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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 May 2021) | Viewed by 31355

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Dr. Ioannis Kartsonakis

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Physical Chemistry Laboratory, School of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: nanotechnologies; corrosion science; electrochemistry; polymer science; chemistry; coatings; sol–gel method; carbon fibers/nanotubes
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Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, science and technology have revolutionized our way of life, improving well-being and comfort for all mankind. The discovery of new materials with unique features at macro- and nano-scales has played a significant part in this advancement. The possibility of producing materials able to perform different functions and of responding to external stimuli will undoubtedly be an extremely important research area for the foreseeable future.

Phase change materials (PCMs) are one of the key components for the development of advanced sustainable solutions in renewable energy and engineering systems. PCMs are enable to either store or release large amounts of energy, while their temperature is slightly changed or kept constant. PCMs have the ability to accumulate and store lots of energy. The activation of this high storage potential of PCMs is accomplished when their phase is changed.

This Special Issue aims to attract all researchers working in this research field, and will collect new findings and recent advances on the development, synthesis, structure–activity relationships, and future applications of PCMs. Research manuscripts and a limited number of review manuscripts are encouraged in the following areas:

Energy/thermal storage
Sustainable energy and engineering systems
Batteries
Structure–properties relationship
Solar energy utilization
Building/construction
Environmental effects
Recycling

Dr. Ioannis Kartsonakis
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Solid–liquid PCM
Cooling
Thermal storage
Latent heat
Transition temperature
Thermal conductivity
Heat transfer fluid
Eutectics

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

3 pages, 200 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Special Issue on “Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications”

by Ioannis A. Kartsonakis

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(15), 7770; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12157770 - 02 Aug 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 752

Abstract

In recent years, science and technology have revolutionized our way of life, improving well-being and comfort for all mankind [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

14 pages, 839 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Selection of a PCM for a Vehicle’s Rooftop by Multicriteria Decision Methods and Simulation

by Juan Francisco Nicolalde, Mario Cabrera, Javier Martínez-Gómez, Rodger Benjamín Salazar and Evelyn Reyes

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(14), 6359; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11146359 - 09 Jul 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1739

Abstract

The automotive industry is one of the most contaminant; for this reason, solutions in efficient matter has been proposed over the years. This research contributes to this subject by evaluating the thermal comfort in the internal air of a vehicle by using a 20 mm layer of a phase-change material attached to the rooftop interior of a car. The phase-change material selection is based on a list of other materials proposed in previous research and chosen by multicriteria decision methods. In this sense, the material savENRG PCM-HS22P proved to be the best. Moreover, a simulation using the finite elements method showed how the PCM reduced the temperature of the air by 9 °C when heating and by 4 °C when the temperature drops. To conclude, the multicriteria selection methods chose the best material to absorb energy during the charging process and released it during the discharging event in this automotive application. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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17 pages, 4370 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Demonstration of Phase Change Thermal Energy Storage in Zinc Oxide Microencapsulated Sodium Nitrate

by Ciprian Neagoe, Ioan Albert Tudor, Cristina Florentina Ciobota, Cristian Bogdanescu, Paul Stanciu, Nicoleta Zărnescu-Ivan, Radu Robert Piticescu and Maria Dolores Romero-Sanchez

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(13), 6234; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11136234 - 05 Jul 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2458

Abstract

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. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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13 pages, 2871 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Experimental Study on Two PCM Macro-Encapsulation Designs in a Thermal Energy Storage Tank

by David Vérez, Emiliano Borri, Alicia Crespo, Boniface Dominick Mselle, Álvaro de Gracia, Gabriel Zsembinszki and Luisa F. Cabeza

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(13), 6171; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11136171 - 02 Jul 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2794

Abstract

The use of latent heat thermal energy storage is an effective way to increase the efficiency of energy systems due to its high energy density compared with sensible heat storage systems. The design of the storage material encapsulation is one of the key parameters that critically affect the heat transfer in charging/discharging of the storage system. To fill the gap found in the literature, this paper experimentally investigates the effect of the macro-encapsulation design on the performance of a lab-scale thermal energy storage tank. Two rectangular slabs with the same length and width but different thickness (35 mm and 17 mm) filled with commercial phase change material were used. The results show that using thinner slabs achieved a higher power, leading to a reduction in the charging and discharging time of 14% and 30%, respectively, compared with the thicker slabs. Moreover, the variation of the heat transfer fluid flow rate has a deeper impact on the temperature distribution and the energy charged/released when thicker slabs were used. The macro-encapsulation design did not have a significant impact on the discharging efficiency of the tank, which was around 85% for the operating thresholds considered in this study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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20 pages, 5980 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical Investigation of Latent Thermal Storage in a Compact Heat Exchanger Using Mini-Channels

by Amir Abdi, Justin Ningwei Chiu and Viktoria Martin

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(13), 5985; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11135985 - 27 Jun 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1343

