ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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- Creators: Rogers, Bradley
alternative and renewable energy sources are being researched and developed. Many
of these technologies are in their infancy, still being too inefficient or too costly to
implement on a large scale. This list of alternative energies include biofuels,
geothermal power, solar energy, wind energy and hydroelectric power. This thesis
focuses on developing a concentrating solar thermal energy unit for the application
of an on-demand hot water system with phase change material. This system already
has a prototype constructed and needs refinement in several areas in order to
increase its efficiency to determine if the system could ever reach a point of
feasibility in a residential application. Having put additional control refining
systems on the solar water heat collector, it can be deduced that the efficiency has
increased. However, due to limited testing and analysis it is undetermined just how
much the efficiency of the system has increased. At minimum, the capabilities of the
research platform have dramatically increased, allowing future research to more
accurately study the dynamics of the system as well as conduct studies in more
targeted areas of engineering. In this aspect, the thesis was successful.