Review on thermal energy storage with phase change materials (PCMs) in building applications
Highlights
► Investigations on thermal energy storage with PCMs in building applications are reviewed. ► The technologies of PCMs, including selection criteria, measurement methods and heat transfer enhancement, are summarised. ► Impregnation methods of PCMs into construction materials and their applications are also discussed. ► Numerical studies on thermal performance of buildings with PCMs are evaluated.
Introduction
Energy and environment are the two major issues facing human beings nowadays. Industrial developments and population boom in the past few centuries have resulted in an enormous increase in energy demand with an annual increasing rate at about 2.3%. Fig. 1a and b, respectively, show the energy production from the year 1949 to 2009 and primary energy flow for the year 2009 in the United States [1]. From which we can see that on average, fossil fuels account for almost 80% of the total energy production. However the burning of fossil fuels brought the largest environmental issue ever, which is climate change caused by CO2 emission. Still taking the United States as an example, the combustion of fossil fuels is responsible for more than 90% of all greenhouse gas emissions [2]. On this occasion, scientists had begun to research in renewable energy technologies in order to turn the tide of climate change and achieve a sustainable development for human beings.
Building is one of the leading sectors of the energy consumption. In the year of 2009, around 40% of the total fossil energy was consumed in building sector in the United States and European Union [1]. Furthermore the energy consumption of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems is still increasing with the increasing demand for thermal comfort. Under this circumstance, thermal energy storage systems with high potential to save energy in buildings have gained more and more attention. Thermal energy storage can be generally classified as sensible heat storage and latent heat storage according to the heat storage media. In sensible heat storage, the heat is stored or released accompanied with temperature change of the storage media, whereas in the latent heat storage the heat is stored or released as heat of fusion/solidification during phase change processes of the storage media. By contrast, latent heat storage with phase change materials (PCMs) provides a high heat storage density and has the capability of storing a large amount of heat during the phase change process with a small variation of PCM volume and temperature.
Using latent heat storage in the buildings can meet the demand for thermal comfort and energy conservation purpose. This review paper mainly focuses on latent thermal energy storage in building applications with Section 2 about the catalog of previous resources, Section 3 about PCMs, Section 4 about impregnation PCMs into conventional construction materials, Section 5 about the current building applications and thermal performance, as well as Section 6 about the numerical simulation for passive solar heating buildings with PCMs.
Section snippets
Summary of resources
Since the importance of sustainable energy has been noticed, many books on energy storage have been appeared; among of them few books [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] are mainly on low-temperature latent thermal energy storage. Dincer and Rosen [7] gave a general description of thermal energy storage, from the definition of fundamental parameters, thermal energy storage methods, energy and exergy analyses as well as numerical model and simulation of thermal energy storage. But in these books, the PCMs
Classification
Based on phase change state, PCMs fall into three groups: solid–solid PCMs, solid–liquid PCMs and liquid–gas PCMs. Among them the solid–liquid PCMs are most suitable for thermal energy storage. The solid–liquid PCMs comprise organic PCMs, inorganic PCMs and eutectics, seen in Fig. 2. A comparison of these different kinds of PCMs is listed in Table 2.
Criteria of PCMs selection
The melting temperature and phase change enthalpy of existing PCMs are shown in Fig. 3 [21]. From the point of melting temperature it can be seen
Traditional methods
Hawes et al. [43] reported that the three most promising methods of PCMs to be incorporated in the conventional construction materials were direct incorporation, immersion and encapsulation. They also found that the melting and freezing temperatures of PCMs varied slightly when being incorporated in building materials.
PCM wallboard
PCM wallboard is considered to be an effective and less costly replacement of standard thermal mass to store solar heat in buildings, in which the PCM is imbedded into a gypsum board, plaster or other building structures. The thermal characteristics of PCM wallboard are very close to those of PCMs alone, and when a PCM wallboard is cut, a greater concentration of PCM lies in the outer third of the wallboard thickness near each face due to the diffusion process [52].
Scalat et al. [55] considered
Parameters for evaluation
Thermal resistance R, heat storage coefficient S and index of thermal inertia D are considered to be the most commonly used parameters to evaluate the thermal performance of the buildings.
Conclusion
In this paper, previous research works on thermal energy storage with PCMs for building applications have been reviewed. The PCMs to be used in buildings need to meet thermal comfort criteria, meaning the phase change temperature of PCMs should be between 18 °C and 30 °C. In addition, the properties such as chemical stability, fire characteristics and compatibility with constructional materials also need to be considered in the PCMs selections. Latent heat storage with PCMs has been used in the
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC grant number: EP/F061439/1) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos: 51176110 and 51071184).
References (111)
Low temperature latent heat thermal energy storage: heat storage materials
Solar Energy
(1983)- et al.
A review of thermal storage systems used in building applications
Build Environ
(1988) - et al.
Review on thermal energy storage with phase change: materials, heat transfer analysis and applications
Appl Therm Eng
(2003) - et al.
A review on phase change energy storage: materials and applications
Energy Manage
(2004) - et al.
PCM thermal energy storage in buildings: a state of art
Renew Sust Energy Rev
(2007) - et al.
