Technology Available for Licensing

Case 14695

Parabolic Solar Concentrators Using Optimized Bands

Keywords:

Precision parabolic mirrors, low cost fabrication, solar energy

Applications:

Solar thermal mirror collectors

Problem:

Precision parabolic mirrors are expensive to fabricate and to transport.

Technology:

This invention allow flat mirror elements to be easily fabricated and efficiently packaged and shipped to field sites and assembled into the parabolic trough concentrators with potentially substantial costs reductions compared with conventional methods. The mirror is formed from a thin flat very flexible metal sheet with a highly reflective surface. Attached to the rear surface of the mirror sheet is a backbone band whose figure is optimized to form the reflective sheet into a precision parabola when its two ends are pulled toward each other.

Advantages:

• A factor of 10 improvements in the performance of optimized band compared to a simple rectangular band.
• Easy to fabricate and cost-effective.

Inventors:

• Professor Steven Dubowsky (Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT)
• Professor Andres Kecskeméthy (Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Duisburg-Essen)
• Professor Abul Fazal Arif (Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals)
• Lifang Li (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology)

Intellectual Property:

US Patent Application 13/095115 filed 4/27/2011

PCT Patent Application PCT/US2012/029740 filed 3/20/2012

Publications:

IDETC/CIE 2011 Paper

Please contact: Christopher R. Noble MIT Technology Licensing Officer 1 Cambridge Center, Kendall Square, NE18-501 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142-1601

Email: crn@mit.edu Tel: 617-253-6966 Fax: 617–258-6790 Website: http://tlo.mit.edu