Study on a Novel Form-Stable Capric Acid/Organophilic Montmorillonite Composite for Thermal Energy Storage

2012 ◽  
Vol 271-272 ◽  
pp. 197-203
Author(s):  
Ting Wei ◽  
Zhen Wang ◽  
Bai Cun Zheng ◽  
Yan Feng Gao ◽  
Wei Hong Guo

A novel form-stable capric acid/organophilic montmorillonite composite for thermal energy storage is developed in this study. The morphology and thermal properties were determined by scanning electron microscope(SEM), polarized optical microscope(POM), differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) and thermogravimetric analyzer(TGA). The DSC results showed that the on-set temperature of the sample with 40% wt CA was closed to 29°C, the latent heat was 35.8 J/g at 56 kPa and 51.5 J/g at 0 kPa, while the on-set temperature of sample with 60% CA was also 29°C, the latent heat was 79.7 J/g at 56 kPa and 80.8 J/g at 0 kPa. TG investigations revealed that the composites had excellent thermal stability above their working temperature ranges. The POM images exhibited phase behaviors of composites to confirm leakage, and the samples with 20% and 40% CA showed good thermal properties. In addition, SEM images presented the microstructure of all the samples. All of the conclusions indicated that sample with 40% wt CA was a better candidate for novel form-stable CA/OMMT composite for low-temperature thermal energy storage applications.

Author(s):  
Jamie Trahan ◽  
Sarada Kuravi ◽  
D. Yogi Goswami ◽  
Muhammad Rahman ◽  
Elias Stefanakos

As the importance of latent heat thermal energy storage increases for utility scale concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, there lies a need to characterize the thermal properties and melting behavior of phase change materials (PCMs) that are low in cost and high in energy density. In this paper, the results of an investigation of the melting temperature and latent heat of two binary high temperature salt eutectics are presented. Melting point and latent heat are analyzed for a chloride eutectic and carbonate eutectic using simultaneous Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analsysis (TGA). High purity materials were used and the handling procedure was carefully controlled to accommodate the hygroscopic nature of the chloride eutectic. The DSC analysis gives the values of thermal properties of the eutectics, which are compared with the calculated (expected/published) values. The thermal stability of the eutectics is also examined by repeated thermal cycling in a DSC and is reported in the paper along with a cost analysis of the salt materials.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 6234
Author(s):  
Ciprian Neagoe ◽  
Ioan Albert Tudor ◽  
Cristina Florentina Ciobota ◽  
Cristian Bogdanescu ◽  
Paul Stanciu ◽  
...  

Microencapsulation of sodium nitrate (NaNO3) as phase change material for high temperature thermal energy storage aims to reduce costs related to metal corrosion in storage tanks. The goal of this work was to test in a prototype thermal energy storage tank (16.7 L internal volume) the thermal properties of NaNO3 microencapsulated in zinc oxide shells, and estimate the potential of NaNO3–ZnO microcapsules for thermal storage applications. A fast and scalable microencapsulation procedure was developed, a flow calorimetry method was adapted, and a template document created to perform tank thermal transfer simulation by the finite element method (FEM) was set in Microsoft Excel. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and transient plane source (TPS) methods were used to measure, in small samples, the temperature dependency of melting/solidification heat, specific heat, and thermal conductivity of the NaNO3–ZnO microcapsules. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and chemical analysis demonstrated the stability of microcapsules over multiple tank charge–discharge cycles. The energy stored as latent heat is available for a temperature interval from 303 to 285 °C, corresponding to onset–offset for NaNO3 solidification. Charge–self-discharge experiments on the pilot tank showed that the amount of thermal energy stored in this interval largely corresponds to the NaNO3 content of the microcapsules; the high temperature energy density of microcapsules is estimated in the range from 145 to 179 MJ/m3. Comparison between real tank experiments and FEM simulations demonstrated that DSC and TPS laboratory measurements on microcapsule thermal properties may reliably be used to design applications for thermal energy storage.


