Piping Zhang et al. (2012) Apply the U-type natural circulation heat pipe system and the thermal efficiency is found to be 38.52% [169]
when the system generates in mid-temperature steam of a pressure up to 0.75 MPa

Fig. 36. Pilot-scale plant in Ait Baha, Morocco [178].

contribute the most weight of parabolic trough support structure. It is

shown in the Fig. 35, the mechanical structure of the parabolic trough
collector unit. The structure is mainly composed of torque box and
cantilever beam providing the support for the reflecting mirrors of
parabolic trough collector and have a great influence on the torsional
stiffness and flexural stiffness. Results shown that using a combination
of cross section sizes of the beams to build up the structure has a sig-
nificant effect on the collector performance as the correct combination
could minimize the weight of the structure and decrease the stiffness
[105]. Table 8 shows solar parabolic trough system (tracking [45,177],
support structure [105,176], heat exchanger [88], and piping [169])
components in recent studies.

Fig. 37. Photograph of the construction site in Ain Baha, Morocco [178].
Fu et al. [105] optimized the weight of parabolic support structure
and improvement of stiffness based on using combination of cross
section sizes for beams in the torque box and cantilever beam that
4.1.5. Heat transfer fluid oil
Good et al. [178] showed the usage of air as heat transfer fluid for
operating temperature exceeding 600 °C. Fig. 36 shows a schematic of a
power plant to be built in Ait Baha, Morocco. It aims to boost the
electricity production from waste heat of a cement factory. It includes
three 211.68 m long solar collectors and a thermal storage unit. The

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A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 38. (a) Schematic diagram of experimental setup (b) Parabolic trough absorber [16].
Fig. 39. Experimental platform for PTC coupled with evacuated tube and therminol D-12
[23].
total aperture area of the field is 6159 m2. It produces a maximum
thermal power of 3.9 MW to the TES and to the air-to-oil heat ex-
changer attached to an organic Rankine cycle. The TES is designed for a
12 h capacity of nominal production. The solar plant is expected to
produce 2390 MWh/yr. The construction site shown in Fig. 37 [178].
Wang et al. [16] carried out 3D simulation using FVM over PTC by
using molten salt as HTF, and found that the cross sectional tempera-
ture difference enlarged with inlet velocity and DNI. Moreover, the
thermal efficiency of molten salt at 773 K is less than Oil at 573.15 by
0.079. Fig. 38.a indicates an experimental setup of 600 m2 solar field
with 300 kW power. A combination of salts (60% of NaNO3 and 40% of
KNO3) was used as HTF, the maximum working temperature of the
mixture is 873 K and the minimum limit (freezing point) is about 493 K.
Fig. 38.b indicates the specification of absorber tube. It has 1.17 m focal
length, 5.77 m aperture area, 4 m length, Electric welded AISI 316Ti
steel as a design material, 3.2 cm inner radius, 3.5 cm outer radius,
Borosilicate glass as glass pipe material with transmittance of 0.96, 0.95
coating absorptivity, 5.95 cm cover inner radius, 6.25 cm cover outer
radius [16].
Selvakumar et al.[23] studied PTC with evacuated tube absorber
used for hot water generation coupled with low solar radiation, using
therminol D-12 as HTF and found that the heating efficiency of system
increased by 30%. HTF's properties (therminol D-12) stables for 100
cycle. Fig. 39 indicates experimental platform of PTC that consist of an
evacuated tube as a receiver with the following specifications 1500 mm
length, 47 mm diameter. The aperture area of the system was
1.2×0.6 m2. Therminol D-12 is used as a heat transfer fluid because it
has 62 °C flash point, 755 kg/m3 density, 2.5 KJ/Kg K specific heat and
1.42 centi stoke at 20 °C kinematic viscosity [23]. Recent studies for
HTF oil of the solar parabolic trough systems are described in Table 9.
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4.2. Thermal storage
4.2.1. Molten salt or others
Wu et al. [179] showed an employment of a molten salt of
melting point 86 °C and working temperature upper limit of 550 °C.
The total heat transfer coefficient of the water to salt heat exchanger
ranged between 600 and 1200 W/(m2 K) for 10,000 < Re < 21,000
and 9.5 < Pr < 12.2. Fig. 40 shows a schematic of the experimental
system used to test the molten salt. The main parts of the cycles
include a concentrating collector, a water pump, a high temperature
molten salt pump, a molten salt tank, a molten salt heater, a water to
salt heat exchanger, a water heater, a water cooler, a mass flow
meter [179].
Muñoz-Anton et al. [182] showed an experimental validation of the
usage of gas as heat transfer fluid in higher temperature molten salts.
Fig. 41a shows the basic scheme for the test facility PSA (Plataforma
Solar de Almería) with working temperature of 400 °C. It includes a
complete gas cycle with two 50 m ET-II collectors, a blower and a gas-
air cooler. The heat is transferred to the molten salt storage system by
the heat transfer gas coming from the heat exchanger. The first con-
figuration operated successfully for a long period of time at 400 °C
maximum temperature with the Air Cooler, since the Gas-Salt heat
exchanger and the Molten Salt storage system were not available at the
time. Later on the facility was modified as shown in Fig. 41b, to work at
maximum temperature of 525 °C. The collectors were connected in
series instead of parallel [182].
HTF with flow rate qf,1 is heated in the collector field by solar ir-
radiation IN. A molten salt storage system can be used as second energy
source (HTF flow rate qf,2). The steam turbine is modeled as a two-
group extraction turbine, where the mass flow rate mV is extracted after
the first turbine group and used to preheat feed water as shown in
Fig. 42 [183]. The evaporator (left) heats the feed water until eva-
poration, then the generated steam gets overheated in the superheater
(right) as shown in Fig. 43 [183]. There is no phase transition in the
preheater.
Jost et al. [183] showed that the multivariable control problem for
the solar field can be decoupled by controlling the three way valve that
splits the heat transfer fluid between the storage system and the steam
generator. In addition to that, steam generation cycle is regulated with
inlet pressure control. After passing the high pressure group, a fraction
of the steam (flow rate mV) is used to reheat the feed water. The re-
mainder (flow rate m3) is reheated and fed into the low pressure group
as shown in Fig. 44 [183]. It is shown in Fig. 45, the control of the
collector field (collector field outlet temperature control loop in red;
heat exchanger control loop in blue; known disturbance, which is
compensated in the controller, in green). (a) Stored energy is used to
drive the plant at night and during sunset/sunrise. If both Tf,1 and Tf,2,
Fig. 45.b are at steady state, the temperature of the HTF at the steam
generator is constant, too. (b) Collected heat is partially used to run the
plant and partially stored for use at night/sunset/sunrise [183]. Other
A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Table 9
Solar parabolic trough system components (HTF Oil) in recent studies.

Component Authors Year Application/Purpose T or E Ref.

Solar Field(HTF Oil) Bellos et al. (2016) Investigated three different working fluids (thermal oil, thermal oil with nanoparticles and pressurized T [6]
water) to examine the heat transfer efficiency of each.
Toghyani et al. (2016) Investigated the use of four different nanofluids as working fluids (CuO, SiO2, TiO2 and Al2O3) in the T [9]
solar collector, and test the overall performance of parabolic trough solar system with integrated
Rankine cycle.
Kaloudis et al. (2016) Studied the use of nanofluid with two-phase flow model to compare it with the single phase, also study T [7]
the relation between the nanoparticles (Al2O3) concentration with heat transfer efficiency.
Wang et al. (2016) Investigated the use of (Al2O3) synthetic oil nanofluid as a working fluid and the effect of Al2O3 particle T [48]
concentrations.
Ghasemi and Ranjbar (2016) Studied CuO-water and Al2O3-water nanofluids as working fluid and to find their heat transfer T [86]
coefficients, also study effect volume fraction of the nanoparticles on thermal performance.
Mwesigye et al. (2016) Study the thermal performance of high concentrating ratio PTC using Cu-Therminol VP−1 nanofluid as T [93]
working fluid, also study the nanoparticle volume fraction on the thermal efficiency.
Coccia et al. (2016) Investigated the use of six water-based nanofluids with different weight concentrations as working T [167]
fluids, Fe2O3, SiO2, TiO2, ZnO, Al2O3, and Au. The thermal efficiency of the PTC was investigated using
each nanofluid.
Mwesigye et al. (2015) Showed effect of using Sytherm800-Al2O3 as the receiver heat transfer fluid. The study shows a 7.6% T [79]
improvement in the thermal efficiency of the receiver.
Wu et al. (2015) Employment of a molten salt of melting point 86 °C and working temperature upper limit of 550 °C. The E [179]
total heat transfer coefficient of the water-to-salt heat exchanger ranged between 600 and 1200 W/(m2.
K) for 10,000 < Re < 21,000 and 9.5 < Pr < 12.2.
Biencinto et al. (2014) Holds a comparison between two plants, one running on synthetic oil as heat transfer fluid, the other on T [98]
pressurized nitrogen. It showed that similar net annual electricity productions could be obtained for
both.
Wang et al. (2014) Carried out 3D simulation using FVM over PTC by using molten salt as HTF, and found that the cross- T [16]
sectional temperature difference enlarged with inlet velocity and DNI. Moreover, the thermal efficiency
of molten salt at 773 K is less than Oil at 573.15 by 0.079.
Selvakumar et al. (2014) Studied PTC with evacuated tube absorber used for hot water generation coupled with low solar E [23]
radiation, using therminol D−12 as HTF and found that the heating efficiency of system increased by
30%. HTF's properties (therminol D−12) stables for 100 cycle
Good et al. (2014) Usage of air as heat transfer fluid for operating temperature exceeding 600 °C. T [178]
Cipollone et al. (2014) Studied the effect of using gas (air and CO2) as HTF that directly expands against gas turbine, and found E [180]
that the number of compressions and expansions could not exceed three stages to optimize the maximum
efficiency.
Feldhoff et al. (2012) Compared between systems of direct steam generation and synthetic oil parabolic trough power plants [181]
with 100 MWel with integrated thermal storage the first one use synthetic oil and the one using direct
steam generation with 9 h storage capacity

