Heat losses in water pit thermal energy storage systems in the presence of groundwater

Sifnaios, Ioannis; Jensen, Adam R.; Furbo, Simon; Fan, Jianhua

doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2023.121382

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 25 publications

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“…The temperature drop in seasonal TES systems due to heat loss, which is an irreversible thermodynamic process, reduces considerably the “Coulombic efficiency” of such “thermal batteries” for seasonal solar heating 44 . For example, in existing seasonal sensible heat storage projects, which utilize water or soil as the TES material, significant heat losses were observed to be up to 60% during long-term storage periods 45 , 46 . Utilizing expensive ultra-insulation materials can only decelerate the heat loss process, but will lead to a substantial increase in costs for household distributed TES systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supercooled erythritol for high-performance seasonal thermal energy storage

Yang,

Shi,

Liu

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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Seasonal storage of solar thermal energy through supercooled phase change materials (PCM) offers a promising solution for decarbonizing space and water heating in winter. Despite the high energy density and adaptability, natural PCMs often lack the necessary supercooling for stable, long-term storage. Leveraging erythritol, a sustainable mid-temperature PCM with high latent heat, we introduce a straightforward method to stabilize its supercooling by incorporating carrageenan (CG), a bio-derived food thickener. By improving the solid-liquid interfacial energy with the addition of CG the latent heat of erythritol can be effectively locked at a very low temperature. We show that the composite PCM can sustain an ultrastable supercooled state below −30 °C, which guarantees no accidental loss of the latent heat in severe cold regions on Earth. We further demonstrate that the common ultrasonication method can be used as the key to unlocking the latent heat stored in the CG-thickened erythritol, showing its great potential to serve as a high-performance, eco-friendly PCM for long-term seasonal solar energy storage.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%