Solar Heat for Industrial Processes - SHIP
SHIP is the acronym for Solar Heat for Industrial Processes and describes systems which provide solar heat in a factory. A collector field heats a process fluid by means of solar radiation and a heat exchanger transfers this heat to a supply system or production process in the factory as hot water, air flow or steam. Storage units make it possible to use the generated heat at night-time.
A solar thermal collector captures solar radiation hitting a surface, the absorber, to heat a fluid in a hydraulic circuit.
- Typical operation temperature of the collector type meets the requirements for the industrial heat
- Design accommodates chosen heat transfer fluid
- Certified according to national or international standard, such as:
- Solar KEYMARK (Europe)
- Solar Rating & Certification Cooperation, SRCC (USA)
- Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
- NMX-ES-001-NORMEX (Mexico)*
- South African Bureau of Standards (SABS)*
- National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology, INMETRO (Brazil)*
- Chinese National Standard *
- Energy output certified by accredited third party
- Enough pressure resistance
- Adequate stagnation handling and overheating prevention
- Suitable weight for rooftop installation or appropriate size for ground-mounting
* These standards do not yet include concentrating collectors.
Solar heat can be provided at different integration points. Preheating is the most common method of incorporating solar heat into the production cycle. However, it can also be used to generate steam or fed directly into the process loop.
Cold water is preheated in the solar field and fed into a storage tank where it is heated up by a fossil fuel boiler to the required temperature of the production process.
Water is partly evaporated in the concentrating collectors. The solar-heated steam is then
separated from the remaining water in the steam drum before being supplied to the industrial process
or the steam network of the factory. The treated condensate – also called feed water – is fed back to
the collector field. Another option is indirect steam generation. In this case, the collector field heats
water or thermal oil in a closed circuit to generate steam via a heat exchanger.
The solar field provides heat at a certain temperature to maintain the temperature of a bath or a thermal separation process. Additional heat is provided to the production process by a fossil fuel boiler. Both circuits are closed so that the cooled off water returns to the collector field or the boiler respectively.