Fig. 40. Parabolic trough collector and heat transfer system using molten salt [179].

researches in thermal storage (Molten Salt) or others thermal storage
(Hot and Cold Tank) are described in Table 10.
4.2.2. Hot and cold tanks
Herrmann et al. [184] discussed the technical and economic feasi-
bility of a two-tank molten salt storage. A storage of 12 h full load ca-
pacity decreases the LEC about 10%. Fig. 46 shows a process flow
schematic of a two-tank molten storage parabolic trough power plant.
The HTF heats up the molten salt from the cold storage tank through
the heat exchanger up to 385 °C, then stores it in the hot storage tank.
Salt from the hot storage tank is used to heat cold HTF at the heat
exchanger. After that, the heated HTF enters the power plant. The cold
salt then returns to the cold salt storage tank with temperature of about
300 °C [184].
5. Simulation programs used to design and analysis of SPTS
Simulation software programs of mathematical models and

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A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 41. Test facility scheme for maximum working temperature of (a) 400 °C (b) 525 °C
[182].
Fig. 42. Schematic sketch of the solar power plant. HTF [183].
techniques are very useful during the analysis of physical systems
especially in our investigation for solar parabolic trough collectors
systems. Different kinds of software models and test methods of solar
collectors have been developed since 1981. They can be distinguished
by their particular mathematical models or tracking techniques as
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
Fig. 43. Model of the steam generation [183].
Fig. 44. Simplified schematic representation of the turbine [183].
shown in recent studies. Many programs used to design, simulate, and
study different components of the solar parabolic trough as con-
centrators, receivers, structure, and other components. The different
software programs used a varity of applications in different
research focus topics such as, parabolic trough power plants
[74,82–84,91,96,98,99,116,119], design analysis of parabolic trough
collector [11,32,87,101,118,120], design analysis of parabolic trough
receiver [13,53,63,75,90,94,95,102,114,150], Evaluation and control
of tracking systems [70,92,122], Simulation of cooling systems
[100,121], thermal analysis of the working fluid
[6,54,57,64,67,71,76,79–81,86,88,89,93,103,107,108,110–113,117],
solar radiation effects [48,51,78,83,115], wind effects
[50,65,104–106], economic evaluation [69,85,109], SG in PTPP
[14,17,97,208], PT performance [29,73], other research applications
[20,72,77]. Table 15 shows the different software and modelling
programs that be used in design and evaluation of the solar parabolic
trough in the corresponding recent studies.
5.1. Design and analysis of PTPP
Boukelia et al. [82] used SAM (Solar Advisor Model) to design and
optimize of a solar power plant. Al-Maliki et al. [119] used APROS
Model to design the parabolic trough power plant. Borunda et al. [96]
used TRNSYS to simulate the performance of the solar power plant.
Sharma et al. [83] used SAM and PVSyst. To identify optimal combi-
nations of design for DNI, solar multiple and storage hours for parabolic
trough power plants for Niche locations in India. Boukelia et al. [84]
used SAM and TRNSYS to optimization, selection and feasibility study
of solar parabolic trough power plants for Algerian conditions. Trad and
Ali [116] used Thermoflex to study the power block efficiency matrices
calculating. Biencinto et al. [98] used TRNSYS and Meteonorm to show
the performance model and annual yield comparison of parabolic
trough solar thermal power plants with either nitrogen or synthetic oil
as heat transfer fluid. It showed that similar net annual electricity
productions could be obtained for both. García-Barberena et al. [91]
A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Fig. 45. (a) Controller layout during night and sunset/sunrise (b) Controller layout during daytime [183].

Table 10
Solar parabolic trough system components (Thermal Storage (Molten Salt) or others Thermal Storage (Hot and Cold Tank)) in recent studies.

Component Authors Year Application/Purpose T or E Ref.

Thermal Storage(Molten Chacartegui et al. (2016) Analysis of two different thermal storage integrations in 5 MW parabolic trough plant: direct [185]
Salt) or others system uses Hitec XL as both HTF and storage medium, indirect system uses Therminol VP−1 as
HTF and Hitec XL as storage medium.
Richert et al. (2015) Evaluation on cost of electricity in molten salt parabolic troughs based on inlet and outlet T [12]
temperatures and concluding the higher inlet temperature of the molten salt has the same
positive effect of what is discussed as the upper cycle temperature.
Maccari et al. (2015) Evaluation on a demo plant after 1 year of operation based on the O & M procedure and test and T, E [186]
concluding that this approach could be easily scaled up to other plants and new projects.
Muñoz-Anton et al. (2014) Experimental validation of the usage of gas as heat transfer fluid in higher temperature that E [182]
molten salts.
Jost et al. (2014) Problem for the solar field can be decoupled by controlling the three-way valve that splits the T [183]
heat transfer fluid between the storage system and the steam generator. In addition to that,
steam generation cycle is regulated with inlet pressure control.
Thermal Storage(Hot and Laing et al. (2006) Study on two different storage systems with two different storage materials, both with capacity E [187]
Cold Tank) 250 kWh and maximum temperature of 390 °C. High temperature concrete seemed to be more
favourable than castable ceramic
Herrmann et al. (2004) Discusses the technical and economic feasibility of a two-tank molten salt storage. A storage of T [184]
12 h full load capacity decreases the LEC about 10%.

used SimulCET to analyze influence and design of operational strategies
in parabolic trough power plants and the results are compared with
experimented data for 12 days. Bonilla et al. [74] used Matlab to si-
mulate calibrate and validate parabolic-trough solar thermal power
plant on 9th July 2001 and the optical efficiency values are close to
63% and the theoretical peak optical efficiency reached to 75%. García-
Zaaraoui et al. [99] used TRNSYS to study the technical and economical
performance of parabolic trough collector power plant under Algerian
climate.
5.2. Design and analysis of PTC
Schneider et al. [101] used ANSYS to design different mirrors
models. Zheng et al. [87] used GAMBIT for Creating and meshing the
geometric model for the parabolic trough. Sanchez and Rosengarten
[118] used Zemax Ray tracing to size and position the absorber of the
solar collector. Meiser et al. [11] used ANSYS to evaluate and assess-
ment of gravity load on mirror shape. King et al. [120] used photo-
grammetry mapping for measuring the position and form of large
mirror segments for solar collectors. Tsai et al. [32] used ZEMAX/So-
lidWorks Flow simulations to optimize variable focus parabolic trough
reflector of the solar thermal concentrator system.
5.3. Design and analysis of PTR
Abbas et al. [94] used Monte Carlo Ray Trace code to compare the
energy effectiveness and flux intensity map at the receiver. Habib et al.
[13] used ANSYS® Fluent to show numerical model of lengthy solar
thermal receivers. Song [63] used ANSYS Fluent and Matlab to a nu-
merical study of parabolic trough receiver. Wu et al. [95] used MCRT
code, FLUENT software and ANSYS workbench to study the structural
reliability analysis of parabolic trough receivers about stainless steel
tube, and found that the deflection of stainless steel tube is slightly
dependent on thermal stress and strongly dependent on supporting
structure of the system. This evened out the temperature profile of the
absorber in both the longitudinal and circumferential directions. Ak-
barimoosavi and Yaghoubi [53] used ANSYS to analysis of absorber
tube of parabolic trough and effect of deflection of the tube and on
optical efficiency. Zavattoni et al. [102] used ANSYS to examine the
receiving cavity suitability for a CSP parabolic trough receiver. Muñoz
et al. [114] used CFD model to analysis of internal helically finned
tubes for parabolic trough design. Daniel et al. [75] used Matlab R14 to
numerical investigation of parabolic trough receiver performance with
outer vacuum shell parabolic trough receiver. Ravi Kumar et al. [90]
used GAMBIT to solar parabolic trough with porous disc receiver.
5.4. Evaluation and control of tracking systems
Zhao et al. [92] used Monte Carlo Ray Trace (MCRT) to study effects
of installation errors and tracking errors. Bouvier et al. [70] used
Labview and Matlab to control actuators and acquire data. Bakos et al.
[122] used Visual C++ programming language for tracking system of
parabolic trough collector.
5.5. Simulation of cooling systems
Fadar et al. [121] used Tri-Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA) and
FORTRAN to simulate the behavior of the adsorption cooling system of
parabolic trough solar collector. Mazloumi et al. [100] used TRANSYS
simulation to study solar lithium bromide, water absorption cooling
system with parabolic trough collector.

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Table 11
Solar parabolic trough design specifications for Aperture area, width, and length, Receiver internal and external diameter, and focal length, Rim angle.

