Solar Thermal Technologies for Industrial Process Heating

Industrial process heat is a major energy demand in food and beverage, textiles, chemicals, pulp and paper, mining, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and many other sectors. A significant portion occurs at temperatures that can be supplied directly or indirectly by solar thermal systems. This book develops an engineering framework connecting solar resource assessment, collector physics, heat transfer, thermal storage, process integration, controls, economics and sustainability.The book emphasizes practical scientific methods suitable for postgraduate research and preliminary engineering design. Equations are presented for first-order analysis, while system boundaries, assumptions, uncertainty and validation are highlighted so that the methods can be adapted to different industrial plants and climates.