Abstract
Purpose
Phase change materials (PCMs) hold considerable promise for thermal energy storage and reduction of temperature swings in building space, and can reduce reliance on fossil fuel sources for both heating and cooling. Previous studies have evaluated the use of PCMs for energy storage and provided some limited information on the embodied energy of the PCM; however, an important factor that has not fully been addressed until now is the environmental impact of preparation of organic PCMs. This study presents life cycle assessments (LCAs) of two organic, biosourced PCMs for their applications, focusing on embodied energy and CO2 emissions.
Methods
Dodecanoic acid produced from palm kernel oil was considered as a PCM for use in a solar thermal water heating application, and ethyl hexadecanoate produced from algae was considered for thermal buffering. The functional units were defined as 1 t of dodecanoic acid PCM and 1 kg of encapsulated ethyl hexadecanoate PCM, respectively. The LCA encompasses all phases in the PCM production: growth and harvesting of the feedstocks, extraction of the oil, treatment of the oil, and separation of singular components. The two PCMs were evaluated in terms of the payback times for their embodied energies and embodied CO2 under a modeled use phase.
Results and discussion
The energy payback time for dodecanoic acid in a solar thermal application was found to be less than 2 years. Although production of dodecanoic acid is a net CO2 emitter, use of this PCM in a solar thermal system can recoup the CO2 of production in less than a year. Ethyl hexadecanoate produced from algae, considered for use in a thermal buffering wallboard product, would require at least 30 years of use before its energy savings would match its embodied energy, mostly due to the drying step in the production of the PCM. However, ethyl hexadecanoate is a strong sequester of CO2 at 7.6 t per ton of ethyl hexadecanoate.
Conclusions
Dodecanoic acid produced from palm kernel oil for use in a solar thermal hot water system appears to be a viable PCM. Its payback time, both for energy and carbon emissions, is under 3 years. On the other hand, the high embodied energy of ethyl hexadecanoate produced from algae gives a prohibitively long payback time for use in domestic thermal buffering applications.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allred PM (2014) Phase change materials for thermal energy storage. Masters Dissertation, Dalhousie University
Ashby MF (2012) Materials and the environment, 2nd edn. Elsevier, New York
Bowyer C, Baldock D, Kretschmer B, Polakova J (2012) The GHG emissions intensity of bioenergy. Institute for European Environmental Policy, London
Campbell PK, Beer T, Batten D (2011) Life cycle assessment of biodiesel production from microalgae in ponds. Biosour Technol 102:50–56
Castanheira EG, Freire FM (2011) Environmental performance of palm oil diesel—a life cycle perspective. IEEE Int Symp Sustain Syst Technol 2011:1–6. doi:10.1109/ISSST.2011.5936843
Childs K, Stovall T (2012) Potential energy savings due to phase change material in a building wall assembly: an examination of two climates. ORNL/TM-2012/6, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Chum H et al (2011) Bioenergy. In: Edenhofer O et al (eds) IPCC special report on renewable energy sources and climate change mitigation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 209–331
Dall Acqua S, Fawer M, Fritschi R, Allenspach C (1999) Life cycle inventories for the production of detergent ingredients. Technical Report 244, German Federal Environmental Agency and Oeko-Institute
de Gracia A, Rincón L, Castell A, Jiménez M, Boer D, Medrano M, Cabeza LF (2010) Life cycle assessment of the inclusion of phase change materials (PCM) in experimental buildings. Energ Build 42:1517–1523
Desgrosseilliers L, Whitman CA, Groulx D, White MA (2013) Dodecanoic acid as a promising phase-change material for thermal energy storage. Appl Therm Eng 53:37–41
DuPont, DuPont Energain® Technical datasheet. http://energain.co.uk/Energain/en_GB/assets/downloads/documentation/download/Energain%C2%AE_Datasheet_UK.pdf. Accessed 15 September 2014