Ref. Authors Year Country & Location Aperture Aperture Reflector Receiver Receiver Focal Rim Concentration
area (m2) width (m) Length (m) External Internal length Angle ratio
Diameter Diameter (m) (°)
(m) (m)

[1] Jaramillo et al. (2016) Mexico 5.187 1.063 4.88 0.0254 0.0232 0.266 90 13.33
[6] Bellos et al. (2016) Greece 14.03 2.30 6.10 0.051 0.047 0.800 N/A N/A
[92] Zhao et al. (2016) China N/A N/A 4.00 N/A N/A N/A 90 20
[9] Toghyani et al. (2016) Iran N/A 1.50 5.00 0.040 0.038 N/A N/A N/A
[7] Kaloudis et al. (2016) Greece 39.00 5.00 7.80 0.035 0.033 N/A N/A N/A
[78] Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa N/A 6.00 5.00 0.070 0.066 N/A 80 86
[48] Wang et al. (2016) China N/A 5.77 N/A 0.070 0.065 1.710 80.2 82
[48] Wang et al. (2016) China N/A 5.00 7.80 0.070 0.066 1.840 70 71
[188] Shahin et al. (2016) United Arab Emirates 70.00 5.76 12.27 0.070 0.066 N/A N/A N/A
[93] Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa N/A 9.00 5.00 0.080 0.076 N/A 80 113
[111] Khanna et al. (2016) India N/A 5.76 4.00 0.070 0.066 N/A 80 N/A
[167] Coccia et al. (2016) Italy 32.125 2.50 12.85 0.040 0.035 0.550 N/A N/A
[126] Chafie et al. (2016) Tunisia 10.80 2.70 4.00 0.120 0.070 0.835 76.3 9.25
[79] Mwesigye et al. (2015) South Africa N/A 6.00 5.00 0.070 0.066 N/A 80 86
[179] Wu et al. (2015) China, UK N/A 5.77 12.00 0.070 0.066 1.710 N/A 82
[10] Mosleh et al. (2015) Iran 1.80 1.00 N/A 0.057 0.047 0.355 70 6.77
[66] Cheng et al. (2015) China N/A 7.30 N/A 0.070 0.064 2.000 N/A N/A
[168] Liang et al. (2015) China 39.20 N/A N/A 0.070 0.066 1.840 70 71
[14] Sun et al. (2015) China 548.35 6.76 98.50 0.070 0.055 N/A N/A N/A
[186] Maccari et al. (2015) Italy 3398.4 5.96 100.33 N/A N/A 1.810 N/A N/A
[20] Wang et al. (2015) China 15.00 2.50 6.10 N/A N/A 0.850 N/A 60
[156] Reddy et al. (2015) India 7.50 2.50 3.00 0.060 0.054 0.976 65 26
[70] Bouvier et al. (2015) France 46.50 1.94 12.00 0.034 N/A 0.350 112 18.1
[51] Wang et al. (2015) China 600.00 5.77 N/A 0.070 0.065 1.710 80.2 82
[89] Fernandez-García (2015) Spain N/A 1.10 2.00 0.018 0.016 0.230 100 19.45
et al.
[189] Coccia et al. (2015) Italy 1.85 1.00 2.00 0.030 0.025 0.250 90 9.25
[190] Cheng et al. (2015) China N/A 5.00 7.80 0.070 0.064 1.840 N/A N/A
[15] Xiao et al. (2014) China 0.136 0.40 1.40 0.600 N/A N/A N/A 10.27
[22] Balghouthi et al. (2014) Tunisia 13.34 2.30 N/A 0.900 0.380 0.800 73 19.6
[191] Xu et al. (2014) China N/A 2.415 50.00 1.100 0.700 1.400 N/A N/A
[192] Wirz et al. (2014) Switzerland N/A 6.00 12.00 0.125 0.070 4.060 80 N/A
[95] Wu et al. (2014) China N/A N/A 4.06 0.120 0.700 N/A N/A N/A
[55] Cheng et al. (2014) China N/A 5.00 N/A 0.070 0.064 1.840 N/A N/A
[193] Al-Sulaiman (2014) Saudi Arabia N/A 5.76 12.27 0.070 0.066 N/A N/A N/A
[141] Canavarro et al. (2014) Portugal, Spain N/A 5.77 N/A 0.700 N/A N/A N/A N/A
[53] Akbarimoosavi (2014) Iran N/A N/A 3.40 0.700 0.656 0.880 90 15.46
and Yaghoubi
[53] Akbarimoosavi (2014) Iran N/A N/A 3.40 0.700 0.656 0.880 82 15.39
and Yaghoubi
[133] Ramos et al. (2014) Mexico N/A 2.74 7.39 0.267 N/A 0.780 72 N/A
[45] Mussard and Nydal (2014) Norway 1.05 m 1.05 N/A 0.020 N/A N/A N/A N/A
[147] Montes et al. (2014) Mexico 3.7952 m 1.60 2.44 0.0381 0.02675 0.400 90 18.98
[31] Larcher et al. (2014) Switzerland N/A 1.845 N/A 0.0340 0.0325 0.647 71 17.30
[3] Valencia et al. (2014) México N/A 0.50 0.95 N/A 0.0127 0.112 96 67.17
[2] Jaramillo et al. (2013) Mexico 2.594 N/A N/A 0.0254 N/A 0.266 90 13.30
[2] Jaramillo et al. (2013) Mexico 2.896 N/A N/A N/A N/A 0.716 45 14.90
[194] Abu-Hamdeh et al. (2013) Saudi Arabia 3.700 N/A N/A 0.0702 0.0643 N/A 90 31.20
[195] Silva et al. (2013) Spain N/A N/A N/A 0.0318 0.0298 0.460 90 18.32
[196] Mogheir et al. (2013) Palestine 12.50 N/A N/A N/A N/A 0.500 N/A 102.6
[17] He et al. (2012) China N/A 5.0 47.10 0.1050 0.065 1.49 N/A N/A
[29] Zaversky et al. (2012) Spain 5.77 m 5.76 120.00 0.0635 0.0605 1.71 80 91
[18] Liu et al. (2012) China 2.50 m N/A 12.00 0.0635 0.0605 2.25 30 38
[149] García-Cortés et al. (2012) Spain 5.77 N/A 12.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
[197] Reddy et al. (2012) India 5.76 N/A 12.27 0.070 0.065 1.71 N/A N/A
[198] Valenzuela et al. (2012) Spain 1.00 m N/A 20.00 N/A 0.015 N/A N/A N/A
[198] Valenzuela et al. (2012) Spain 1.20 N/A 24.00 N/A 0.025 N/A N/A N/A
[199] Montes et al. (2011) Spain N/A N/A 12.27 0.070 0.055 N/A N/A N/A
[90] Kumar and Reddy (2009) India N/A N/A N/A 0.070 0.066 N/A N/A N/A
[121] El Fadar et al. (2009) Morocco N/A 0.80 1.00 0.015 N/A N/A N/A 17
[170] Kalogirou (2002) Cyprus 2.30 m N/A N/A 0.0508 N/A N/A 70 N/A
[200] Bakos et al. (2001) Greece N/A N/A 3.40 0.090 0.040 N/A N/A N/A
[201] Martinez et al. (2000) Mexico 3.29 1.142 2.50 0.090 0.024 N/A N/A N/A
[202] Garcia-Rodriguez (1999) Spain N/A 2.13 6.10 N/A N/A 0.56 N/A N/A
and Gomez-
Camacho
[171] Almanza and Lentz (1998) Mexico N/A 2.50 14.5 N/A 0.0381 N/A N/A N/A
[172] Kalogirou (1998) Cyprus 10–2160 N/A N/A 0.022 N/A N/A 90 21.2
[203] ODEH et al. (1998) Australia 547 N/A 99.00 0.070 0.066 N/A N/A N/A
[204] Almanza et al. (1997) Mexico N/A 2.50 14.50 N/A 2.54 N/A 90 N/A
[173] Kalogirou et al. (1996) UK, Cyprus 3.50 1.46 N/A 0.022 N/A N/A 90 21.2
(continued on next page)

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Table 11 (continued)

Ref. Authors Year Country & Location Aperture Aperture Reflector Receiver Receiver Focal Rim Concentration
area (m2) width (m) Length (m) External Internal length Angle ratio
Diameter Diameter (m) (°)
(m) (m)

[174] Kalohirou (1996) Cyprus 3.50 1.46 N/A 0.022 N/A N/A 90 21.2
[175] Kalogirou and (1992) Cyprus, UK 1.00 0.80 N/A 0.012 N/A 0.20 90 21.2
Lloyd
[205] Grald and Kuehn (1989) USA N/A 1.14 1.78 0.266 0.206 N/A N/A N/A
[206] Jetert (1987) Georgia N/A N/A N/A 0.160 0.150 N/A 90 18.3346

Table 12 The model is suitable for calculating the thermal efficiency and thermal
Solar parabolic trough design intercept factor specifications. losses for different operating conditions. Lobón et al. [113] used CFD
modelling to study the dynamic of multiphase fluid in parabolic trough.
Ref. Authors Year Intercept Factor
Wu et al. [64] used MCRT code and FLUENT software for coupled heat
[1] Jaramillo et al. (2016) 0.85 transfer modelling. Ghadirijafarbeigloo et al. [81] used Soltrace code to
[9] Toghyani et al. (2016) 0.95 simulate of heat transfer and the turbulent flow in the receiver tube of
[126] Chafie et al. (2016) 0.658 solar parabolic trough concentrator with louvered twisted-tape inserts.
[70] Bouvier et al. (2015) 0.994
[89] Fernandez-García et al. (2015) 0.95
Kalogirou [110] used EES to study a details thermal model of a para-
[22] Balghouthi et al. (2014) 0.62–0.7 bolic trough collector receiver. The model was validated using known
[193] Al-Sulaiman (2014) 0.93 performance of collectors at Sandia National Laboratories, the matching
[141] Canavarro et al. (2014) N/A of the results was very satisfactory. Cheng et al. [57] used Gambit to
[149] García-Cortés et al. (2012) 0.9070; Vertical0.9202; Horizontal
heat transfer enhancement by unilateral longitudinal vortex generators,
[197] Reddy et al. (2012) 0.92
[199] Montes et al. (2011) 0.92 which are inside the parabolic trough solar receiver. Gong et al. [76]
[90] Kumar and Reddy (2009) 0.90 used Matlab program to compute the receiver major heat loss through
[172] Kalogirou (1998) 0.95 glass envelope, and then systematically analyzes the major influence
factors of heat loss.

