Paper 018
Paper 018
Paper 018
VENUE
TITLE
PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL (PCM) BASED ENERGY STORAGE
MATERIALS AND GLOBAL APPLICATION EXAMPLES
AUTHORS
Zafer URE M.Sc., C.Eng., MCIBSE, MASHRAE, M.Inst.R, MIIR
Phase Change Material Products Limited
Unit 32, Mere View Industrial Estate, Yaxley, Cambridgeshire, PE7 3HS, U.K.
Tel: +44-(0)-1733 245511, Fax: +44-(0)-1733 243344,
e-mail: [email protected], www.pcmproducts.net
Summary;
Water has the advantage of universal availability and low cost but it can only
be produced using inefficient low temperature refrigeration units if one wishes
to use the latent heat capacity. If it is applied purely for sensible energy
storage capacity it requires large storage tanks.
Phase Change Materials (PCM) between +4C and +90C range over comes
the water disadvantages by combining the latent and sensible energy storage
capacities into a single storage unit and therefore offer designers new
horizons and practical application options.
PCM latent heat cool energy storage can be provided by utilising conventional
water chillers for new and retrofit applications without the need for any
modifications as well as having the possibility of free cooling.
By storing day-time warm energy for evening periods and over-night cool
energy for day-time cooling requirements, a PCM system can simply bridge
the gap between energy availability and energy use and therefore has the
potential to achieve considerable environmental as well as economical
benefits for many heating and cooling applications.
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1.0 - BACKGROUND
Unfortunately HVAC & Refrigeration TES applications utilise water ice which
can only be produced with low temperature chillers. As a result, the benefits of
night-time low ambient temperature, existing water chillers and possibly free
ambient cooling options cannot be fully utilised.
However, Phase Change Materials (PCM) freeze and melt above or below
0°C (32°F) offering new opportunities for environmentally friendly and
economical systems for both New and Retrofit process, cooling or heating
load shifting applications.
Thermal Energy Storage bridges the time gap between energy requirement
and energy use. A thermal storage application may involve a 24-hour or
alternatively weekly or seasonal storage cycles depending on the system
design requirements. Whilst the output is always thermal, the input energy
may be either thermal or electrical (2).
In full storage systems, the entire daily design loads are generated off peak
and stored for use during the following peak periods. In partial storage
systems, only a portion of the daily load is generated during off peak and used
during peak periods to top up the system.
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Water has the advantage of universal availability, low cost and easily
transported through other system components. However, conventional water
based TES systems for air conditioning applications(3) require low temperature
chillers and therefore standard water chillers must be replaced with low
temperature glycol chillers which operate at lower evaporation temperatures.
When such a material freezes, it releases large amounts of energy in the form
of latent heat of fusion, or energy of crystallisation. Conversely, when the
material is melted, an equal amount of energy is absorbed from the immediate
environment as it changes from solid to liquid.
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PCMs can broadly be arranged into five categories: eutectics, salt hydrates,
organic, solid-solid and molten salt materials.
Salt hydrates are specific salts that are able to incorporate water of
crystallisation during their freezing process and tend to change phase
above 0°C (32°F).
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Molten Salts are naturally solid salt materials which turn liquid when
they are heated above their transition temperatures and act as a PCM
energy storage material.
Clathrates may also be used. They look like a solid crystalline material, store
large amounts of heat when they melt, and some have melting temperatures
that are attractive to energy storage applications. Unfortunately, clathrates
can currently only be produced by mixing the the host and trapped species
under very large pressure, and once the clathrate has melted the two species
cannot easily be reincorporated, thus can only be used once as a PCM.
Some liquid/gas phase change materials can be used the energy storage but
they tend to involve large changes in volume or pressure when going from the
liquid to the gaseous phase, this prevents effective and economical
encapsulation.
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Most aqueous salt based PCM solutions have a tendency to either absorb
moisture from the atmosphere (hygroscobic), or lose water through
evaporation, and therefore they must be encapsulted in air tight/sealed
containers.
Although organic solutions can be exposed to air as they are not water based,
contamination and fire risk due to low flash point make it necesary for them to
be encapsulated in air tight containers.
Salt based PCM solutions are corrosive and the most practical and
economical method is to use plastic containers(6). However, plastic becomes
soft at high temperatures which restricts the application range to below
+80~+90ºC levels. Some commercially available plastic encapsulation
examples are illustrated in Figure 3.1.
As well as rigid plastic containers, a wide range of flexible pouches filled with
various PCM solutions are produced enabling a wide range of low cost
applications. Pouches are made usuing thin film and they offer good heat
transfer efficiency however, because they are prone to physical damage and
puncture some of the organic solutions are offered in powder, granule or even
solid sheet forms which offer flexibility and safety. Examples of the most
commonly used methods of encapsulation are illustrated in Figure 3.2.
