Application of phase change material for thermal energy storage: An overview of recent advances

Abstract

For efficient use and conservation of solar energy and waste heat, it is necessary to capture the thermal energy, for this purpose phase change material may be used as sensible and latent heat storage system. With few experimental studies based on the comparison of the performance of sensible and latent heat storage system. It has been found that latent heat storage system can store more density of energy with a lesser difference of temperature between storing and delivering heat compared with the sensible energy storage system. So many studies were conducted of sensible and latent thermal storage system with different mass flow rates. Many kind of material have been explore during scientific evolution of phase change material including inorganic system (salt and salt hydrates), organic compound like paraffin, fatty acid and polymeric materials like poly glycol and poly ethylene. Storage energy features and structure of been material were investigated to get complete knowledge of the heat storage and ejection mechanism. This paper focused mainly to provide PCM thermal energy storage application and provide an understanding to develop new PCM with improved performance and safety. Special attention is given to the wide range of application of PCM like electronic, biomedical, textile, construction, automotive industries have been discussed and this paper can help in future research in area of PCM in storage of thermal energy.