5.6. Thermal analysis of the working fluid 5.7. Solar radiation effects

Bellos et al. [6] used Solidworks flow simulation studio to study the
thermal efficiency enhancement by using nanofluids and they in-
vestigated about three different working fluids (thermal oil, thermal oil
with nanoparticles and pressurized water) to examine the heat transfer
efficiency of each. Hoffmann et al. [117] used Code ATHLET to in-
vestigate of severe slugging. Liu et al. [107] used FLUENT to solve the
optimization equations to obtain the fluid velocity and temperature.
Ghasemi and Ranjbar [86] used GAMBIT to create geometrical model
and mesh of HTF. Mwesigye et al. [93] used Monte-Carlo ray tracing
procedure to obtain the actual heat flux profile on the receiver's ab-
sorber tube. Khanna et al. [111] used CFD software to compute the
temperature of the absorber tube and investigate the use of bimetallic
absorber tube to reduce the temperature gradient across the cir-
cumference of the tube, also study the effects of thicknesses and ma-
terial used on the temperature gradient.
Wang et al. [112] used CFD code based on the FORTRAN 90 to solve
the cases of heat transfer modelling. Mwesigye et al. [103] used ANSYS
FLUENT to solve the equations for heat transfer and entropy generation.
Sahin et al. [88] used SolidWorks, Gambit, and ANSYS Fluent to in-
vestigate the heat transfer enhancement in a new type of heat ex-
changer using in the solar parabolic trough systems. Mwesigye et al.
[79] used SolTrace to study thermodynamic optimization of the per-
formance of a parabolic trough receiver using synthetic oil–Al2O3 na-
nofluid. Li et al. [54] used ANSYS Fluent to study on turbulent mixed
convection in parabolic trough solar receiver tube. Zadeh et al. [71]
used Matlab, Gambit and Fluent to study the thermal analysis of the
receiver. Fernandez-García et al. [89] used Gambit and Fluent to study
the thermal performance of different small-sized PTCs. Caron and Röger
[67] used Matlab to identify of heat loss mechanisms.
Mwesigye et al. [80] used ANSYS Fluent and SolTrace to study and
investigate the heat transfer and thermodynamic performance of a
parabolic trough receiver with centrally placed perforated plate inserts.
It was found out that in a certain range of certain parameters the
thermal efficiency increased by 1.2–8%. Yılmaz et al. [108] used EES to
show Thermo-mathematical modelling of parabolic trough collector.
Mwesigye et al. [78] used ANSYS FLUENT and SolTrace to study the
influence of optical errors on the thermal performance of PTC, they
showed the significant effect of slope errors and specularity errors on
the heat flux distribution on receiver tube and the intercept factor.
Wang et al. [48] used SolTRACE to obtain the solar energy flux dis-
tribution on the outer surface of the absorber. Sharma et al. [83] used
SAM and PVSyst. To identify optimal combinations of design for DNI,
solar multiple and storage hours for parabolic trough power plants for
Niche locations in India. Wang et al. [51] used SolTrace to compute the
solar energy flux. Maccari et al. [115] used LabView to study an optical
profilometer for the characterization of the parabolic trough solar
concentrators.
5.8. Wind effects
Andre et al. [50] used XFlow to study the wind loads on a parabolic
trough solar collector. Zhang et al. [65] used CFD to optimize of mirror
gap effect on wind load. Paetzold et al. [104] used ANSYS CFX 15.0 to
optimize wind loads and heat loss. Fu et al. [105] used SolidWorks &
ANSYS CFX to analysis wind-structure interaction, optimized the
weight of parabolic support structure and improvement of stiffness
based on using combination of cross section sizes for beams in the
torque box and cantilever beam that contribute the most weight of
parabolic trough support structure. Paetzold et al. [106] used ANSYS
CFX to wind engineering analysis of parabolic trough solar collectors:
The effects of varying the trough depth.
5.9. Economic evaluation
Ashouri et al. [69] used Matlab and engineering equation solver
(EES) to present a study on assessment for a techno-economic of a
Kalina cycle driven by a parabolic trough solar collector after variation
of different parameters. It was found that the change in ammonia mass
fraction has the most effect on exergy efficiency, solar fraction and le-
velized cost of electricity. Poghosyan et al. [85] used (SAM) software

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 Table 13
Solar parabolic trough design specifications for the reflector and receiver materials and the working fluid.

Ref. Authors Year Country & Location Reflective surface material Receiver Material of the Receiver surface treatment Working Fluid
A.Z. Hafez et al.

tube

[1] Jaramillo et al. (2016) Mexico N/A Copper N/A Water

[6] Bellos et al. (2016) Greece N/A Copper N/A Thermal oil with nanoparticles
[9] Toghyani et al. (2016) Iran N/A N/A N/A Four different nano-fluids (CuO, SiO2, TiO2
and Al2O3)
[7] Kaloudis et al. (2016) Greece N/A copper Cermet selective coating Syltherm 800/Al2O3 nanofluid
[117] Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa N/A N/A N/A Syltherm 800
[48] Wang et al. (2016) China N/A TP304H steel N/A Al2O3/synthetic oil nanofluid
[48] Wang et al. (2016) China N/A N/A N/A Al2O3/synthetic oil nanofluid
[188] Shahin et al. (2016) United Arab Emirates N/A N/A N/A Therminol VP−1,
[93] Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa N/A Steel N/A Cu-Therminol VP−1 nanofluid
[111] Khanna et al. (2016) India N/A layers of stainless steel and N/A Therminol VP1
copper
[167] Coccia et al. (2016) Italy N/A N/A N/A Different nanofluids
[126] Chafie et al. (2016) Tunisia Aluminium SUS304 steel N/A Transcal N thermal oil
[179] Wu et al. (2015) China, UK N/A Stainless Steel 304 L N/A New kind of low melting point molten salt
[10] Mosleh et al. (2015) Iran N/A Steel N/A Ethanol
[168] Liang et al. (2015) China N/A Steel coated with Black chrome N/A
[168] Liang et al. (2015) China N/A Steel coated with Cermet N/A
[14] Sun et al. (2015) China N/A Steel N/A N/A
[186] Maccari et al. (2015) Italy N/A N/A N/A 60% NaNO3 − 40% KNO3
[20] Wang et al. (2015) China N/A N/A N/A Synthetic oil
[156] Reddy et al. (2015) India Saint-Gobain glass Stainless steel N/A N/A
[70] Bouvier et al. (2015) France Anodized aluminium bonded to a Stainless steel coated with Black chrome Demineralized water
composite material

1242
[51] Wang et al. (2015) China Borosilicate glass TP304H steel N/A eutectic mixture of two very stable organic
compounds, biphenyl and diphenyl oxide
[89] Fernandez-García et al. (2015) Spain Aluminium Carbon steel black Chrome selective coating N/A
[189] Coccia et al. (2015) Italy XEPS Aluminium pipe Outer surface is painted with a black high liquid water
temperature resistant pain
[190] Cheng et al. (2015) China N/A N/A N/A Syltherm 800
[15] Xiao et al. (2014) China super-white glass Aluminium N/A Water & oil and air
[22] Balghouthi et al. (2014) Tunisia Aluminium polished mirror Stainless steel Black Nickel Press.water/thermal oil
[30] Silva et al. (2014) Spain N/A N/A N/A Saturated steam
[55] Cheng et al. (2014) China N/A N/A selective cermet coating Syltherm 800
[193] Al-Sulaiman (2014) Saudi Arabia N/A N/A N/A Therminol-VP1 & cooling water and steam
[53] Akbarimoosavi and Yaghoubi (2014) Iran N/A N/A N/A Oil
[133] Ramos et al. (2014) Mexico Anodized aluminium Steel High temperature black paint N/A
[147] Montes et al. (2014) Mexico aluminium Aluminium N/A water
[31] Larcher et al. (2014) Switzerland N/A Stainless steel Glass tube water
[3] Valencia et al. (2014) México Aluminium Copper N/A water
[2] Jaramillo et al. (2013) Mexico Aluminium Copper black paint with an absorptance of 0.90 water
[2] Jaramillo et al. (2013) Mexico Aluminium Copper black paint with an absorptance of 0.90 water
[194] Abu-Hamdeh et al. (2013) Saudi Arabia Aluminium Steel dark color water
[195] Silva et al. (2013) Spain Aluminium N/A N/A water
[17] He et al. (2012) China N/A N/A N/A Organic fluid
[18] Liu et al. (2012) China composed of metal frame, silver- N/A N/A HTF
plated glasses
[169] Zhang et al. (2012) China N/A Fe2O3 & Fe3O4 coated N/A Water
[197] Reddy et al. (2012) India 5.76 N/A N/A N/A
[170] Kalogirou (2002) Cyprus Silvered acrylic Steel Highly selective blackened nickel N/A
[202] Garcia-Rodriguez and Gomez-Camacho. (1999) Spain N/A Steel Selective coating Santotherm 55
[207] Garcia-Rodriguez and Gomez-Camacho. (1999) Spain N/A N/A N/A Santotherm 55
[171] Almanz and Lentz (1998) Mexico Mild steel N/A N/A Water
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A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

for techno-economic assessment of substituting HTF by TES. Mo-

kheimer et al. [109] used EES for detailed cost analysis of the solar
field.

5.10. SG in PTPP

Biencinto et al. [97] used TRNSYS to simulate a model for direct

steam generation in parabolic trough solar collectors. Sun et al. [14]
Working Fluid

used MATLAB to study of parabolic-trough direct steam generation.

Synthetic Oil

Bouvier et al. [70] used Labview and Matlab to control actuators and
acquire data. He et al. [17] used TRNSYS to study parabolic trough
Steam
Water

Water
N/A

N/A

solar energy generation system with organic Rankine cycle and leads to
the more increase in interlayer pressure and the more heat loss of the
solar collector. Then it will be constant.