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Although plastic, and to a certain extent pouches, are economical, their heat
transfer rate and/or limited temperature range restricts their wide scale use. In
order to extend the temperature range or improve the heat transfer rate, metal
containers have been extensively used for special applications. Some of the
comercially applied metal encapsulation products are illustrated in Figure 3.3.
Organic solutions are water free and can be modified in the form of dust,
granules or even solid rubber forms and they can be mixed with other
products such as concrete, mortar, bricks, etc..They can be also
thermoformed by simply mixing with plastic materials as part of the injection
moulding process.
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The energy storage capacity of PCMs can be utilised in a number of ways (7),
for example thermal energy storage whereby heat or cool energies can be
stored from one process or period in time, and used at a later date or different
location. PCMs are also very useful in providing thermal barriers or insulation.
Each PCM solution can be used in many different applications (8) and when
considering building services it might be best to cover the PCM usage sector
by sector.
Using +8~+10ºC PCM energy storage one can utilise a conventional water
chiller without the need for a low temperature Glycol chillers. The benefits of
using PCM against a conventional water/ice low temperature chiller charging
operation are illustrated for an air cooled chiller operation over a range of
operating temperatures in Figure 4.1.1(9).
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Figure 4.1.3 – PCM based large scale chilled energy storage applications.
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Heat pumps remove heat from one side of the refrigeration circuit and transfer
to another side of the system. The heat rejection media could be air, water or
ground source (10).
A heat pump removes energy from one side of the refrigeration circuit either
using air/water or ground sources and transfers that energy into the other side
of the refrigeration cycle. Although this is a very efficient way to generate
heat, if the removed energy is later required it can be considered as a waste.
By simply storing this waste energy in the form of +10ºC for cold or +46ºC hot
PCM energy storage, one can utilise this stored energy during peak periods
and as a result the heat pump size as well as the overall system energy
usage can be reduced by as much as 50% by spreading the loads over a 24
hours cycle.
A heat pump combined with PCM energy storage not only reduces running
costs due to lower over-night electricity rates but also provides an increased
combined COP which effectively reduces the overall power requirement as
well. The combination of these two benefits can reduce the overall running
cost of the system significantly.
PCMs have been applied in a number of large scale as well as small scale
heat pump applications (11) and a typical large scale industrial PCM application
example applied in Italy for an electronic factory is illustrated in Figure 4.2.
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Figure 4.2.1- Large scale heat pump PCM energy storage application.
PCM based heat pumps rely on extracting heat from either an air or ground
source and this extracted energy is later put into either water or air circuits for
the most common hot water, heating and cooling applications.
A PCM storage system can eliminate some operational issues such as air
source defrost penalties as heat pumps struggle if the ambient goes below
0ºC, they require constant defrost due to icing on the coil and making them
very inefficient. Similarly ground source heat pumps require large numbers of
boreholes which are expensive and sometimes restricted due to lack of
space.
Figure 4.2.2 illustrates a surface PCM energy storage used to eliminate the
defrost issues related to air source heat pump applications and by simply
extracting heat from the PCM storage as opposed to air, the heat pump circuit
can be operated without a defrost at low ambient conditions.
Figure 4.2.3. illustrates a typical ground source heat pump application without
the need for boreholes by simply using a dry cooler and a matching PCM
energy storage system combination to reject the heat during peak loads in
order to cover the whole year operation.
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Figure 4.2.2- Air source heat pump PCM energy storage application.
Figure 4.2.3- Ground source heat pump PCM energy storage application.
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Many UK water-water heat pump systems initially start in heating mode but
mid-day revert back to cooling mode. Rather than using a boiler and chiller
combination to balance the buffer circuit, the designers can utilise a +22ºC
PCM buffer vessel to store the surplus energy and balance the buffer circuit
over a 24 hour period as illustrated in Figure 4.2.4. PCM energy storage cost
can be covered by eliminating the need for a boiler or chiller. Moreover, the
running and maintenance costs of the system can be significantly reduced as
a result.
Passive cooling relies on naturally occurring night and day time temperature
swings. The cool energy available over-night is stored within the PCM and
later this stored energy is used to absorb the internal and solar gains during
day-time for an energy free passive cooling system. A typical energy free
passive cooling concept is illustrated in Figure 4.3.1.
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Figure 4.3.1. illustrates a typical building passive cooling concept for the
northern European climate as the night ambient goes well below the internal
design temperatures for a free cooling option all year round. In warmer
climates like southern Europe or Middle East this energy free cooling can only
be achieved during colder winter / autumn or early spring periods.
However, by simply running the air conditioning system to charge the passive
cooling over-night, designers may be able to shift some of the daily peak load
to over-night low ambient, hence, higher efficiency operation and possibly
using the low electricity cost periods. Some of the passive cooling application
examples are highlighted in between Figures 4.3.2. and Figure 4.3.4.
