Thermochemical characterizations of novel vermiculite-LiCl composite sorbents for low-temperature heat storage

Abstract

To store low-temperature heat below 100 °C, novel composite sorbents were developed by impregnating LiCl into expanded vermiculite (EVM) in this study. Five kinds of composite sorbents were prepared using different salt concentrations, and the optimal sorbent for application was selected by comparing both the sorption characteristics and energy storage density. Textural properties of composite sorbents were obtained by extreme-resolution field emission scanning electron microscopy (ER-SEM) and an automatic mercury porosimeter. After excluding two composite sorbents which would possibly exhibit solution leakage in practical thermal energy storage (TES) system, thermochemical characterizations were implemented through simulative sorption experiments at 30 °C and 60% RH. Analyses of thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetry (TGA/DSC) curves indicate that water uptake of EVM/LiCl composite sorbents is divided into three parts: physical adsorption of EVM, chemical adsorption of LiCl crystal, and liquid-gas absorption of LiCl solution. Energy storage potential was evaluated by theoretical calculation based on TGA/DSC curves. Overall, EVMLiCl20 was selected as the optimal composite sorbent with water uptake of 1.41 g/g, mass energy storage density of 1.21 kWh/kg, and volume energy storage density of 171.61 kWh/m3.