5.11. PT performance
Black chrome selective surface
Black chrome selective surface

Black Chrome on Watts Nickel

Receiver surface treatment

Kasaeian et al. [73] used Matlab to study the performance evalua-

tion of the solar parabolic trough. Zaversky et al. [29] used SimulCET to
Glass Pipe Insulation

varied parameters of the collector mirror reflectance, mirror cleanliness

factor, glass tube transmittance, receiver tube absorbance, and receiver
tube heat loss characteristic.
N/A
N/A

5.12. Other Research Applications

Wang et al. [20] used TRNSYS to assessment of solar assisted ab-

Receiver Material of the

sorption heat pump. Dung et al. [72] used Matlab for Implementing the
genetic algorithm for solving the wetting Front position (WFPGA).
Grigoriu et al. [77] used Matlab/Simulink for Modelling of Greenhouse.
Stainless steel

6. Mathematical tools used in the design of SPTS

Copper
Steel
tube

N/A
N/A

N/A

The mathematical models allows the calculation of different para-

meters of the solar parabolic trough system, the angle of inclination of
the collecting surface and the forces acting on the system. The validity
Reflective surface material

of the major mathematical models are verified experimentally on

practical solar parabolic trough concentrators, receivers and other
components of different dimension. In particular, the mathematical
models are especially required for the design, analysis, testing and va-
lidation of the systems results because they provide an approximation
Fiberglass

of the dynamic behavior of the physical properties of the system. There

N/A
N/A

N/A
N/A
N/A

are many studies discussed mathematical techniques for design the

parabolic trough systems and for example about these methods in dif-
ferent research topics and components as fluid analysis
Country & Location

[7,48,51,54,57,58,67,68], PTC [62,209,210], PTR [53,64], Parabolic

Trough Structure [50,101], Applications [30,56,61], System Design
Cyprus, UK

[18,21,47,55,59,165], Solar Flux Distribution [16,46,60,63,65,66].

Australia

Georgia
Mexico
Cyprus

Table 16 shows the different mathematical techniques that be used in

USA

the design and evaluation of the solar parabolic trough in the corre-
sponding recent studies.
(1998)
(1997)
(1996)
(1992)
(1989)
(1987)
Year

6.1. Fluid analysis

Kaloudis et al. [7] used Monte Carlo method and computational

fluid dynamics to study nanofluid as the heat transfer fluid with two-
phase flow model to compare it with the single phase, also study the
relation between the nanoparticles (Al2O3) concentration with heat
transfer efficiency. Wang et al. [48] used finite element method to in-
Kalogirou and Lloyd

vestigate the performance of the PTC system using Al2O3/synthetic oil

Grald and Kuehn

nanofluid as heat transfer fluid (HTF) with non-uniform heat flux dis-
Almanza et al.

tributions. Li et al. [54] used finite volume to study the effect of local
Odeh et al.
Table 13 (continued)

Kalohirou
Authors

buoyancy force induced by the nonuniform heat flux. Wang et al. [51]
Jetert

used SRT and FEM to solve the complex problem coupled with fluid
flow. Caron and Röger [67] used PSO- NMS for solving complex transfer
[203]
[204]
[174]
[175]
[205]
[206]
Ref.

function. Cheng et al. [57] used MCRT and FVM to present a numerical
study of heat transfer enhancement by unilateral longitudinal vortex

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A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Table 14
Solar parabolic trough design specifications for the reflectance of the mirror, absorbance of the receiver, optical efficiency, emissivity.

Ref. Authors Year Country & Location Reflectance of Absorbance of the Transmittance of the Optical Emissivity
the mirror receiver glass cover tube Efficiency (%)

[1] Jaramillo et al. (2016) Mexico 0.92 0.96 N/A 70 0.96

[6] Bellos et al. (2016) Greece N/A N/A N/A 79.2 0.18 – 0.27
[92] Zhao et al. (2016) China 1.00 1.00 1.00 N/A N/A
[9] Toghyani et al. (2016) Iran 0.93 0.96 0.96 N/A 0.17
[7] Kaloudis et al. (2016) Greece N/A 0.96 0.95 N/A 0.14
[117] Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa 0.96 0.96 0.97 N/A N/A
[48] Wang et al. (2016) China 0.94 0.96 0.96 N/A 0.04795+
0.0002331 T [°C]
[48] Wang et al. (2016) China 0.93 0.96 0.95 N/A 0.00042 * T [K] −
0.0995
[188] Shahin et al. (2016) United Arab Emirates 0.94 0.96 0.96 93 0.15
[93] Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa 0.97 0.98 0.96 N/A N/A
[111] Khanna et al. (2016) India 0.94 0.96 0.96 N/A N/A
[167] Coccia et al. (2016) Italy 0.94 0.90 N/A N/A 0.30
[126] Chafie et al. (2016) Tunisia 0.93 0.93 0.95 N/A 0.08
[79] Mwesigye et al. (2015) South Africa 0.96 0.96 0.97 N/A 0.86
[179] Wu et al. (2015) China, UK 0.90 N/A N/A N/A N/A
[66] Cheng et al. (2015) China 0.945 0.96 0.965 N/A N/A
[168] Liang et al. (2015) China 0.88; 0.93 0.95 0.95 N/A 0.24
[168] Liang et al. (2015) China 0.88; 0.93 0.96 0.95 N/A 0.14
[156] Reddy et al. (2015) India 0.94 N/A N/A N/A N/A
[70] Bouvier et al. (2015) France 0.81 0.95 0.918 N/A 0.15
[51] Wang et al. (2015) China 0.94 0.95 0.96 N/A 0.04795 +
0.0002331 T (function
of T)
[89] Fernandez-García et al. (2015) Spain N/A 0.96 N/A N/A N/A
[189] Coccia et al. (2015) Italy 0.94 0.95 0.93 65.8 N/A
[190] Cheng et al. (2015) China 0.93 0.96 0.95 N/A 0.90
[15] Xiao et al. (2014) China N/A 0.90 0.90 N/A N/A
[22] Balghouthi et al. (2014) Tunisia 0.89 0.96 N/A 48–50.2 N/A
[192] Wirz et al. (2014) Switzerland 0.92 N/A N/A N/A N/A
[95] Wu et al. (2014) China N/A N/A N/A N/A 0.89
[30] Silva et al. (2014) Spain N/A N/A N/A 69.3 N/A
[55] Cheng et al. (2014) China N/A 0.96 N/A N/A 0.95
[193] Al-Sulaiman (2014) Saudi Arabia 0.94 0.96 0.96 N/A 0.15
[141] Canavarro et al. (2014) Portugal, Spain 0.92 0.95 0.96 81 N/A
[53] Akbarimoosavi and (2014) Iran N/A 0.94 0.96 N/A 0.15
Yaghoubi
[53] Akbarimoosavi and (2014) Iran N/A 0.94 0.96 N/A 0.15
Yaghoubi
[147] Montes et al. (2014) Mexico 0.94 N/A N/A N/A N/A
[31] Larcher et al. (2014) Switzerland N/A 0.946 N/A N/A 0.147
[3] Valencia et al. (2014) México N/A 0.90 N/A N/A N/A
[2] Jaramillo et al. (2013) Mexico N/A 0.90 N/A N/A N/A
[194] Abu-Hamdeh et al. (2013) Saudi Arabia N/A N/A N/A 76.5 N/A
[195] Silva et al. (2013) Spain N/A 0.90 0.93 60 0.91
[17] He et al. (2012) China N/A N/A N/A 73.1 N/A
[18] Liu et al. (2012) China 0.90 > 0.9 0.92 40–60 0.08 at 100 °C; 0.20 at
400 °C
[197] Reddy et al. (2012) India N/A 0.94 N/A 0.945 0.04795 *
0.0002331 Tr
[199] Montes et al. (2011) Spain 0.92 0.94 0.75 0.945 0.04795 + 0.0002331
T
[90] Kumar and Reddy (2009) India 0.95 0.90 N/A 0.95 N/A
[170] Kalogirou (2002) Cyprus N/A 0.97 N/A 0.96 0.18
[200] Bakos et al. (2001) Greece 0.90 N/A N/A 0.85 N/A
[201] Martinez et al. (2000) Mexico 0.85 N/A N/A N/A N/A
[203] Odeh et al. (1998) Australia N/A N/A 0.733 N/A 0.90
[173] Kalohirou et al. (1996) UK, Cyprus N/A N/A 0.638 N/A N/A
[174] Kalohirou (1996) Cyprus 0.85 0.90 0.647 N/A N/A
[205] Grald and Kuehn (1989) USA 0.90 N/A N/A N/A 0.95
[206] Jetert (1987) Georgia 0.95 N/A N/A N/A N/A

generators inside parabolic trough solar receivers. Al-Ansary et al. [58]
used finite volume solver to study the conduction and convection heat
losses from a half-insulated air-filled annulus of the receiver of a
parabolic trough collector. Tao et al. [68] used Semi-Implicit method to
study the fluid flow and heat transfer process in parabolic trough solar
collector tube.
6.2. PTC analysis
Fuqiang et al. [62] used MCRT for studying the effects of a glass
cover. Meiser et al. [209] used FEM for conversion of parabolic trough
mirror shape results. García-Valladares et al. [210] used mathematical
methods to design the parabolic trough solar collector.