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The same passive cooling concept can also be applied for electronic shelters
anywhere in the World as the internal temperatures can be elevated up to
+45ºC as opposed to comfort cooling limit of +24ºC. Having this high internal
temperature limit, even in the middle of a desert the night’s cool energy can
be stored and using this stored energy during day-time the shelter’s internal
temperatures can be maintained well below the upper limit without any
mechanical refrigeration.
Solar energy is only available during light hours and this free energy can be
used either for heating or cooling (12) but generally it is available during only for
a limited day period. By storing this free energy one can either produce heat
or alternatively provide a cooling source.
Example of an under floor heating using solar collectors and warm PCM
containers is illustrated in Figure 4.4.1.
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Figure 4.4.1- Solar + PCM integrated under floor & DHW heating application.
Using conventional solar collectors one can store hot water in simple water
tanks but once the sun goes down and water is gradually drawn the tank can
not maintain a steady output temperature due to strafication. However, if the
latent heat capacity of PCM is added to the water tank not only can the
capacity of the tank be increased by as much as 3~4 times but also having
fixed phase change the water outlet temperature can be fixed until the PCM
energy is fully depleted.
Figure 4.4.2- PCM rubber balls hot water energy storage applications.
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Rubber PCM balls may be applicable for small scale tanks but for larger
applications steel balls / tubes might be a better option. During the 2006
Commonwealth Games in Melbourne organisers aimed to build standard
houses with a view to sell these houses to the public after the games.
During the games these houses had a 3~4 times higher occupancy rate than
an average family and the lack of space for the hot water tank and effectively
lack of hot water for the athletes was eliminated by simply adding +58ºC PCM
balls using a standard size hot water tank. The PCM addition provided 3~4
times more hot water storage to handle the higher occupancy rate as
illustrated in Figure 4.4.3.
There is a natural match between air conditioning loads and solar gains and
by simply using free solar energy one can generate cooling using various
technologies such as absorption, adsorption and steam driven cooling
machines. However, the cooling is required well beyond the peak mid-day
sunny periods and to bridge the gap one has to store either the hot or cold
side of the cooling circuit.
Generally storing the hot side of the heat driven cooling machines is not
economically viable. It is far more practical and economical to store cold
energy side of the circuit and a large scale Doha FIFA 2022 stadium solar
cooling with PCM energy storage application is illustrated in Figure 4.4.4.
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For this application the Qatar FIFA World Cup bid was based on using energy
free solar air conditioning for the stadiums and the demonstration stadium
was built to prove the concept would work.
The highest solar energy occurs during mid-day but all games will take place
after sunset, so by simply running the solar driven air conditioning machines
during the peak mid-day period and storing the cooling in +10ºC PCM
solution, full air conditioning capacity can be provided by simply running the
TES tank as a cooling source during the game.
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Design is based on having a cooling tower on the roof to utilise lower wet bulb
temperatures to charge +15ºC PCM tanks located in the basement without
any mechanical refrigeration i.e. chillers. The night-time cool energy is stored
in PCM tanks over-night and during day-time this stored energy is distributed
throughout the building via chilled ceilings to soak up the internal and solar
gains.
Simplified design details for the CH2 building are illustrated in Figure 4.5.1.
In principal PCM would be helpful for any heating energy storage applications
and save some storage space but higher circulation temperatures associated
with the heating makes PCM encapsulation very costly. On top of this
handicap the larger circulation temperature differences closer to 20K and
associated high sensible heat capacity of water storage reduces the benefits
of PCM energy storage further.
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Figure 4.6.1- High temperature solar hot water PCM energy storage.
5.0 - CONCLUSION:
PCM Thermal Energy Storage not only provides the end user with an
environmentally friendly design but also the following additional benefits can
be obtained:
• Reduced and No Refrigeration Equipment
• Capital Cost Saving
• Reduced Maintenance.
• Energy Cost Saving
• Reduced CO2 Emission
• Environmentally Friendly Installation
• Improved System Operation/Reliability
• Flexibility for the Future Capacities Changes
The temperature ranges offered by the proposed PCM solutions utilise free
ambient cooling, conventional chilled water temperature ranges for both the
charging and discharging sides of the system. Hence, they can be applied to
any new or retrofit application with minimal technical and economical impacts.
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Furthermore, the possibility of Free Cooling Cycle TES system offer new
horizons for designers to control the energy balance to match the load and
electricity demand/consumption of the system as a whole.
A carefully balanced PCM energy storage may be the answer for many of the
cooling applications for an Environmentally Friendly and Economical
alternative.
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6.0 - REFERENCES:
12- Szokolay S.V, “Solar Energy and Building”, The Architectural Press
Ltd., London, 1976
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