Nanocellulose as radiator liquid in heat exchanger

Nanocellulose with water and Ethylene Glycol addition to coolant for car radiator application has benefits of improving efficiency of the radiator. Improved efficiency leads to more compact design of the radiator and increases the durability of the engine. The research is conducted to prove that addition of nanocellulose originating from plant base with varying concentration provides a better heat transfer efficiency compared to usage of distilled water as radiator coolant. The tested concentration of the cellulose nanofluids are as of 0.1%, 0.5%, and 0.9%. Experimental analysis shows that cellulose nanofluids have higher specific heat capacity compared to distilled water. Thus, cellulose nanofluids can absorb and store more heat compared to distilled water. Heat transfer coefficient result supports that application of cellulose nanofluids as car radiator coolant leads to increase in thermal absorption enhancement. However, as the concentration of cellulose nanofluid increase from 0.1% to 1.3% and so on, the heat transfer coefficient decreases rapidly. This is because formation of sediments of cellulose nanoparticles causes inactive involvement in heat transfer process but the sediments do no clogs in the flat tubes or trigger erosion on the internal wall of car radiator. It can be concluded that application of cellulose nanoparticles integrated with Ethylene Glycol as coolant in car radiator is acceptable and provides better heat transfer efficiency.

Keywords: Nanocellulose, heat transfer, radiator, glycol