Energy Research

Solar Steam Generator

Better Place Electronics partnered with the University of North Texas for the 2022-23 school year to design and manufacture a solar steam generator. Here is the final manufactured validation prototype and the associated project poster:

Solar Steam System
Solar Steam System
solar steam project poster

Special thanks to Dr. Taeyul Choi, whose knowledge of nanoscale thermal transport and manufacturing was instrumental in designing and fabricating the prototype. Another thanks and congratulations to the seniors who helped research and manufacture the validation prototype as part of their final undergraduate mechanical and energy engineering class. This is all I can disclose at the moment, but I will post more details as soon as is legally feasible to do so. Please feel free to contact me for any questions you have about the subject.

Solar Fresnel Lens

A follow up project to the solar steam turbine was selected for the 2023-24 school year. In this project we built a solar Fresnel lens with one axis tracking with a fixture for two secondary optical elements (SOEs). We investigated using genetically-themed hierarchical algorithms as a means of tracking error mitigation on the second tracking axis:

Custom Fresnel lens designed via genetic algorithms

We also investigated the performance of an SOE’s collimation of a point concentration Fresnel lens.

Solar Fresnel lens tracking system with mount for two SOEs

Special thanks to Dr. Hassan Qandil, whose work in genetic Fresnel lens design and assistance made this project possible. Also, Better Place Electronics would like to thank the University of North Texas senior design team. Each member had valuable insights from start to finish.

This is all I can disclose for both projects at the moment, but I will post more details as soon as I have them and it is legally feasible to do so. Please feel free to contact me for any questions you have about this research.