Review on phase change materials (PCMs) for cold thermal energy storage applications

By Eduard Oro, Álvaro de Gracia, Albert Castell, M. Farid, L. F. Cabeza. 2012

1,087 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Thermal energy storage (TES) is a technology with a high potential for different thermal applications. It is well known that TES could be the most appropriate way and method to correct the gap between the demand and supply of energy and therefore it has become a very attractive technology. In this paper, a review of TES for cold storage applications using solid–liquid phase change materials has been carried out. The scope of the work was focussed on different aspects: phase change materials (PCMs), encapsulation, heat transfer enhancement, and the effect of storage on food quality. Materials used by researchers as potential PCM at low temperatures (less than 20°C) are summarized and some of their thermophysical properties are reported. Over 88 materials that can be used as PCM, and about 40 commercially available PCM have been listed. Problems in long term stability of the materials, such as corrosion, phase segregation, stability under extended cycling or subcooling are discussed. Heat transfer is considered both from theoretical and experimental point of view and the different methods of PCM encapsulation are reviewed. Many applications of PCM at low temperature can be found, such as, ice storage, conservation and transport of temperature sensitive materials and in air conditioning, cold stores, and refrigerated trucks.

Subfields: Mechanical Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f561cd90ea7ff91d4d4258717b68f140c127eb00

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Mechanical Engineering

1. A. Lázaro
2. L. F. Cabeza
3. B. Zalba
4. A. Solé
5. Yulong Ding
6. Vittorio Verda
7. A. Palacios
8. Adriano Sciacovelli

In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

1. L. F. Cabeza
2. Yulong Ding
3. Teuku Meurah Indra Mahlia
4. Vittorio Verda
5. A. Solé
6. Hwai Chyuan Ong
7. R. Reddy
8. A. Lázaro

Citations in the corpus

• A comprehensive review on sub-zero temperature cold thermal energy storage materials, technologies, and applications: State of the art and recent developments (2021, background): “57 1165 (l) [7,8,107,119] 1180 (s) NaCl-Na2SO4-H2O Eutectic water-salt solution − 21 200 [120]”
• Phase Change Materials (PCM) for Solar Energy Usages and Storage: An Overview (2019, background): “However, when volume is taken into account, metals are likely contenders because of their high thermal conductivities and high latent heat of fusion per unit volume [52,59].”
• Temperature-dependent thermal properties of solid/liquid phase change even-numbered n-alkanes: n-Hexadecane, n-octadecane and n-eicosane (2015, neutral): “There are varieties of PCMs, both organic and inorganic, that melt and solidify at a wide range of temperatures and therefore are attractive in a number of applications [1,3,8–14].”
• A review of phase change materials for vehicle component thermal buffering (2014, neutral): “7 1105 (s) – – [125] 1126 (l) 31%Na2SO4 + 13%NaCl + 16%KCl + 40%H2O 4 234 – – – – [126]”
• Intercomparative tests on phase change materials characterisation with differential scanning calorimeter (2013, background): “For these materials to be commercialised as such, reproducibility of the results is essential, but still many differences are shown between literature values [2,6].”
• Novel low melting point quaternary eutectic system for solar thermal energy storage (2013, background): “The phase change materials absorb and release heat energy in the charging and discharging processes accompanied by fusion [1–6].”