1244
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 46. Flow diagram of two-tank molten salt storage parabolic trough power plant [184].
6.3. PTR analysis
Akbarimoosavi [53] used MCRT, FEM, and FVM to analysis of an
absorber tube of a parabolic trough collector and effect of tube de-
flection on optical efficiency. Cheng et al. [64] used MCRT method to
study the receiver tube of parabolic trough solar collector.
6.4. Design of parabolic trough structure
Schneider et al. [101] used finite element analysis to evaluate of
gravity load and mounting forces and its effect on the mirror shape and
focusing quality. Andre et al. [50] used FEM, LBM, and LES to calculate
wind loads for a parabolic trough solar collector.
6.5. Mathematical techniques used in applications
Silva et al. [30] used global sensitivity to analyze a design of
parabolic trough that produce direct steam. Mohamed et al. [61] used
the finite difference technique to humidification–dehumidification de-
salination system using parabolic trough concentrators. Calise et al.
[56] used FVM to show a model of a parabolic trough photovoltaic/
thermal collector: Energetic and exergetic analyses and showed an ex-
cellent performance of the results of the simulation model of the novel
CPVT. Also shows the effect of different parameters on the performance
of the CPVT.
6.6. System design
Cheng et al. [47] used Monte Carlo for comparative and sensitive
analysis for parabolic trough solar collectors. Cheng et al. [55] used
finite volume method and MCRT method to study the characteristics
and performance of parabolic trough solar collector system. Liu et al.
[18] used (LSSVM) method (the least squares support vector machine
method) on parabolic trough solar collector systems. Cheng et al. [21]
used FVM and MCRT to present the design of a parabolic trough solar
collector and analyze the total photo-thermal conversion process of LS2
PTC system. Forristall et al. [165] used finite difference method to
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
calculate and analysis the parameters of the parabolic trough solar re-
ceiver and the results showed a better agreement with experimental
data compared to models. He et al. [59] used MCRT and FVM simula-
tion methods to design the parabolic trough solar collector.
6.7. Solar flux distribution
Liang et al. [46] used Monte Carlo method and finite volume
method to initialize photon distribution. Cheng et al. [66] used
PSO–MCRT algorithm to optimize on the optical performance of the
parabolic trough collector. Zhang et al. [65] used PSO to investigate
optimal gap size. Song [63] used MCRT to show flux distribution. It was
found numerically that the transversal angle affects the flux distribution
greater than the longitudinal angle. Transverse angle of 11.567 mrad
increased the maximum temperature of the absorber tube (Tmax), re-
lative change of heat loss (Qloss) and maximum circumferential tem-
perature difference (ΔT). But with a decreasing effect with the increase
of Re. He concluded that at the range of the studied Re, certain helical
screw-tape inserts reduce Qloss, Tmax and ΔT. Wang et al. [16] used fi-
nite element method (FVM) to compute the solar energy flux profiles by
the ray-tracing method over PTC by using molten salt as HTF, and
found that the cross-sectional temperature difference enlarged with
inlet velocity and DNI. Moreover, the thermal efficiency of molten salt
at 773 K is less than that of Oil at 573.15 by 0.079. Marif et al. [60]
used finite difference to determine the optical and thermal performance
of a solar parabolic trough collector under the climate conditions of
Algerian Sahara.
7. Testing
The solar parabolic trough collectors have different tests to evaluate
the various components such as concentrator, receiver, tracking system,
and thermal storage systems. Larcher et al. [31] developed a valid ef-
ficiency curve of the collector from measurements of the optical be-
havior, likewise efficiency measurements carried out at low and high
operating temperatures. In addition, heat loss measurements of the
receiver carried out at high operating temperatures of parabolic trough
 Table 15
Software and modelling programs used in a parabolic trough system in recent studies.

Research Focus Authors Year Country & Location Software/Model Program Application/Purpose Ref.
A.Z. Hafez et al.

Design and analysis of PTPP Boukelia et al. (2016) Turkey SAM Design and optimization of a solar power plant. [82]
Al-Maliki et al. (2016) Germany APROS Modelling the parabolic trough power plant. [119]
Borunda et al. (2016) Mexico TRNSYS Simulate the performance of the solar power plant. [96]
Sharma et al. (2015) India PVSyst. Identifying optimal combinations of design for DNI, solar multiple and storage hours for parabolic [83]
trough power plants for Niche locations in India.
Boukelia et al. (2015) Algeria TRNSYS Optimization, selection and feasibility study of solar parabolic trough power plants for Algerian [84]
conditions.
Trad and Ali (2015) Algeria Thermoflex Determination of the optimum design of parabolic trough power plant in Algeria. [116]
Biencinto et al. (2014) Spain Meteonorm Performance model and annual yield comparison of parabolic-trough solar thermal power plants with [98]
either nitrogen or synthetic oil as heat transfer fluid.
García-Barberena et al. (2012) Spain SimulCET To perform systematic optimization and analyzes the influence of operational strategies on the [91]
performance of parabolic trough (PT) solar power plants.
Bonilla et al. (2012) Spain MATLAB To calibrate and validate multi-objective genetic algorithm of Parabolic-trough solar thermal power [74]
plant simulation.
Zaaraoui et al. (2012) Algeria TRNSYS Technical and Economical Performance of Parabolic Trough Collector Power Plant under Algerian [99]
Climate.
Design and analysis of PTC Schneider et al. (2016) Germany ANSYS Evaluation and assessment of gravity load on mirror shape using finite-element analysis. [101]
Zheng et al. (2015) China GAMBIT Create and mesh the geometric model for the parabolic trough. [87]
Sanchez and Rosengarten (2015) Australia Zemax Improving the concentration ratio of parabolic troughs using a second-stage flat mirror. [118]
Meiser et al. (2015) Germany ANSYS Evaluation and assessment of gravity load on mirror shape. [11]
King et al. (2014) UK Photogrammetry Mapping the position and form of large mirror segments for solar collectors. [120]
Tsai et al. (2012) Taiwan SolidWorks Optimized variable focus parabolic trough reflector for solar thermal concentrator system. [32]
Design and analysis of PTR Abbas et al. (2016) Spain MCRT Compare the energy effectiveness and flux intensity map at the receiver. [94]
Habib et al. (2015) Abu Dhabi, UAE ANSYS Numerical model of lengthy solar thermal receivers. [13]
Song (2014) China ANSYS A numerical study of parabolic trough receiver. [63]

1246
Wu et al. (2014) China MCRT Structural reliability analysis of parabolic trough receivers. [95]
Akbarimoosavi and Yagho. (2014) Iran ANSYS Analysis of absorber tube of parabolic trough and effect of deflection of the tube and on optical [53]
efficiency.
Zavattoni et al. (2014) Switzerland ANSYS Analysis of a receiving cavity suitable for a novel CSP parabolic trough receiver. [102]
Huang et al. (2012) China New developed program Proposed optical performance and a modified integration algorithm to simulate the performance of a [150]
parabolic trough solar collector with vacuum tube receiver.
Muñoz et al. (2011) Spain CFD Analysis of internal helically finned tubes for parabolic trough design. [114]
Daniel et al. (2011) India MATLAB To numerical investigation of parabolic trough receiver performance with outer vacuum shell [75]
Parabolic trough receiver.
Ravi Kumar et al. (2009) India GAMBIT Solar parabolic trough with porous disc receiver. [90]
Evaluation and control of tracking Zhao et al. (2016) China MCRT Effects of installation errors and tracking errors of the parabolic trough. [92]
systems Bouvier et al. (2015) France Labview Control actuators and acquire data. [70]
Bakos et al. (2006) Greece Visual C++ Tracking system for parabolic trough collector. [122]
Simulation of cooling systems Fadar et al. (2009) Morocco FORTRAN Simulate the behavior of the adsorption cooling system of parabolic trough solar collector. [121]
Mazloumi et al. (2008) Iran TRNSYS Solar lithium bromide, water absorption cooling system with parabolic trough collector. [100]
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
 Table 15 (continued)

Research Focus Authors Year Country & Location Software/Model Program Application/Purpose Ref.
A.Z. Hafez et al.

Thermal analysis of the working Bellos et al. (2016) Greece SolidWorks Thermal efficiency of solar parabolic trough collector enhancement by using nanofluids. [6]
fluid Hoffmann et al. (2016) Germany Code ATHLET Investigation of severe slugging. [117]
Liu et al. (2016) China ANSYS Solve the optimization equations to obtain the fluid velocity and temperature. [107]
Ghasemi and Ranjbar (2016) Iran GAMBIT Create geometrical model and mesh of HTF. [86]
Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa MCRT Obtain the actual heat flux profile on the receiver's absorber tube. [93]
Khanna et al. (2016) India CFD Compute the temperature of the absorber tube. [111]
Wang et al. (2016) China CFD Solve the cases of heat transfer modelling. [112]
Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa ANSYS Solve the equations for heat transfer and entropy generation. [103]
Sahin et al. (2015) Turkey ANSYS Investigation of heat transfer enhancement in a new type heat exchanger using solar parabolic trough [88]
systems.
Mwesigye et al. (2015) South Africa SolTRACE Thermodynamic optimization of the performance of a parabolic trough receiver using synthetic [79]
oil–Al2O3 nanofluid.
Li et al. (2015) China ANSYS Study on turbulent mixed convection in parabolic trough solar receiver tube. [54]
Zadeh et al. (2015) Iran & Australia ANSYS Thermal analysis in a solar parabolic trough collector based on nanofluid. [71]
Fernandez-García et al. (2015) Spain & Mexico ANSYS Thermal performance of different small-sized PTCs. [89]
Caron and Röger (2015) Almería MATLAB Identification of Heat Loss Mechanisms. [67]
Mwesigye et al. (2014) South Africa ANSYS Heat transfer and thermodynamic performance of a parabolic trough receiver with centrally placed [80]
perforated plate inserts.
Yılmaz et al. (2014) Turkey EES Thermo-mathematical modelling of parabolic trough collector. [108]
Lobón et al. (2014) Spain, USA CFD Study the dynamic of multiphase fluid in parabolic trough. [113]
Wu et al. (2014) China ANSYS, MCRT Coupled heat transfer modelling. [64]
Ghadirijafarbeigloo et al. (2014) Iran SolTRACE Simulation of heat transfer and turbulent flow in a receiver tube of solar parabolic trough concentrator [81]
with louvered twisted-tape inserts.
Kalogirou (2012) Cyprus EES A detailed thermal model of a parabolic trough collector receiver. [110]
Cheng et al. (2012) China GAMBIT Heat transfer enhancement by unilateral longitudinal vortex generators, which are inside the parabolic [57]
trough solar receiver.

