scholarly journals Methodology to determine the apparent specific heat capacity of metal hydroxides for thermochemical energy storage

2017 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lager ◽  
Wolfgang Hohenauer ◽  
Christian Knoll ◽  
Peter Weinberger ◽  
Andreas Werner
Nanomaterials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2266
Author(s):  
Binjian Ma ◽  
Donghyun Shin ◽  
Debjyoti Banerjee

Molten salts mixed with nanoparticles have been shown as a promising candidate as the thermal energy storage (TES) material in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. However, the conventional method used to prepare molten salt nanofluid suffers from a high material cost, intensive energy use, and laborious process. In this study, solar salt-Al2O3 nanofluids at three different concentrations are prepared by a one-step method in which the oxide nanoparticles are generated in the salt melt directly from precursors. The morphologies of the obtained nanomaterials are examined under scanning electron microscopy and the specific heat capacities are measured using the temperature history (T-history) method. A non-linear enhancement in the specific heat capacity of molten salt nanofluid is observed from the thermal characterization at a nanoparticle mass concentration of 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. In particular, a maximum enhancement of 38.7% in specific heat is found for the nanofluid sample prepared with a target nanoparticle mass fraction of 1.0%. Such an enhancement trend is attributed to the formation of secondary nanostructure between the alumina nanoparticles in the molten salt matrix following a locally-dispersed-parcel pattern. These findings provide new insights to understanding the enhanced energy storage capacity of molten salt nanofluids.


Author(s):  
Hongjoo Yang ◽  
Debjyoti Banerjee

The overall thermal efficiency of solar power plants is highly sensitive to the operating characteristics of the Thermal Energy Storage (TES) devices. Enhancing the operating temperature of TES is imperative for enhancing the thermal efficacy of solar power plants. However, material property limitations for high temperature operation severely limit the choice of materials for TES. Molten salts and their eutectics are promising candidates for high temperature operation of TES. To enhance the thermal and operational efficiency of TES, the thermo-physical properties such as the specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the materials need to be maximized. The specific heat capacity (Cp) of molten salt is relatively smaller than other conventional TES materials. Recent studies have shown that addition of nanoparticles to molten salts can significantly enhance their specific heat capacity. Several transport and energy storage mechanisms have been proposed to account for these enhancements. Primarily, the layering of solvent molecules due to inter-molecular forces (due to competition between adhesive and cohesive forces) is observed at solid-liquid interface, leading to the formation of a more dense or “compressed layer” of solvent molecules on the dispersed nanoparticles. The formation and existence of the compressed layer has been demonstrated experimentally and from numerical predictions (e.g., Molecular Dynamics/ MD models). To verify the enhancement of specific heat capacity of molten salt nanofluids, the influence of compressed layer has been explored in this study. This implies that for the same amount (or concentration) of nanoparticle, the ratio of surface/volume of the individual nanoparticles can change significantly depending on the nanoparticles size and shape — which in turn can affect the mass fraction of the compressed layer formed on the surface of the nanoparticles. In this study, the specific heat capacity of the molten salt nanomaterials was investigated for: (a) silica nanoparticles in eutectic mixture of alkali chloride salt eutectics, and (b) silica nanoparticles in an eutectic mixture of alkali carbonate salts eutectics. The effect of the particle size distribution was considered in this study and it was observed that smaller nanoparticles contribute a larger proportion to the observed specific heat capacity enhancements. The size of distribution of the nanoparticles in the molten salt mixture/ nanomaterial (nanocomposites and nanofluids) was measured by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and subsequently the actual number of nanoparticles (as a function of size) that were dispersed in molten salt fluid was calculated. The specific heat capacity of molten salt nanomaterial was calculated using a classical mixing model and by accounting for the contribution from the compressed layer in the mixture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Law Torres Sevilla ◽  
Jovana Radulovic

This paper studies the influence of material thermal properties on the charging dynamics in a low temperature Thermal Energy Storage, which combines sensible and latent heat. The analysis is based on a small scale packed bed with encapsulated PCMs, numerically solved using COMSOL Multiphysics. The PCMs studied are materials constructed based on typical thermal properties (melting temperature, density, specific heat capacity (solid and liquid), thermal conductivity (solid and liquid) and the latent heat) of storage mediums in literature. The range of values are: 25–65°C for the melting temperature, 10–500 kJ/kg for the latent heat, 600–1,000 kg/m3 for the density, 0.1–0.4 W/mK (solid and liquid) for the thermal conductivity and 1,000–2,200 J/kgK (solid and liquid) for the specific heat capacity. The temperature change is monitored at three different positions along the tank. The system consists of a 2D tank with L/D ratio of 1 at a starting temperature of 20°C. Water, as the heat transfer fluid, enters the tank at 90°C. Results indicate that latent heat is a leading parameter in the performance of the system, and that the thermal properties of the PCM in liquid phase influence the overall heat absorption more than its solid counterpart.


Author(s):  
Zhao Li ◽  
Liu Cui ◽  
B. R. Li ◽  
xiaoze du

The enhancement of the specific heat capacity of molten salt-based nanofluid is investigated via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results show the addition of the nanoparticle indeed enhances the specific...


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