Thermal energy storage: Challenges and the role of particle technology--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Ge, Z., Li, Y., Li, D., Sun, Z., Jin, Y., Liu, C., Li, C., Leng, G., & Ding, Y. (2014). Thermal energy storage: Challenges and the role of particle technology. Particuology, 15, 2–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2014.03.003

Thermal energy storage: Challenges and the role of particle technology

Zhiwei Ge ^a, Yongliang Li ^b, Dacheng Li ^a, Ze Sun ^c, Yi Jin ^a, Chuanping Liu ^d, Chuan Li ^b, Guanghui Leng ^a, Yulong Ding ^{a b *}

a Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
b School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
c East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
d School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science & Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China

10.1016/j.partic.2014.03.003

Volume 15, August 2014, Pages 2-8

Received 2 January 2014, Revised 5 March 2014, Accepted 12 March 2014, Available online 18 May 2014.

E-mail: ylding@mail.ipe.ac.cn; y.ding@bham.ac.uk

Highlights

• Thermal energy links primary and secondary energy sources in the energy chain.

• Thermal energy storage (TES) has a pivotal role to play in the energy chain.

• Structure–property relationships are essential for manufacturing composite TES materials.

• Linking materials properties to system level performance is recommended for future TES research.

Abstract

Thermal energy is at the heart of the whole energy chain providing a main linkage between the primary and secondary energy sources. Thermal energy storage (TES) has a pivotal role to play in the energy chain and hence in future low carbon economy. However, a competitive TES technology requires a number of scientific and technological challenges to be addressed including TES materials, TES components and devices, and integration of TES devices with energy networks and associated dynamic optimization. This paper provides a perspective of TES technology with a focus on TES materials challenges using molten salts based phase change materials for medium and high temperature applications. Two key challenges for the molten salt based TES materials are chemical incompatibility and low thermal conductivity. The use of composite materials provides an avenue to meeting the challenges. Such composite materials consist of a phase change material, a structural supporting material, and a thermal conductivity enhancement material. The properties of the supporting material could determine the dispersion of the thermal conductivity enhancement material in the salt. A right combination of the salt, the structural supporting material, and the thermal conductivity enhancement material could give a hierarchical structure that is able to encapsulate the molten salt and give a substantial enhancement in the thermal conductivity. Understanding of the structure–property relationships for the composite is essential for the formulation design and fabrication of the composite materials. Linking materials properties to the system level performance is recommended as a key future direction of research.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Thermal energy storage; Composite materials; Structure–property relationships; Role of particle technology

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