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Gong et al. (2010) China MATLAB To compute the receiver major heat loss through glass envelope, and then systematically analyzes the [76]
major influence factors of heat loss.
Solar Radiation Effects Mwesigye et al. (2016) South Africa SolTRACE, ANSYS Study the influence of optical errors on the thermal performance of PTC. [78]
Wang et al. (2016) China SolTRACE Obtain the solar energy flux distribution on the outer surface of the absorber. [48]
Sharma et al. (2015) India PVSyst. Identifying optimal combinations of design for DNI, solar multiple and storage hours for parabolic [83]
trough power plants for Niche locations in India.
Wang et al. (2015) China SolTRACE Performance analysis of the solar energy flux conditions. [51]
Maccari et al. (2007) Italy Labview Optical profilometer for the characterization of parabolic trough solar concentrators. [115]
Wind Effects Andre et al. (2015) Germany, Spain XFlow Wind loads calculation on a parabolic trough solar collector. [50]
Zhang et al. (2015) China CFD Optimization of mirror gap effect on wind load. [65]
Paetzold et al. (2015) Australia ANSYS Optimize wind loads and heat loss. [104]
Fu et al. (2015) China SolidWorks Wind-structure interaction analysis. [105]
Paetzold et al. (2014) Australia ANSYS Wind engineering analysis of parabolic trough solar collectors: The effects of varying the trough depth. [106]
Economic evaluation Ashouri et al. (2015) Iran EES Techno-economic assessment of a Kalina cycle driven by a parabolic trough solar collector. [69]
Poghosyan et al. (2015) Abu Dhabi, UAE SAM Techno-economic assessment of substituting HTF by TES. [85]
Mokheimer et al. (2014) Saudi Arabia EES Detailed cost analysis of the solar field. [109]
SG in PTPP Biencinto et al. (2016) Spain TRNSYS Simulate a model for direct steam generation in parabolic trough solar collectors. [97]
Sun et al. (2015) China MATLAB Study of parabolic-trough direct steam generation. [14]
He et al. (2012) China TRNSYS Parabolic trough solar energy generation system with Organic Rankine Cycle. [17]
Eck et al. (2007) Germany Simulation tool Dynamics and control of parabolic trough collector loops with direct steam generation. [208]
PT Performance Kasaeian et al. (2015) Iran MATLAB Performance evaluation of the solar parabolic collector. [73]
Zaversky et al. (2012) Spain SimulCET Varied parameters of the collector mirror reflectance, mirror cleanliness factor, glass tube [29]
transmittance, receiver tube absorbance, and receiver tube heat loss characteristic.
Other Research Applications Wang et al. (2015) China TRNSYS Assessment of solar assisted absorption heat pump. [20]
Dung et al. (2015) Taiwan MATLAB Implementing the genetic algorithm for solving the wetting Front position (WFPGA). [72]
Grigoriu et al. (2015) Romania & France MATLAB Modelling of Greenhouse in integration with solar parabolic trough. [77]
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260
 A.Z. Hafez et al.

Table 16
Mathematical Techniques and the purpose of it to be used in the parabolic trough systems in recent studies.

Research Focus Authors Year Location Mathematical Technique Application/Purpose Ref.

Fluid analysis Kaloudis et al. (2016) Greece Monte Carlo method, computational fluid Study nanofluid as the Heat Transfer Fluid. [7]
dynamics
Wang et al. (2016) China Finite element method Investigate the performances of the PTC system using Al2O3/synthetic oil nanofluid as heat [48]
transfer fluid (HTF) with non-uniform heat flux distributions.
Li et al. (2015) China Finite volume The effect of local buoyancy force induced by the nonuniform heat flux. [54]
Wang et al. (2015) China SRT & FEM Solve the complex problem coupled with fluid flow. [51]
Caron and Röger (2015) Almería PSO- NMS Solving complex transfer function. [67]
Cheng et al. (2012) China MCRT, FVM Numerical study of heat transfer enhancement by unilateral longitudinal vortex generators [57]
inside parabolic trough solar receivers.
Al-Ansary et al. (2011) Saudi Arabia Finite volume solver Studying of conduction and convection heat losses from a half-insulated air-filled annulus of [58]
the receiver of a parabolic trough collector
Tao et al. (2010) China Semi-Implicit Method Fluid flow and heat transfer process in parabolic trough solar collector tube. [68]
PTC analysis Fuqiang et al. (2015) China MCRT Studying the effects of a glass cover. [62]
Meiser et al. (2015) Germany FEM Conversion of parabolic trough mirror shape results. [209]
García-Valladares et al. (2009) Mexico The governing equations Parabolic trough solar collector design calculations. [210]
PTR analysis Akbarimoosavi, Yaghoubi (2014) Iran MCRT, FEM, FVM Analysis of an absorber tube of a parabolic trough collector and the effect of tube deflection [53]
on optical efficiency.
Cheng et al. (2010) China MCRT Method The receiver tube of parabolic trough solar collector. [64]

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Design of parabolic trough Schneider et al. (2016) Germany Finite element analysis Evaluation of gravity load on mirror shape and focusing quality. [101]
structure Andre et al. (2015) Germany, Spain FEM, LBM, LES Wind loads calculations for a parabolic trough solar collector. [50]
Mathematical techniques used Silva et al. (2014) Spain Global sensitivity Analyze a design of parabolic trough that produce direct steam. [30]
in applications Mohamed et al. (2011) Saudi Arabia, The finite difference technique Humidification–dehumidification desalination system using parabolic trough concentrators [61]
Egypt
Calise et al. (2012) Italy FVM Model of a parabolic trough photovoltaic/thermal collector: Energetic and exergetic analyses [56]
System Design Cheng et al. (2014) China Monte Carlo Comparative and sensitive analysis for parabolic trough solar collectors. [47]
Cheng et al. (2014) China Finite Volume Method and MCRT method Study the characteristics and performance of parabolic trough solar collector system. [55]
Liu et al. (2012) China (LSSVM) method (the least squares Parabolic trough solar collector systems design. [18]
support vector machine method)
Cheng et al. (2012) China FVM, MCRT Parabolic trough design calculation. [21]
Forristall et al. (2011) USA Finite difference method Parabolic trough design calculation. [165]
He et al. (2011) China A MCRT and FVM coupled simulation Parabolic trough solar collector design. [59]
method
Solar flux distribution Liang et al. (2016) China Monte Carlo method and finite volume Initializing photon distribution. [46]
method
Cheng et al. (2015) China PSO–MCRT Optimization on the optical performance. [66]
Zhang et al. (2015) China PSO Optimal gap size. [65]
Song (2014) China MCRT Flux distribution. [63]
Wang et al. (2014) China Finite Element Method The solar energy flux profiles were computed by the ray-tracing method. [16]
Marif et al. (2014) Algeria Finite difference Determine the optical and thermal performance of a solar parabolic trough collector under the [60]
climate conditions of Algerian Sahara.
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collector. Measurement results of the present collector PT1800 as it is

Fig. 47. Investigated parabolic trough collector installed at the SPF outdoor testing fa-
cility [31].
Fig. 48. Prototype for a parabolic trough [156].
Fig. 49. Receiver heat loss test stand at IEECAS [95,162,192].
installed in the outdoor testing lab of SPF as shown in Fig. 47. The solar
parabolic trough collector has an aperture length of 10 m, width of
1845 mm and the focal length f is 647 mm. The receiver is not evac-
uated. The stainless steel absorber tube has an outer diameter of
34 mm, wall thickness of 1.5 mm, and the absorber tube is surrounded
by a glass tube where the diameter of 56 mm and wall thickness of
2.5 mm (there is no anti-reflectively coating on the glass). In addition,
the manufacturer's information on the selective coating is α = 0.965
and ε = 0.143 measured on a plane sample. Since 2012, the SPF is able
to measure α- and ε-values directly on round absorber tubes (diameters
from 25 mm till 100 mm are possible). The measurements for these two
parameters result: α = 0.946 and ε = 0.147 [31].
It is shown in Fig. 48, the prototype for a parabolic trough system
that developed at IIT Madras for testing a new technique in the re-
ceiver to enhance the performance. As it is shown in Fig. 48, the
system consists of two modules with single axis tracking system.
Each module consists of the support structure, torque tube, mirror
supporting arms, mirrors and receiver [156]. To enhance the heat
transfer to the fluid a porous disc has been inserted inside the re-
ceiver surface. There are six different configurations of the receiver.
Those configurations are: unshielded tubular receiver (USTR),
shielded tubular receiver (STR), bottom porous disc receiver (BPDR),
U-shaped bottom porous disc receiver (UBPDR), inclined bottom
porous disc receiver (IBPDR) and alternative porous disc receiver
(APDR). Results shown that porous disc enhanced receiver is much
better than the conventional tubular receiver as the thermal gradient
between the fluid and receiver wall surface and across the receiver
cross section was less. In addition, the performance of parabolic
trough receiver with APDR is better than other receiver configura-
tions [156].
There are many tests occurred on the receiver, one of them is the
receiver heat loss test stand in IEECAS as shown in Fig. 49
[95,162,192], a single 4.06 m long receiver was installed where two
electric cartridge heaters (2.07 m long; 2 m effective heated length)
symmetrically inserted into the ends of the receiver. These were the
main heaters. Each cartridge heater fully inserted and surrounded by a
copper pipe (2.15 m long, 50 mm outer diameter). Wu et al. [95] Per-
formed structural reliability study about stainless steel tube, and found
that the deflection of stainless steel tube is slightly dependent on
thermal stress and strongly dependent on supporting structure of the

Fig. 50. Schematic Andasol II solar power plant [138].

