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Advances in Research on Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage Applications

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G2: Phase Change Materials for Energy Storage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2025 | Viewed by 5263

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Luisa F. Cabeza

grade E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
GREA Innovació Concurrent, Universitat de Lleida, Pere de Cabrera s/n, 25001 Lleida, Spain
Interests: thermal energy storage; building; energy efficiency; renewable energy; social acceptance of technologies; climate change mitigation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Gabriel Zsembinszki

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
GREiA Research Group, University of Lleida, 25003 Lleida, Spain
Interests: thermal energy storge; heat transfer; energy efficiency; refrigeration; numerical simulations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Emiliano Borri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
GREiA Research Group, Universitat de Lleida, Pere de Cabrera s/n, 25001 Lleida, Spain
Interests: energy storage; thermal energy storage; energy efficiency; cooling and heat transfer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Successful implementation of new technologies that rely on the use of renewable energy requires the use of thermal energy storage to reduce the mismatch between energy supply and demand. The use of phase change materials is an attractive option to achieve high energy storage density and near-isothermal power supply. Phase change materials can be used for thermal energy storage at different temperature levels in many applications, both in buildings and in industry. The proper design and implementation of the system, its economic feasibility, as well as the reliability of system control strategies are key aspects related to the use of thermal energy storage through phase change materials. This Special Issue aims to encourage researchers to submit innovative proposals and solutions to address one or more of the abovementioned aspects.

Prof. Dr. Luisa F. Cabeza
Dr. Gabriel Zsembinszki
Dr. Emiliano Borri
Guest Editors

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.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • thermal energy storage
  • phase change materials
  • renewable energy
  • energy efficiency
  • economic feasibility
  • energy savings
  • experimental analysis
  • numerical simulations

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Related Special Issues

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 2720 KB  
Article
Application of Ice Slurry as a Phase Change Material in Mine Air Cooling System—A Case Study
by Łukasz Mika, Karol Sztekler and Ewelina Radomska
Energies 2025, 18(14), 3782; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18143782 - 17 Jul 2025
Viewed by 515
Abstract
Fossil fuels, including coal, are a basis of energy systems in many countries worldwide. However, coal mining is associated with several difficulties, which include high temperatures within the coal mining area. It causes a need for cooling for safety reasons and also for [...] Read more.
Fossil fuels, including coal, are a basis of energy systems in many countries worldwide. However, coal mining is associated with several difficulties, which include high temperatures within the coal mining area. It causes a need for cooling for safety reasons and also for the comfort of miners’ work. Typical cooling systems in mines are based on central systems, in which chilled water is generated in the compressor or absorption coolers on the ground and transported via pipelines to the air coolers in the areas of mining. The progressive mining operation causes a gradual increase in the distance between chilled water generators and air coolers, causing a decrease in the efficiency of the entire system and insufficient cooling capacity. As a result, it is necessary to increase the diameter of the chilled water pipelines and increase the cooling capacity of the chillers, which is associated with additional investment and technical problems. One solution to this problem may be the use of so-called ice slurry instead of chilled water in the existing mine cooling system. This article presents the cooling system, located in the mine LW Bogdanka S.A., based on ice slurry. The structure of the system and its key parameters are presented. The results show that switching from cooling water to ice slurry allowed the cooling capacity of the entire system to increase by 50% while maintaining the existing piping. This demonstrates the very high potential for the use of ice slurry, not only in mines, but wherever further increases in piping diameters to maintain the required cooling capacity are not possible or cost-effective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Research on Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage Applications)
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23 pages, 11086 KB  
Article
Thermal Energy Storage Possibilities in the Composite Trombe Wall Modified with a Phase Change Material
by Joanna Krasoń, Przemysław Miąsik, Aleksander Starakiewicz and Lech Lichołai
Energies 2025, 18(6), 1433; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18061433 - 14 Mar 2025
Viewed by 682
Abstract
Energy savings issues are important in the context of building operation. An interesting solution for the southern external walls of the building envelope is the thermal storage wall (TSW), also known as the Trombe wall. The article considers four variants of the wall [...] Read more.
Energy savings issues are important in the context of building operation. An interesting solution for the southern external walls of the building envelope is the thermal storage wall (TSW), also known as the Trombe wall. The article considers four variants of the wall structure, including three containing phase change material (PCM). The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of the amount and location of phase change material in the masonry layer on the storage and flow of heat through the barrier. Each wall is equipped with a double-glazed external collector system with identical physical parameters. The research was carried out in specially dedicated testing stations in the form of external solar energy chambers, subjected to real climatic loads. The distribution of the heat flux density values was determined using experimental tests and was subjected to comparative analysis for the various variants considered using statistical analytical methods. A comparative analysis was performed between the heat flux density values obtained for each barrier in the assumed time interval from the one-year research period. The Kruskal–Wallis test and the median test were used for analyses performed in the Statistica 13.3 programme. The purpose of these analyses was to determine the occurrence of significant differences between individual heat flux flows through the barriers tested. The results obtained indicate that the use of PCM in thermal storage walls extends the time required to transfer the accumulated heat in the barrier to the internal environment while reducing the amplitude of the internal air temperature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Research on Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage Applications)
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Review

