Performance Comparison of Gel and Ice Coolants for Cold Chain Packaging

Temperature-sensitive products are often shipped in an insulated container with a coolant to maintain the interior temperature at a certain temperature threshold. In this study, the performance of two popular coolants, gel and ice, were compared using trendline data. Comparison using collected data on some cases were made so that phase changes could be observed, which was explained by a study of gel latent heat of fusion that was also performed. The amount of 2.09, 4.19, and 6.28 pounds of each coolant were placed in a 12x12x11.5” expanded polystyrene insulated foam container with a 2-inch wall thickness. In each case, the sealed container was put in a chamber with temperatures of 60-, 90-, and 113-degrees Fahrenheit. Overall, the gel coolant performance was slightly better than the ice coolant.

Development of a Novel Multi-Channel Thermocouple Array Sensor for In-Situ Monitoring of Ice Accretion

A test was performed to determine the efficacy of a novel multi-channel thermocouple temperature sensor employing “N+1” array architecture for the in-situ detection of icing in cold climates. T-type thermoelements were used to fabricate a sensor with six independent temperature sensing points, capable of two-dimensional temperature mapping. The sensor was intended to detect the high latent heat of fusion of water (334 J/g) which is released to the environment during ice formation. The sensor was embedded on a plywood board and an aluminium plate, respectively by an epoxy resin. Three different ice accretion cases were considered. Ice accretion for all cases was achieved on the surface of the resin layer. In order to analyse the temperature variation for all three cases, the first 20 s response for each case was averaged between three cases. A temperature increase of (1.0 ± 0.1) °C and (0.9 ± 0.1) °C was detected by the sensors 20 s after the onset of icing, attributed to the latent heat of fusion of water. The results indicate that the sensor design is well-suited to cold temperature applications and that detection of the latent heat of fusion could provide a rapid and robust means of icing detection.

Development of Binary Eutectic Organic Phase Change Materials for Solar Thermal Energy Storage Systems

Solar thermal energy storage unit anchored fatty acids as Phase Change Materials (PCMs) having narrow range of transition temperature and high latent heat of fusion. In this paper, a new novel eutectic PCM was developed by using a fatty acid (acetamide) and non-paraffin organic PCM (acetanilide) for a sharp melting point and high latent heat of fusion. The optimized eutectic PCM may be used for middle temperature range solar thermal energy storage systems. The binary mixture of acetamide and acetanilide at various compositions by mass ratio (wt%) was prepared and optimized experimentally for lowest value of melting point at a eutectic mixture composition of 60 wt% of acetamide and 40 wt% of acetanilide. Eutectic PCM was analyzed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). DSC results revealed that optimized eutectic PCM has a sharp melting point of 65.37°C and high latent heat of fusion of 224.67 kJ/kg. Accelerated thermal cycle testing of optimized eutectic PCM was performed for 100 melting and freezing cycles and change in melting temperature and latent heat of fusion was acceptable.

A technique for calculating the enthalpy of silicate melt of arbitrary composition

The Kirchhoff equation was used to develop a method for calculating the enthalpy of silicate melt of any arbitrarily chosen composition with regard for the latent heat of fusion. To do this, the following two problems were solved: (a) the coefficients of the heat capacity equation of a silicate melt were revised and (b) the partial molar enthalpies of formation of melt components from elements at standard state were determined. The uncertainty in calculating the heat capacity of silicate melt at 95% significance level is no greater than ± 0.7 J · mol–1 · K–1. A weak but statistically significant temperature dependence of the heat capacity was determined. The enthalpies of melts calculated using the method are comparable with the values obtained by other techniques. The calculation error at 95% significance level is ±2 relative %.

Regeneration of Waste Diatomite from Palm Oil Production Process as a Support Material for PCMs in Thermal Energy Storage in Buildings

In this study, the use of spent diatomite, an industrial waste in the palm oil production process, was evaluated as a support material for phase change materials (PCMs). Calcination tests of the diatomite were carried out at different temperatures (400, 550 and 700 °C) and times (1 and 2 h). For the PCMs preparation, the organic phase, mixtures of palm oil and commercial stearic acid esters, were impregnated on calcined diatomite under vacuum. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses were performed in order to select the PCM with the highest latent heat of fusion and a range of phase change temperature corresponding to the thermal comfort range. DSC, TGA and FT-IR analyses were performed before and after the application of 360 thermal cycles to establish the thermal and chemical reliability of the PCM. It was found that 700 °C and 1 h are the best conditions of the calcination process, and the PCM consisting in 100 % methyl esters of commercial stearic acid presented the highest value of latent heat of fusion (34.67 J/g) and a phase change temperature range of 16.4 to 33.5 °C. After the thermal cycles, the results show that the prepared PCMs has thermal and chemical stability.