Author(s):  
Aitor Zabalegui ◽  
Bernadette Tong ◽  
Hohyun Lee

Phase change materials (PCMs) are promising for thermal energy storage applications, but low thermal conductivity limits their heat exchange rate with a working fluid. The nanofluid approach has been established as a method of thermal conductivity enhancement, but particle addition may have an adverse effect on specific energy storage capacity. Latent heat reduction beyond traditional theory has been observed experimentally for carbon nanotubes dispersed in paraffin wax. Nanofluid latent heat and effective thermal conductivity were analyzed to investigate the effects of particle addition on thermal properties affecting PCM energy storage performance. It is shown that particle diameter significantly impacts nanofluid latent heat, with smaller particles generating greater degrees of reduction, but has a negligible effect on thermal conductivity. A method to approximate nanofluid latent heat of fusion is presented, considering the diameter-dependent reduction observed.


Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 648
Author(s):  
Peng Liu ◽  
Xiaobin Gu ◽  
Zhikai Zhang ◽  
Jianping Shi ◽  
Jun Rao ◽  
...  

In this study, a novel form-stable phase change material (FSPCM) consisting of calcination iron tailings (CIT), capric acid (CA), and carbon nanotubes (CNT) was prepared using a simple direct melt impregnation method, and a series of tests have been carried out to investigate its properties. The leakage tests showed that CA can be retained in CIT with a mass fraction of about 20 wt.% without liquid leakage during the phase change process. Moreover, the morphology, chemical structure, and thermal properties of the fabricated composite samples were investigated. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs confirmed that CIT had a certain porous structure to confine CA in composites. According to the Fourier transformation infrared spectroscope (FTIR) results, the CA/CIT/CNT FSPCM had good chemical compatibility. The melting temperature and latent heat of CA/CIT/CNT by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) were determined as 29.70 °C and 22.69 J/g, respectively, in which the mass fraction of CIT and CNT was about 80 wt.% and 5 wt.%, respectively. The thermal gravity analysis (TGA) revealed that the CA/CIT/CNT FSPCM showed excellent thermal stability above its working temperature. Furthermore, the melting and freezing time of CA/CIT/CNT FSPCM doped with 5 wt.% CNT reduced by 42.86% and 54.55% than those of pure CA, and it showed better heat transfer efficiency. Therefore, based on the above analyses, the prepared CA/CIT/CNT FSPCM is not only a promising candidate material for the application of thermal energy storage in buildings, but it also provides a new approach for recycling utilization of iron tailings.


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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanghua CHEN ◽  
Zhaohe WANG ◽  
Minrong GE ◽  
Feng ZHAO

In this study, hexadecanol-myristic acid (HD-MA) binary eutectic mixtures were adsorbed into activated carbon (AC) to prepare the composite phase transition materials(CPCMs). In the hexadecanol-myristic acid/activated carbon (HD-MA/AC) composites, the mixture of HD–MA acted as the phase change energy storage material and the AC was used as the matrix supporting material. Activated carbon is a kind of inorganic supporting material, which has developed pore structure, strong adsorption, high mechanical strength, corrosion resistance and good thermal stability. As the supporting material, activated carbon was helpful to prevent the eutectics from leakage. The chemical structure and crystal phase structure of HD-MA/AC composites were tested by FT-IR and XRD. The microstructure of the composites was observed through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). It was found that the organic binary eutectics were adsorbed on the surface and inside by activated carbon. Thermal properties of the composites were measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results of performance test demonstrated that the satisfactory sample CPCM1 melted at 42.38 °C with latent heat of 76.24 J/g and solidified at 38.32 °C with latent heat of 67.08 J/g. The test results of TGA indicated that the prepared composites of hexadecanol-myristic acid/activated carbon possessed great thermal stability and high reliability. It is predicted that the shape-stabilized HD-MA/AC composites have great potential for thermal energy storage.


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