Environmental Protection Agency (2014) Greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator. http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html. Accessed 15 September 2014
Farid MM, Khudhair AM, Razack SAK, Al-Hallaj S (2004) A review on phase change energy storage: materials and applications. Energy Convers Manage 45:1597–1615
Gervajio GC (2012) Fatty acids and derivatives from coconut oil. In: Kirk-Othmer encyclopedia of chemical technology, Wiley and Sons, New York, pp 445–482
Gil A, Oro E, Peiro G, Alvarez S, Cabeza LF (2013) Material selection and testing for thermal energy storage in solar cooling. Renew Energ 57:366–371
Hang Y, Qu M, Zhao F (2012) Economic and environmental life cycle analysis of solar hot water systems in the United States. Energy Build 45:181–188
Jeong S, Lee J, Seo J, Kim S (2014) Thermal performance evaluation of bio-based shape stabilized PCM with boron nitride for energy saving. Int J Heat Mass Transf 71:245–250
Kenisarin MM (2014) Thermophysical properties of some organic phase change materials for latent heat storage. A review. Sol Energy 107:553–575
King AM, Garner WE (1934) The heats of crystallization of the ethyl esters of the monobasic aliphatic acids. J Chem Soc 1934:1449–1456
Lam MK, Lee KT, Mohamed AR (2009) Life cycle assessment for the production of biodiesel: a case study in Malaysia for palm oil versus jatropha oil. Biofuels Bioprod Biorefin 3:601–612
Lane GA (1983) Solar heat storage: latent heat materials. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Lardon L, Helias A, Sialve B, Steyer JP, Bernard O (2009) Life-cycle assessment of biodiesel production from microalgae. Environ Sci Technol 43:6475–6481
Luo L, van der Voet E, Huppes G (2009) An energy analysis of ethanol from cellulosic feedstock–corn stover. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 13:2003–2011
Lurgi, Fatty acid technology. Technical brochure no. 274e/08.10/10, Lurgi GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
Mazman M, Cabeza LF, Mehling H, Nogues M, Evliya H, Paksoy HO (2009) Utilization of phase change materials in solar domestic hot water systems. Renew Energ 34:1639–1643
Mehling H, Cabeza LF (2008) Heat and cold storage with PCM. Springer, Berlin
Mehling H, Cabeza LF, Hippeli S, Hiebler S (2003) PCM-module to improve hot water heat stores with stratification. Renew Energ 28:699–711
Menoufi K, Castell A, Farid MM, Boer D, Cabeza LF (2013) Life cycle assessment of experimental cubicles including PCM manufactured from natural resources (esters): a theoretical study. Renew Energ 51:398–403
Muhammad H, Hashim Z, Subramaniam V, Tan YA, Wei PC, Let CC, May CY (2010) Life cycle assessment of oil palm seedling production. J Oil Palm Res 22:876–886
Murray RE, Groulx D (2014a) Experimental study of the phase change and energy characteristics inside a cylindrical latent heat energy storage system: part 1 consecutive charging and discharging. Renew Energ 62:571–581
Murray RE, Groulx D (2014b) Experimental study of the phase change and energy characteristics inside a cylindrical latent heat energy storage system: part 2 simultaneous charging and discharging. Renew Energ 63:724–734
Muruganantham K, Phelan P, Horwath P, Ludlam D, McDonald T (2010) Experimental investigation of a bio-based phase change material to improve building energy performance. ASME 2010 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability 1:979–984. doi:10.1115/ES2010-90035
Myrans K (2009) Comparative energy and carbon assessment of three green technologies for a Toronto roof. Dissertation, University of Toronto
Ng TK, Busche RN, McDonald CC, Hardy RWF (1983) Production of feedstock chemicals. Science 219:733–740
Ng WPQ, Lam HL, Ng FY, Kamal M, Lim JHE (2012) Waste-to-wealth: green potential from palm biomass in Malaysia. J Cleaner Prod 34:57–65
Oro E, Barreneche C, Farid MM, Cabeza LF (2013) Experimental study of the selection of phase change materials for low temperature applications. Renew Energ 57:130–136
