Low temperature phase change materials for thermal energy storage: Current status and computational perspectives

Abstract

Latent heat based thermal energy storage technology is quite promising due to its reasonable cost and high energy storage capacity. This technology is partially developed. The accelerated transition from non-renewable to renewable energy sources have attracted researchers to shift their focus towards demonstrating thermal energy storage utilizing latent heat at commercial level. Phase change materials utilizing latent heat can store a huge amount of thermal energy within a small temperature range i.e., almost isothermal. In this review of low temperature phase change materials for thermal energy storage, important properties and applications of low temperature phase change materials have been discussed and analyzed. Thermal energy storage technologies are compared in terms of technology readiness levels. Various techniques to improve the heat transfer characteristics of thermal energy storage systems using low temperature phase change materials have also been discussed. Moreover, the use of computational techniques to assess, predict and optimize the performance of the latent energy storage system for different low temperature applications is also presented. In this article, researchers and domestic energy management sector will find comprehensive guidelines for the performance improvement and technology selection for energy management via thermal energy storage.