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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "J: Thermal Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2021) | Viewed by 9899

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Prof. Dr. Luis Coelho

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Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Estefanilha, 2760-761 Setúbal, Portugal; CINEA-IPS, Energy and Environment Research Centre, IPS Campus, Estefanilha, 2760-761 Setúbal, Portugal
Interests: energy systems simulation; CFD modeling; thermal energy storage; energy management; nano fluids applications; buildings energy simulations; geothermal energy; renewable energy technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development of cost-effective thermal energy storage (TES) solutions is an important challenge to correct the mismatch between energy supply and demand and lead to the optimal use of renewable energy sources in buildings.

TES technologies use a storage medium which is responsible for temporarily separating energy production and energy consumption for heating, cooling, and DHW. TES technologies can be applied to thermal solar energy for heating, cooling, and DHW, for daily and long-term cycles of energy storage, increasing the share of solar energy. TES technologies can also contribute to increasing the share of solar PV energy and wind electricity, using heat pumps to produce heating or cooling when there is more PV electric production or wind electricity production than consumption. TES can be applied as an effective and efficient solution to the building and industry sectors.

TES technologies can be divided into sensible heat thermal storage (SHTS) technologies and latent heat thermal storage (LHTS) technologies. LHTS technologies are based on a storage medium which changes the phase (mainly solid/liquid), called phase change materials (PCM). In recent years, TES technologies have been developed, many of them based on phase change materials (PCM) and thermochemical materials (TCM).

This Special Issue will focus on TES, and we therefore invite papers on innovative technical developments, reviews, case studies, analytical, as well as assessment, papers from different disciplines, which are relevant to the development of TES solutions.

Prof. Dr. Luis Coelho
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

Thermal energy storage
Phase change materials
Thermal–chemical storage
Heat and cold storage
Short-term thermal energy storage
Long-term thermal energy storage
Latent thermal energy storage
Sensible thermal energy storage
Thermal storage in buildings
Thermal storage in industry

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2103 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Graphene-Based Phase Change Composite Nano-Materials for Thermal Storage Applications

by Marina Tselepi, Costas Prouskas, Dimitrios G. Papageorgiou, Isaac. E. Lagaris and Georgios A. Evangelakis

Energies 2022, 15(3), 1192; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15031192 - 06 Feb 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1531

Abstract

We report results concerning the functionalization of graphene-based nanoplatelets for improving the thermal energy storage capacity of commonly used phase change materials (PCMs). The goal of this study was to enhance the low thermal conductivity of the PCMs, while preserving their specific and latent heats. We focused on wax-based PCMs, and we tested several types of graphene nanoparticles (GNPs) at a set of different concentrations. Both the size and shape of the GNPs were found to be important factors affecting the PCM’s thermal properties. These were evaluated using differential scanning calorimetry measurements and a modified enthalpy-based water bath method. We found that a small addition of GNPs (1% weight) with high aspect ratio is sufficient to double the thermal conductivity of several widely used PCMs. Our results suggest a simple and efficient procedure for improving the thermal properties of PCMs used in thermal energy storage applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Storage Technologies)

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23 pages, 6146 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Computational Approach of Charging and Discharging Phases in a Novel Compact Solar Collector with Integrated Thermal Energy Storage Tank: Study of Different Phase Change Materials

by Maria K. Koukou, Christos Pagkalos, George Dogkas, Michail Gr. Vrachopoulos, Eleni Douvi, Yannis G. Caouris and Polykarpos Papadopoulos

Energies 2022, 15(3), 1113; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15031113 - 02 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1681