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Fig. 51. DISS test facility, a parabolic-trough solar thermal power plant owned by Plataforma Solar de Almerıґa (CIEMAT) [74].
Fig. 52. Solar parabolic trough power plant collector 50 MWe with receiver subsystem and Rankine heat engine Subsystem [197].
system. This evened out the temperature profile of the absorber in both
the longitudinal and circumferential directions.
8. Power plants
The number of references analyzing SPTCs deployment in the con-
text of the research papers at different countries currently having op-
erational SPTC plants is much more significant. Al-Maliki et al. [138]
simulated a 50 MWe parabolic trough solar thermal power plant during
clear and slightly cloudy days, the simulation also describes the heat
transfer fluid paths in details. Andasol II in Fig. 50 is a parabolic trough
solar thermal power plant, which is located in Andalusia, Spain. It
consists of three main subsystems: the solar field, the thermal storage
system and the power block. The solar field contains 156 parallel loops
of parabolic troughs each contains four solar collector assemblies, each
assembly consists of 12 collector. Therminol VP-1 is used as HTF. As for
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the power block, it consists of a steam generator; high and low pressure
preheaters, steam turbines and an electricity generator [138]. Bonilla
et al. [74] used Matlab to calibrate and validate parabolic-trough solar
thermal power plant on 9th July 2001 and the optical efficiency values
are close to 63% and the theoretical optical efficiency peak reached to
75%. The DISS is an application of parabolic-trough technology and the
target of it is to produce a high-pressure steam as shown in Fig. 51.
Their high working temperature could be used in supplying heat to the
industrial processes and replacing the fossil fuels. By using the three
phases of water, sub cooled liquid, steam–water mixture and super-
heated steam. This technology increases the total efficiency of the
system and reduce the total costs due to eliminating the oil, which used
as in the process of heat-transfer medium between the solar field and
the other subsystems in the plant [74]. Fig. 52 represents a parabolic
trough system with a capacity of 50MWe. This system works in Rankine
cycle and consists of two subsystems which are collector-receiver
A.Z. Hafez et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 82 (2018) 1215–1260

Fig. 53. Schematic of parabolic trough system with Organic Rankine Cycle [17].

subsystem that works in the 80 loops. Each loop consists of (reflector

Fig. 54. Schematic of the parabolic trough solar collectors integrated with steam Rankine
cycle [146].
mirrors, 12.27 m long, and the absorber tube which contain the heat
thermal fluid, Therminol VP-1). The second subsystem is the Rankine
heat engine subsystem which consist of high and low pressure turbine
with the boiler and the pump [197].
He et al. [17] simulated a parabolic trough using TRANSYS for an
organic Rankine cycle and leads to an increase in interlayer pressure
and more heat loss of the solar collector. Then it will be constant.
Fig. 53 describes a parabolic trough solar thermal system and its
components first from the left collectors that consists of long arrays of
reflective mirrors to concentrate the solar rays on the receiver, thermal
storage system, and auxiliary energy subsystem then the fluid com-
pletes its cycle in the heat exchange system. The heat exchange system
consist of three subsystems, over-heater, evaporator and the preheater
then the power system works with organic working fluid and generate

Fig. 55. Schematic of the parabolic trough solar collectors in-

tegrated with the steam and organic Rankine cycles [146].

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Fig. 56. Overall system with parabolic trough solar collector [188].

Fig. 57. Schematic of the solar Kalina cycle in parabolic trough system [69].

electricity [17]. A. Al-Sulaiman [146] showed sizing and performance
analyses of different binary vapor cycles as compared to steam Rankine
cycles all operated by PTSC. The first system is a PTSC integrated with
the steam Rankine cycle (SRC), as shown in Fig. 54. The second system
is a binary vapor cycle, which is much more likes the first; however, an
organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is integrated with a steam Rankine cycle
working under atmospheric pressure, as shown in Fig. 55. Many ad-
vantages as compared to a single steam Rankine cycle with a vacuum
condensing pressure (SRC-V). There are two main reasons that make
SRC-V design complex. First, the capital and operating & operating cost.
Second, steam volume in the condenser is relatively high thus it is re-
quired a large size condenser [146]. A parabolic trough collector as
shown in Fig. 56 is coupled with Rankine cycle with a heat exchanger to
produce a net power output at the turbine. The PTC heats up the
working fluid (Therminol VP-1) which then passes through the heat
exchanger where the heat is transferred to the water in the Rankine
cycle to generate superheated steam, then the steam enters the turbine
to generate shaft work which then converts to electricity using an
electrical generator [188]. Ashouri et al. [69] presented a study on the
economic and performance effect of the Kalina cycle and the change in
ammonia. Fig. 57 shows the schematic of the solar Kalina cycle in a
parabolic trough system. It consists of a number of parabolic trough
collectors, a thermal storage tank and a Kalina power cycle. The pre-
sence of the storage tank is necessary in keeping the working conditions
of the power cycle stable. The collectors heat up the heat transfer fluid
(thermal oil) which then goes into the storage tank adding heat to it.
Then it goes into the vapor generator to heat the ammonia-water
mixture to get the vapor necessary for the turbine. An auxiliary heater is

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Fig. 58. Schematic of the CCHP system [142].

present to heat the oil if its temperature is below the minimum tem-
perature required for vapor generation in the generator. The Kalina
cycle here consists of two recuperators, two separators, a steam turbine,
a condenser, a throttling valve and a centrifugal pump. The partially
evaporated mixture enters the first separator where semi pure ammonia
gas exits from the top and goes into the turbine to produce power. Pure
water is then extracted from the first separator and gets its energy re-
covered in the first recuperator. Then the flow is throttled by the
throttling valve to get its pressure reduced to be mixed with the outlet
flow of the turbine. The mixture then enters the second recuperator to
recover its energy. The second separator separates the two phases of the
low pressure mixture. After that, the two phases are condensed in the
water-cooled condenser. Finally, the solution is pumped to the vapor
generator to close the cycle [69].
Al-Sulaiman et al. [142] presented an assessment of the CCHP
using different modes of operation: solar, solar and storage, and
storage. Fig. 58 shows a schematic for the CCHP system. It consists of
a heating process heat exchanger, a single effect absorption chiller, a
Fig. 59. Schematic diagram of the micro-CHP system [8].
PTSC and an ORC. The operation of the system is as follows: The

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A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 61. Schematic diagram of the DISS test loop [145].
PTSC heats up the HTF in the solar subsystem, the HTF then heats the
fluid in the ORC through evaporator-a and evaporator-b. The waste
heat from the ORC is used for heating and cooling. It uses the heat
exchanger to produce steam in the heating process, and a single-ef-
fect absorption chiller to produce cooling energy [142]. Bouvier
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Fig. 60. Scheme of the micro-CHP system
[8].
et al. [8] investigated an experimental prototype of micro combined
heat and power system, (micro-CHP), and showed the work of cou-
pling a solar collector to an expander with a PI controller, and leads
to solar to electricity efficiency 3% and solar to thermal efficiency
38%. The prototype as shown in Figs. 30, 59, and 60 is micro-CHP,
A.Z. Hafez et al.
Fig. 62. Natural convection U-type heat pipe solar steam generation system [169].
which consists of four main components: a solar parabolic trough
collector, a steam expander, a heat exchanger system and a cooling
loop. The collector has two axis tracking system to collect all the
available solar energy, Electricity is produced in the steam expander
by means of electric generator, demineralized water is used in the
heat exchanger system, and the system is controlled by a high pres-
sure pump, a frequency drive to control the expander and an on–off
controller to adjust the power [8].
Valenzuela et al. [145] showed the development and implementa-
tion of a new technology for producing steam at high pressure and high
temperature directly in parabolic trough solar collectors Fig. 61 shows
the process diagram with the relevant feedback loops of the recircula-
tion operation mode with nice collectors of total length 425 m as the
evaporation section and two collectors of total length 75 m as the su-
perheating section. There are three control loops. The first is the re-
circulation control loop with maintains the flow by adjusting the input
power to the pump. The second is the feed pump control loop, which
adjusts the rotational speed of the feed pump to maintain a specific
drop in pressure across the valve. The third one is the middle steam
separator liquid level control loop, which maintains a moderate level
around the nominal value inside the tank. The feed flow is adjusted by
aperture of the feed valve whose pressure drop is controlled by the feed
pump [145]. Zhang et al. [169] applied the U-type natural circulation
heat pipe system and the thermal efficiency is found to be 38.52% when
the system operates in mid-temperature steam of a pressure up to
0.75 MPa. Fig. 62 represents a diagram of using the U-type natural
circulation heat pipe system which consists of U-type parabolic trough
solar receiver, steam pipe, two pipes: one of them ascending and the
other is descending, a water pipe, steam pipe and an unfired-boiler. In
the U-type solar receiver, the water takes the heat which comes from
the sun and heated up the steam which flows into the boiler. Then, the
condensed water that comes from the boiler coming back to the U-type
receiver and the cycle is repeated [169].
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9. Conclusion
This paper contributes an in-depth description of all the design de-
scriptions regarding the promotion of the parabolic trough collector
technology in the world in the period 1981–2016. Likewise, the review has
allowed to analysis several measures consecutively applied to achieve the
best output on the electricity system of the PTC growth. The main ob-
jective of the current research is to review solar trough collector systems
and study the effects of different components on the design performance.
The theoretical and experimental calculations were carried out in many
solar parabolic trough systems with different dimensions and materials.
Most of the models, in the literature, for simulating the design and the
parameters of the PTC using software programs or mathematical techni-
ques. Because of the non-uniform nature of the solar distribution on the
solar concentrator, this lead to many factors taken into account when we’ll
design the PTC either for small units (prototypes) or power plants in many
components. The designs for various heat cycles of PTC in the heat transfer
fluid are presented for a number of PTC power plants.
The solar parabolic trough systems have many advantages such as
high power density, high efficiency, modularity, and versatility. They
are also durable against moisture effects and have a long lifetime. In
addition, many system parts can made by local manufacturers. Their
low construction cost, drives developers and investors to invest in solar
parabolic trough technology to reduce the capital cost of a CSP station.
Solar parabolic trough can reach high receiver temperature ranges. The
higher the receiver temperature the higher the system efficiency and
consequently better electricity generation and conversion. The use of
PTC leads to higher power densities and lower cost with respect to other
CSP technologies. Thus, solar trough systems can provide an econom-
ically reasonable source of electricity and are a candidate to be one of
the best renewable energy systems in few years. On the other hand,
there are some disadvantages of the solar parabolic trough systems,
including the need for moving parts in the heat engine and in the
tracking system resulting in a relatively high maintenance cost.
A.Z. Hafez et al.
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