Membrane Stratified Solar Ponds

Abstract: This project deals with the potential of membrane stratified solar ponds which consist of two water layers, where one is a salt solution here, and a separating translucent membrane. An experimental pond was set up to study the thermal behaviour of such collector systems. The input is mainly solar radiation, sometimes when the ambient temperatures are higher than the pond temperatures also heat from the environment is transferred into the pond. The measured temperatures of the pond, the ambient temperature, the global radiation and wind speed were the basis data for thermal calculations which showed that the pond was working well as a solar collector and thermal storage system all in one. Heat was not extracted from the pond however, only the losses to the environment were studied. It was found out that the pond temperatures were higher than the ambient temperature over the whole measurement period of 12 days, and insulation and pollution problems as well as future prospects and suggestions for further studies are discussed at the end of this paper.