Abstract

This paper aims to numerically investigate the thermal enhancement of a latent thermal energy storage component with mini-channels as air passages. The investigated channels in two sizes of internal air passages (channel-1 with d_h = 1.6 mm and channel-2 with d_h = 2.3 mm) are oriented vertically in a cuboid of 0.15 × 0.15 × 0.1 m³ with RT22 as the PCM located in the shell. The phase change is simulated with a fixed inlet temperature of air, using ANSYS Fluent 19.5, with a varying number of channels and a ranging air flow rate entering the component. The results show that the phase change power of the LTES improves with by increasing the number of channels at the cost of a decrease in the storage capacity. Given a constant air flow rate, the increase in the heat transfer surface area of the increased number of channels dominates the heat transfer coefficient, thus increasing the mean heat transfer rate (UA). A comparison of the channels shows that the thermal performance depends largely on the area to volume ratio of the channels. The channel type two (channel-2) with a slightly higher area to volume ratio has a slightly higher charging/discharging power, as compared to channel type one (channel-1), at a similar PCM packing factor. Adding fins to channel-2, doubling the surface area, improves the mean UA values by 15–31% for the studied cases. The variation in the total air flow rate from 7 to 24 L/s is found to have a considerable influence, reducing the melting time by 41–53% and increasing the mean UA values within melting by 19–52% for a packing factor range of 77.4–86.8%. With the increase in the air flow rate, channel type two is found to have considerably lower pressure drops than channel type one, which can be attributed to its higher internal hydraulic diameter, making it superior in terms of achieving a relatively similar charging/discharging power in exchange for significantly lower fan power. Such designs can further be optimized in terms of pressure drop in future work, which should also include an experimental evaluation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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18 pages, 4557 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Stability Study of Erythritol as Phase Change Material for Medium Temperature Thermal Applications

by Mayra Paulina Alferez Luna, Hannah Neumann and Stefan Gschwander

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(12), 5448; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11125448 - 11 Jun 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4357

Abstract

Sugar alcohols belong to a promising category of organic phase change materials (PCM) because of their high latent heat and density compared to other PCM. However, some sugar alcohols have shown latent heat degradation when heated above their melting temperature. Most of the available studies report the structural changes of erythritol during cycling rather than its thermal stability at constant temperature. This study aimed to assess the effect of thermal treatment on erythritol thermal, chemical and physical properties, as well as to find means to enhance its thermal stability. Erythritol and its mixtures with antioxidant were heated and maintained at different temperatures above its melting point. Erythritol was analyzed before and after thermal treatment via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. It was suggested that the degradation of latent heat follows a first order reaction. Mixtures of erythritol with antioxidant had a lower degradation rate compared to pure erythritol under air. Sample browning was observed along the heating treatment of mainly pure erythritol. Antioxidant was found to help to reduce erythritol degradation. No chemical composition changes were detected in samples under argon atmosphere and overall good thermal stability was found throughout the testing period. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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14 pages, 4101 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermal and Mechanical Behavior of Elastomers Incorporated with Thermoregulating Microcapsules

by Ana M. Borreguero, Irene Izarra, Ignacio Garrido, Patrycja J. Trzebiatowska, Janusz Datta, Ángel Serrano, Juan F. Rodríguez and Manuel Carmona

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(12), 5370; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11125370 - 09 Jun 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1680

Abstract

Polyurethane (PU) is one of the principal polymers in the global plastic market thanks to its versatility and continuous improvement. In this work, PU elastomeric materials having thermoregulating properties through the incorporation of microcapsules (mSD-(LDPE·EVA-RT27)) from low-density polyethylene and vinyl acetate containing paraffin^®RT27 as PCM were produced. Elastomers were synthesized while varying the molar ratio [NCO]/[OH] between 1.05 and 1.1 and the microcapsule (MC) content from 0.0 to 20.0 wt.%. The successful synthesis of the PUs was confirmed by IR analyses. All the synthesized elastomers presented a structure formed by a net of spherical microparticles and with a minimum particle size for those with 10 wt.% MC. The density and tensile strength decreased with the MC content, probably due to worse distribution into the matrix. Elastomer E-1.05 exhibited better structural and stability properties for MC contents up to 15 wt.%, whereas E-1.1, containing 20 wt.% MC, revealed mechanical and thermal synergy effects, demonstrating good structural stability and the largest latent heat. Hence, elastomers having a large latent heat (8.7 J/g) can be produced by using a molar ratio [NCO]/[OH] of 1.1 and containing 20 wt.% mSD-(LDPE·EVA-RT27). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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16 pages, 64316 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermal Energy Storage Performance of Tetrabutylammonium Acrylate Hydrate as Phase Change Materials

by Hitoshi Kiyokawa, Hiroki Tokutomi, Shinichi Ishida, Hiroaki Nishi and Ryo Ohmura

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(11), 4848; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11114848 - 25 May 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2199