Solar energy storage using phase change materials
Renew Sust Energy Rev
(2007) - et al.
Application of latent heat thermal energy storage in buildings: state-of-the-art and outlook
Build Environ
(2007) - et al.
Phase change material-based building architechture for thermal management in residential and commercial establishments
Renew Sust Energy Rev
(2008) - et al.
Review on thermal energy storage with phase change materials and applications
Renew Sust Energy Rev
(2009) - et al.
Dynamic characteristics and energy performance of buildings using phase change materials: a review
Energy Convers Manage
(2009)
Phase change materials for building applications: a state-of-the art review
Energy Build
Materials used as PCM in thermal energy storage in buildings: a review
Renew Sust Energy Rev
Accuracy improvement of T-history method for measuring heat of fusion of various materials
Int J Refrig
Durability of latent heat storage tube sheets
Solar Energy
Accelerated thermal cycle test of latent-heat storage materials
Solar Energy
Accelerated thermal cycle test of acetamide, stearic acid and paraffin wax for solar thermal latent heat storage applications
Energy Convers Manage
Mixture of calcium chloride hexahydrate with salt hydrate or anhydrous salts as latent heat storage materials
Energy Convers Manage
Thermal cycling test of few selected inorganic and organic phase change materials
Renew Energy
Thermal cycling testing of calcium chloride hexahydrate as a possible PCM for latent heat storage
Solar Energy Mater Solar Cell
Metal foams as compact high performance heat exchangers
Mech Mater
Heat transfer enhancement for thermal energy storage using metal foams embedded within phase change materials (PCMs)
Solar Energy
Paraffin/porous graphite-matrix composite as a high and constant power thermal storage material
Int J Heat Mass Transfer
Improvement of thermal characteristics of latent heat thermal energy storage units using carbon-fiber brushes: experiments and modeling
Int J Heat Mass Transfer
Thermal conductivity enhancement for phase change storage media
Int Commun Heat Mass Transfer
Microencapsulated n-octacosane as phase change material for thermal energy storage
Solar Energy
Experimental investigations on heat transfer in phase change materials (PCMs) embedded with porous materials
Appl Therm Eng
Latent heat storage in building materials
Energy Build
Experimental study of using PCM in brick constructive solutions for passive cooling
Energy Build
Use of microencapsulated PCM in concrete walls for energy savings
Energy Build
Preparation and performance of shape stabilizes phase change thermal storage materials with high thermal conductivity
Energy Convers Manage
Form-stable paraffin/high density polyethylene composites as a solid-liquid phase change material for thermal energy storage: preparation and thermal properties
Energy Convers Manage
Preparation, thermal performance and application of shape-stabilized PCM in energy efficient buildings
Energy Build
Thermal analysis of a direct-gain room with shape-stabilized PCM plates
Renew Energy
Evaluation of thermal storage as latent heat in phase change material wallboard by different scanning calorimetry and large scale thermal testing
Thermochim Acta
DSC analysis for the evaluation of an energy storing wallboard
Thermochim Acta
Full scale thermal testing of latent heat storage in wallboard
Solar Energy Mater Solar Cells
Thermal testing and numerical simulation of a prototype cell using light wallboards coupling vacuum isolation panels and phase change material
Energy Build
Experimental investigation and numerical simulation analysis on the thermal performance of a building roof incorporating phase change material (PCM) for thermal management
Appl Therm Eng
Energetic efficiency of room wall containing PCM wallboard: a full-scale experimental investigation
Energy Build
Experimental investigation of wallboard containing phase change material: data for validation of numerical modeling
Energy Build
Heat transfer and thermal storage behaviour of gypsum boards incorporating micro-encapsulated PCM
Energy Build
Realization, test and modelling of honeycomb wallboards containing a phase change material
Energy Build
Control aspects of latent heat storage and recovery in concrete
Solar Energy Mater Solar Cells
Thermal dynamics of wallboard with latent heat storage
Solar Energy
In-situ study of thermal comfort enhancement in a renovated building equipped with phase change material wallboard
Renew Energy
Latent heat storage in concrete II
Solar Energy Mater
Absorption of phase change materials in concrete
Solar Energy Mater Solar Cells
Potential application of phase change materials in concrete technology
Cem Concr Compos
Phase change materials for building applications: a state-of-the-art review
Energy Build
Modeling and simulation on the thermal performance of shape-stabilized phase change material floor used in passive solar buildings
Energy Build
Cited by (1402)
Efficiency of utilizing building information modeling tools for examining smart materials behavior in a hot climate
2024, Journal of Building EngineeringHysteresis model predictions of thermal performance of hempcrete-based walls with phase change materials
2024, Journal of Building EngineeringRelationship between two solidification problems in order to determine unknown thermal coefficients when the heat transfer coefficient is very large
2024, Applied Mathematics and ComputationMicroencapsulated phase change material/wood fiber-starch composite as novel bio-based energy storage material for buildings
2024, Journal of Energy StorageHigh thermally conductive shape-stabilized phase change composites with dual-aligned carbon nanofiber scaffolds
2024, Journal of Energy StorageThermal energy storage in concrete: A comprehensive review on fundamentals, technology and sustainability
2024, Journal of Building Engineering