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Exergy Analysis of Charge and Discharge Processes of Thermal Energy Storage System with Various Phase Change Materials: A Comprehensive Comparison

  • Special Column: Recent Advances in PCMs as Thermal Energy Storage in Energy Systems
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Abstract

Thermal energy storage (TES) is of great importance in solving the mismatch between energy production and consumption. In this regard, choosing type of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) that are widely used to control heat in latent thermal energy storage systems, plays a vital role as a means of TES efficiency. However, this field suffers from lack of a comprehensive investigation on the impact of various PCMs in terms of exergy. To address this issue, in this study, in addition to indicating the melting temperature and latent heat of various PCMs, the exergy destruction and exergy efficiency of each material are estimated and compared with each other. Moreover, in the present work the impact of PCMs mass and ambient temperature on the exergy efficiency is evaluated. The results proved that higher latent heat does not necessarily lead to higher exergy efficiency. Furthermore, to obtain a suitable exergy efficiency, the specific heat capacity and melting temperature of the PCMs must also be considered. According to the results, LiF-CaF2 (80.5 wt%:19.5 wt%) mixture led to better performance with satisfactory exergy efficiency (98.84%) and notably lower required mass compared to other PCMs. Additionally, the highest and lowest exergy destruction are belonged to GR25 and LiF-CaF2 (80.5:19.5) mixture, respectively.

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Abbreviations

C p :

Specific heat

C p,pcm,l :

Specific heat capacity of PCM in the liquid state

C p,pcm,s :

Specific heat capacity of PCM in the solid state

\(E_{{\rm{ch}}}^Q\) :

Exergy related to heat transfer in charge process

E ch,0 :

Standard chemical exergy

E a,ch :

Exergy accumulation of charge process

E a,dc :

Exergy accumulation of discharge process

E D :

Exergy destruction

E f–E i :

Exergy changes in a closed system

E in :

Total electrical energy consumption

\(E_i^0\) :

Standard chemical exergy of component i

E x,heat :

Exergy related to the heat

E x,Ch :

Chemical exergy

E x,ph :

Physical exergy

E x,tot :

Total exergy

\(E_{x,{\rm{tot}}}^{{\rm{in}}}\) :

Inlet total exergy

\(E_{x,{\rm{tot}}}^{{\rm{out}}}\) :

Outlet total exergy

G :

Gibbs free energy

G i :

Gibbs free energy of component i

H T,P :

Enthalpy at operating temperature and pressure

\({H_{{T_0},{P_0}}}\) :

Enthalpy at ambient temperature and pressure

I :

Exergy destruction

i ph :

Latent heat

L :

Shell and tube length

m :

Mass

m pcm :

Mass of PCM

P 0 :

Atmospheric pressure

Q :

Heat transfer

S T,P :

Entropy at operating temperature and pressure

\({S_{{T_0},{P_0}}}\) :

Entropy at ambient temperature and pressure

S f–S i :

Entropy change in the storage tank

T :

Temperature

T 0 :

Ambient temperature

T ch :

Charging temperature

T dc :

Discharging temperature

T i :

Initial temperature

T m :

Melting temperature

T pcm :

Temperature of the PCM

u f–u i :

Internal energy change of the storage tank

W :

Work

X i :

Mole fraction of component i

Ψ :

Exergy Efficiency

Ch:

Chemical

ch:

Charge

dc:

Discharge

f:

Final

i:

Inlet

l:

Liquid

m:

Melt

ph:

Physical

s:

Solid

tot:

Total

EES:

Energy storage system

LHS:

Latent heat energy storage

PCMs:

Phase change materials

Ste:

Stefan number

SHS:

Sensible heat storage

TCES:

Thermochemical energy storage

TES:

Thermal energy storage

temp:

Temperature

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Renewable Energies and Environment, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, 1439956191, Iran

    Mojtaba Taheri, Fathollah Pourfayaz & Roghayeh Habibi

  2. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, 3619995161, Iran

    Akbar Maleki

Authors
  1. Mojtaba Taheri
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  2. Fathollah Pourfayaz
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  3. Roghayeh Habibi
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  4. Akbar Maleki
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Correspondence to Fathollah Pourfayaz.

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Taheri, M., Pourfayaz, F., Habibi, R. et al. Exergy Analysis of Charge and Discharge Processes of Thermal Energy Storage System with Various Phase Change Materials: A Comprehensive Comparison. J. Therm. Sci. 33, 509–521 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-023-1859-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-023-1859-y

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