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24 pages, 20509 KB  
Review
Applications of X-Ray Computed Tomography Technology to Solid–Liquid Phase Change Materials—A Review
by Jorge Martinez-Garcia, Dario Guarda, Damian Gwerder, Benjamin Fenk, Rebecca Ravotti, Simone Mancin, Anastasia Stamatiou, Jörg Worlitschek, Ludger Josef Fischer and Philipp Schuetz
Energies 2025, 18(17), 4704; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18174704 - 4 Sep 2025
Viewed by 668
Abstract
Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) based on phase change materials (PCMs) is receiving increasing interest since it offers high energy storage density while enabling the integration of variable renewable energies, hence boosting the transition towards a climate-neutral future. Despite the advantages that [...] Read more.
Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) based on phase change materials (PCMs) is receiving increasing interest since it offers high energy storage density while enabling the integration of variable renewable energies, hence boosting the transition towards a climate-neutral future. Despite the advantages that PCMs offer in providing a nearly isothermal solid–liquid phase transition, they still face some challenges that limit their deployment in real applications such as low thermal conductivity, phase separation, and supercooling, which affect charging and discharging rates. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is a non-destructive imaging technique widely used in materials science for both qualitative and quantitative analysis of material microstructures and their evolution. Recent advances in laboratory-XCT instrumentation enabled short acquisition times on the order of tens of seconds which allows the investigation of dynamic processes in situ by time-lapse XCT measurements. These advances open new opportunities for revealing information on the morphology of solid–liquid PCMs. Despite the fact that XCT imaging has significant potential for energy research, its application in the field of PCMs is fairly new. A key enabler of applications of XCT to PCMs is the density difference between solid and liquid PCMs, which was found to be higher than 7% for all investigated PCMs. This enabled solid and liquid phases to be distinguished one from the other and properly quantified over time. The present work reviews the principles of laboratory-based XCT and the recent applications of XCT technology in the characterisation of PCMs, with emphasis on the study of the solid–liquid phase transition and validation of numerical PCM models by addressing the potentialities and challenges of XCT in PCM research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Research on Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage Applications)
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18 pages, 3150 KB  
Review
Review of Classification of PCMs, with a Focus on the Search for New, Suitable PCM Candidates
by Harald Mehling
Energies 2024, 17(17), 4455; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17174455 - 5 Sep 2024
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2221
Abstract
With a growing number of PCMs and new, suitable PCM candidates, an overview is not only important, but also increasingly complex. Classification of PCM was thus changed significantly in the past decades. A review of classification of PCMs from recent years shows that [...] Read more.
With a growing number of PCMs and new, suitable PCM candidates, an overview is not only important, but also increasingly complex. Classification of PCM was thus changed significantly in the past decades. A review of classification of PCMs from recent years shows that not only different classification criteria are used, but more important that they are often mixed, used inconsistently, even without a clear goal. Focusing on the main goal of current classification schemes, to give an overview of the material options for the search for new, suitable PCM candidates, including already established PCMs, a consistent classification is developed in a desktop study. For this, first, the general options for classification criteria are reviewed, and then the appropriate ones selected. Then, based on them a new, revised PCM classification is suggested. It is specifically detailed with regard to mixtures; for binary mixtures it is based on a literature review performed within the study. The result also stresses the importance of specific R&D: for pure substances the sources and the chemical modification, and for mixtures their optimization by new compositions, additives, etc. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Research on Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage Applications)
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