Passell H, Dhaliwal H, Reno M, Wu B, Amotz AB, Ivry E, Gay M, Czartoski T, Laurin I, Ayer N (2013) Algae biodiesel life cycle assessment using current commercial data. J Environ Manage 129:103–111
Pasupathy A, Velraj R, Seeniraj RV (2008) Phase change material-based architecture for thermal management in residential and commercial establishments. Renew Sust Energ Rev 12:39–64
Pienkos PT, Darzins A (2009) The promise and challenges of microalgal-derived biofuels. Biofuels Bioprod Biorefin 3:431–440
Pratas MJ, Freitas S, Oliveira MB, Monteiro SC, Lima AS, Coutinho JAP (2010) Densities and viscosities of fatty acid methyl and ethyl esters. J Chem Eng Data 55:3983–3990
Rezaei M, Anisur MR, Muhfuz MH, Kibrai MA, Saidur R, Metselaar IHSC (2013) Performance and cost analysis of phase change materials with different melting temperatures in heating systems. Energy 53:173–178
Sander K, Murthy GS (2010) Life cycle analysis of algae biodiesel. Int J Life Cycle Assess 15:704–714
Sari A, Bicer A, Karaipekli A (2009) Synthesis, characterization, thermal properties of a series of stearic acid esters as novel solid–liquid phase change materials. Mater Lett 63:1213–1216
Schlagermann P, Gottlicher G, Dillschneider R, Rosello-Sastre R, Posten C (2012) Composition of algal oil and its potential as biofuel. J Combust 2012:1–14
Schlamadinger B, Grubb M, Azar C, Bauen A, Berndes G (2001) Carbon sinks and the CDM: could a bioenergy linkage offer a constructive compromise? Clim Pol 1:411–417
Schmidt JH (2010) Comparative life cycle assessment of rape seed and palm oil. Int J Life Cycle Assess 15:183–197
Sharma A, Tyagi VV, Chen CR, Buddhi D (2009) Review on thermal energy storage with phase change materials and applications. Renew Sust Energ Rev 13:318–345
Shukla A, Buddhi D, Sawhney RL (2009) Solar water heaters with phase change material thermal energy storage medium. Renew Sust Energ Rev 13:2119–2125
Subramaniam V, May CY, Muhammad H, Hashim Z, Tan YA, Wei PC (2010a) Life cycle assessment of the production of crude palm oil. J Oil Palm Res 22:895–903
Subramaniam V, May CY, Muhammad H, Hashim Z, Tan YA, Wei PC (2010b) Life cycle assessment of the production of crude palm kernel oil. J Oil Palm Res 22:904–912
Suppes GJ, Goff MJ, Lopes S (2003) Latent heat characteristics of fatty acid derivatives pursuant phase change material applications. Chem Eng Sci 58:1751–1753
Telkes M (1952) Nucleation of supersaturated inorganic salt solutions. Ind Eng Chem 45:1308–1310
Telkes M (1980) Thermal energy storage in salt hydrates. Sol Energy Mater 2:381–393
Wei PC, May CW, Ngan MA (2010) Life cycle assessment for the production and use of palm biodiesel. J Oil Palm Res 22:927–933
Whitman CA, Johnson MB, White MA (2012) Characterization of thermal performance of a solid-solid phase change material, di-n-hexylammonium bromide, for potential integration in building materials. Thermochim Acta 531:54–59
Yee KF, Tan KT, Abdullah AZ, Lee KT (2009) Life cycle assessment of palm biodiesel: revealing facts and benefits for sustainability. Appl Energy 86:S186–S189
Yuan Y, Zhang N, Tao W, Cao X, He Y (2014) Fatty acids as phase change materials: a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 29:482–498
Zulkifli H, Halimah M, Chan KW, Choo YM, Mohd Basri W (2010) Life cycle assessment for oil palm fresh fruit bunch production from continued land use for oil palm planted on mineral soil. J Oil Palm Res 22:887–894
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge support of this work from grants from NSERC (Canada), including scholarships to J.A.N. and P.M.A. from the NSERC CREATE Dalhousie Research in Energy, Advanced Materials and Sustainability (DREAMS) program. J.A.N. also acknowledges an NSERC PGS-M scholarship. We thank Professors Mark Obrovac and Dominic Groulx and Dr. Samer Kahwaji for useful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Adisa Azapagic
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Noël, J.A., Allred, P.M. & White, M.A. Life cycle assessment of two biologically produced phase change materials and their related products. Int J Life Cycle Assess 20, 367–376 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0831-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0831-1