Norwegian-French collaboration in nanofluid heat transfer

This collaborative effort will boost several projects in the field of nanofluid heat transfer that are currently on in Norway and France. This research direction has been prevalent in the past two decades due to the simplicity of nanofluid production. However, from research literature and user experience, only some developments managed to step out of the lab. The price, toxicity, and un-even colloidal stability are the major obstacles limiting nanofluids from becoming, as initially thought, universal heat transfer fluids. However, there are applications where nanofluids are game changers: solar thermal technology and heat pipes. Both the Norwegian and the French groups run projects in these directions. The French group has developed stable graphene-based nanofluids where very low nanoparticle concentrations significantly improve the base fluid's thermophysical properties. The Norwegian team from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) has successfully conducted a project on the solar evaporation of nanofluids using concentrated solar power. The project resulted in a 20%-increase enhancement of steam generation when the carbon-based nanofluid was used instead of the conventional technology. This observation finds promising applications in solar desalination and CSP. The subsequent Norwegian project concerns the fundamentals of photothermal boiling in nanofluids, where the kinetics of boiling are discovered by medical imaging and acoustics. The Norwegian team also runs an innovation project. In this project, an eco-friendly nanofluid based on organic particles was developed and used as an optical absorber in a custom-made solar collector. French and Norwegian groups possess unique knowledge, equipment, and numerical models. The planned exchange brings a spark to an efficient fusion of this potential and the further strategic development of our research field.