Abstract

Kinetic characteristics of thermal energy storage (TES) using tetrabutylammonium acrylate (TBAAc) hydrate were experimentally evaluated for practical use as PCMs. Mechanical agitation or ultrasonic vibration was added to detach the hydrate adhesion on the heat exchanger, which could be a thermal resistance. The effect of the external forces also was evaluated by changing their rotation rate and frequency. When the agitation rate was 600 rpm, the system achieved TES density of 140 MJ/m³ in 2.9 h. This value is comparable to the ideal performance of ice TES when its solid phase fraction is 45%. UA/V (U: thermal transfer coefficient, A: surface area of the heat exchange coil, V: volume of the TES medium) is known as an index of the ease of heat transfer in a heat exchanger. UA/V obtained in this study was comparable to that of other common heat exchangers, which means the equivalent performance would be available by setting the similar UA/V. In this study, we succeeded in obtaining practical data for heat storage by TBAAc hydrate. The data obtained in this study will be a great help for the practical application of hydrate heat storage in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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11 pages, 761 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploitation of Enzymes for the Production of Biofuels: Electrochemical Determination of Kinetic Parameters of LPMOs

by Dimitrios Zouraris, Anthi Karnaouri, Raphaela Xydou, Evangelos Topakas and Antonis Karantonis

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(11), 4715; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11114715 - 21 May 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1800

Abstract

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) consist of a class of enzymes that boost the release of oxidised products from plant biomass, in an approach that is more eco-friendly than the traditional ones, employing harsh chemicals. Since LPMOs are redox enzymes, they could possibly be exploited by immobilisation on electrode surfaces. Such an approach requires knowledge of kinetic and thermodynamic information for the interaction of the enzyme with the electrode surface. In this work, a novel methodology is applied for the determination of such parameters for an LPMO from the filamentous fungus Thermothelomyces thermophila, MtLPMO9H. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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21 pages, 8324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Storage Capacity in Dependency of Supercooling and Cycle Stability of Different PCM Emulsions

by Stefan Gschwander, Sophia Niedermaier, Sebastian Gamisch, Moritz Kick, Franziska Klünder and Thomas Haussmann

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(8), 3612; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11083612 - 16 Apr 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2040

Abstract

Phase-change materials (PCM) play off their advantages over conventional heat storage media when used within narrow temperature ranges. Many cooling and temperature buffering applications, such as cold storage and battery cooling, are operated within small temperature differences, and therefore, they are well-suited for the application of these promising materials. In this study, the storage capacities of different phase-change material emulsions are analysed under consideration of the phase transition behaviour and supercooling effect, which are caused by the submicron size scale of the PCM particles in the emulsion. For comparison reasons, the same formulation for the emulsions was used to emulsify 35 wt.% of different paraffins with different purities and melting temperatures between 16 and 40 °C. Enthalpy curves based on differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) measurements are used to calculate the storage capacities within the characteristic and defined temperatures. The enthalpy differences for the emulsions, including the first phase transition, are in a range between 69 and 96 kJ/kg within temperature differences between 6.5 and 10 K. This led to an increase of the storage capacity by a factor of 2–2.7 in comparison to water operated within the same temperature intervals. The study also shows that purer paraffins, which have a much higher enthalpy than blends, reveal, in some cases, a lower increase of the storage capacity in the comparison due to unfavourable crystallisation behaviour when emulsified. In a second analysis, the stability of emulsions was investigated by applying 100 thermal cycles with defined mechanical stress at the same time. An analysis of the viscosity, particle size and melting crystallisation behaviour was done by showing the changes in each property due to the cycling. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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Review

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26 pages, 1830 KiB

Open AccessReview

Towards Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage: Classification, Improvements and Applications in the Building Sector

by Christina V. Podara, Ioannis A. Kartsonakis and Costas A. Charitidis

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 1490; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041490 - 06 Feb 2021

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 7870

Abstract

The management of energy consumption in the building sector is of crucial concern for modern societies. Fossil fuels’ reduced availability, along with the environmental implications they cause, emphasize the necessity for the development of new technologies using renewable energy resources. Taking into account the growing resource shortages, as well as the ongoing deterioration of the environment, the building energy performance improvement using phase change materials (PCMs) is considered as a solution that could balance the energy supply together with the corresponding demand. Thermal energy storage systems with PCMs have been investigated for several building applications as they constitute a promising and sustainable method for reduction of fuel and electrical energy consumption, while maintaining a comfortable environment in the building envelope. These compounds can be incorporated into building construction materials and provide passive thermal sufficiency, or they can be used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, domestic hot water applications, etc. This study presents the principles of latent heat thermal energy storage systems with PCMs. Furthermore, the materials that can be used as PCMs, together with the most effective methods for improving their thermal performance, as well as various passive applications in the building sector, are also highlighted. Finally, special attention is given to the encapsulated PCMs that are composed of the core material, which is the PCM, and the shell material, which can be inorganic or organic, and their utilization inside constructional materials. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phase Change Materials: Design and Applications)

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