Abstract

A numerical study was carried out to investigate charging and discharging processes of different phase change materials (PCMs) used for thermal storage in an innovative solar collector, targeting domestic hot water (DHW) requirements. The aim was to study PCMs that meet all application requirements, considering their thermal performance in terms of stored and retrieved energy, outlet temperatures, and water flow rate. Work was carried out for three flat-plate solar panels of different sizes. For each panel, a PCM tank with a heat exchanger was attached on the back plate. Simulations were conducted on a 2D domain using the enthalpy–porosity technique. Three paraffin-based PCMs were studied, two (A53, P53) with phase-change temperatures of approximately 53 °C and one of approximately 58 °C (A58H). Results showed that, during charging, A58H can store the most energy and A53 the least (12.30 kWh and 10.54 kWh, respectively, for the biggest unit). However, the biggest unit, A58H, takes the most time to be fully charged, i.e., 6.43 h for the fastest feed rate, while the A53 unit charges the fastest, at 4.25 h. The behavior of P53 lies in between A53 and A58H, considering stored energy and charging time. During discharging, all PCMs could provide an adequate DHW amount, even in the worst case, that is, a small unit with a high hot water consumption rate. The A58H unit provides hot water above 40 °C for 10 min, P53 for 11 min, and A53 for 12 min. The DHW production duration increased if a bigger unit was used or if the consumption rate was lower. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Storage Technologies)

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16 pages, 4810 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Latent Thermal Energy Storage Application in a Residential Building at a Mediterranean Climate

by Luis Coelho, Maria K. Koukou, George Dogkas, John Konstantaras, Michail Gr. Vrachopoulos, Amandio Rebola, Anastasia Benou, John Choropanitis, Constantine Karytsas, Constantinos Sourkounis and Zenon Chrysanthou

Energies 2022, 15(3), 1008; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15031008 - 29 Jan 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1771

Abstract

An innovative thermal energy storage system (TESSe2b) was retrofitted in a residential building in Cyprus with a typical Mediterranean climate. The system comprises flat-plate solar collectors, thermal energy storage tanks filled with organic phase change material, a geothermal installation consisting of borehole heat exchangers with and without phase change material and a ground source heat pump, an advanced self-learning control system, backup devices and several other auxiliary components. The thermal energy storage tanks cover the building’s needs at certain temperature ranges (10–17 °C for cooling, 38–45 °C for heating and 50–60 °C for domestic hot water). A performance evaluation was conducted by comparing the TESSe2b system with the existing conventional heating and cooling system. The systems were simulated using commercial software, and the performance of the systems and the building’s energy needs were calculated. Based on the energy quantities, an economic analysis followed. The equivalent annual primary energy consumption with the conventional system resulted in being 43335 kWh, while for the storage system, it was only 8398 kWh. The payback period for the storage system was calculated to be equal to 9.76 years. The operation of the installed storage system provided data for calculations of the seasonal performance factor and storage performance. The seasonal performance factor values were very high during June, July and August, since the TESSe2b system works very efficiently in cooling mode due to the very high temperatures that dominate in Cyprus. The measured stored thermal energy for cooling, heating and domestic hot water resulted in being 14.5, 21.9 and 6.2 kWh, respectively. Moreover, the total volume of the phase change material thermal energy storage tanks for heating and domestic hot water was calculated to be roughly several times smaller than the volume of a tank with water as a storage medium. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Storage Technologies)

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14 pages, 2496 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Characterization of Phase Change Materials for Refrigeration Processes

by Anastasia Stamatiou, Lukas Müller, Roger Zimmermann, Jamie Hillis, David Oliver, Kate Fisher, Maurizio Zaglio and Jörg Worlitschek

Energies 2021, 14(11), 3033; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14113033 - 24 May 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3967

Abstract

Latent heat storage units for refrigeration processes are promising as alternatives to water/glycol-based storage due to their significantly higher energy densities, which would lead to more compact and potentially more cost-effective storages. In this study, important thermophysical properties of five phase change material (PCM) candidates are determined in the temperature range between −22 and −35 °C and their compatibility with relevant metals and polymers is investigated. The goal is to complement existing scattered information in literature and to apply a consistent testing methodology to all PCMs, to enable a more reliable comparison between them. More specifically, the enthalpy of fusion, melting point, density, compatibility with aluminum, copper, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), neoprene and butyl rubber, are experimentally determined for 1-heptanol, n-decane, propionic acid, NaCl/water mixtures, and Al(NO₃)₃/water mixtures. The results of the investigations reveal individual strengths and weaknesses of the five candidates. Further, 23.3 wt.% NaCl in water stands out for its very high volumetric energy density and n-decane follows with a lower energy density but better compatibility with surrounding materials and supercooling performance. The importance of using consistent methodologies to determine thermophysical properties when the goal is to compare PCM performance is highlighted. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Storage Technologies)

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