scholarly journals PCM-Based Energy Storage System with High Power Output Using Open Porous Aluminum Foams

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 6198
Author(s):  
Joachim Baumeister ◽  
Jörg Weise ◽  
Sebastian Myslicki ◽  
Esther Kieseritzky ◽  
Götz Lindenberg

Thermal comfort (heating, ventilation and air conditioning, HVAC) and the energy consumption involved with it can put a strain on the driving range of fully electric vehicles (FEV), especially in certain times of the year as midsummer or winter. In order to reduce the energy consumption of HVAC, improved thermal management and adapted means of energy storage are needed. One part of the solution can be the use of phase change materials (PCM) for storing waste heat. For the specific application, however, a high loading/unloading power rate is required, which is challenging as the PCMs exhibit low heat conductivities. In the presented work, a storage demonstrator system was investigated which is part of an HVAC system of a specific fully electric vehicle. The profile of requirements of the system (power, stored capacity and allowed volume) make a new design of the storage necessary. Two demonstrator units, in which the PCM was combined with aluminum foam, were manufactured and their power output in dependency on the fluid flow of the coolant system was compared. An adapted squeeze casting process with polymer placeholders was used for the production of the aluminium foam. This process results in foams with a specific pore structure and allows the in-situ integration of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) pipes. Both newly developed PCM storage systems satisfy the HVAC system requirements.

2021 ◽  
Vol 886 ◽  
pp. 228-240
Author(s):  
Salam Eid ◽  
Marwan Brouche ◽  
Chawki Lahoud ◽  
Christy Lahoud

Energy is the most precious resource in our daily life. Global energy consumption is increasing in constant rate, hence the environmental degradation caused by polluting fossil fuel usage as energy resources should be limited. These resources increase the quantity of greenhouse gases emissions, the global warming, and the climate change. The building sector and related activities is responsible of a large part of energy consumption. Therefore, to reduce the energy usage and to increase the dependency of the building, renewable energies are utilized such as solar energy. Noting that this energy is intermittent, a thermal energy storage system must be installed. Thus, phase change materials (PCM) with different ways of building integration are used as a solution. In this paper, a representation of different types of PCM and thermal energy storage applications in the building environment is highlighted.


2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samia Afrin ◽  
Vinod Kumar ◽  
Desikan Bharathan ◽  
Greg C. Glatzmaier ◽  
Zhiwen Ma

The overall efficiency of a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant depends on the effectiveness of thermal energy storage (TES) system (Kearney and Herrmann, 2002, “Assessment of a Molten Salt Heat Transfer Fluid,” ASME). A single tank TES system consists of a thermocline region which produces the temperature gradient between hot and cold storage fluid by density difference (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, http://www.eere.energy.gov/basics/renewable_energy/thermal_storage.html). Preservation of this thermocline region in the tank during charging and discharging cycles depends on the uniformity of the velocity profile at any horizontal plane. Our objective is to maximize the uniformity of the velocity distribution using a pipe-network distributor by varying the number of holes, distance between the holes, position of the holes and number of distributor pipes. For simplicity, we consider that the diameter of the inlet, main pipe, the distributor pipes and the height and the width of the tank are constant. We use Hitec® molten salt as the storage medium and the commercial software Gambit 2.4.6 and Fluent 6.3 for the computational analysis. We analyze the standard deviation in the velocity field and compare the deviations at different positions of the tank height for different configurations. Since the distance of the holes from the inlet and their respective arrangements affects the flow distribution throughout the tank; we investigate the impacts of rearranging the holes position on flow distribution. Impact of the number of holes and distributor pipes are also analyzed. We analyze our findings to determine a configuration for the best case scenario.


Author(s):  
Shobhana Singh ◽  
Kim Sørensen

Abstract In the present paper, a high-temperature packed bed energy storage system of volume 175,000m3 is numerically investigated. The system is a underground packed bed of truncated conical shape, which comprises of rocks as a storage medium and air as a heat transfer fluid. A one-dimensional, two-phase model is developed to simulate the transient behavior of the storage. The developed model is used to conduct a parametric study with a wide range of design parameters to investigate the change in performance during both charging and discharging operation. Results show that the model satisfactorily predicts the dynamic behavior, and the truncated conical shaped storage with a rock diameter of 3cm, insulation thickness up to 0.6m and charging-discharging rate of 553kg/s leads to lower thermal losses and higher energy efficiencies. The paper provides useful insight into the transient performance and efficiency of a large-scale packed bed energy storage system within the range of parameters investigated.


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