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BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Aerospace manufacturer seeks PCM for use in heat exchanger
An aerospace/defense contractor in Bengaluru, India, is looking for a noncorrosive phase change material with high thermal conductivity and a heat storage capacity of 280 joules per gram. Rangsons Defence Solutions Pvt. Ltd. says the PCM will be used in a heat exchanger the company is developing for an aerospace application.
This document describes the heat exchanger and lists the properties of the required PCM:
Specifications for PCM heat exchanger
Contact Sivaram Subramanian, an associate mechanical engineer at Rangsons Defence Solutions, for additional information on the heat exchanger. His e-mail address is sivarams@rangsons-ds.com.
PATENTS
Use of PCMs to delay icing or to cause de-icing in wind-driven generators
U.S. patent application 20180230972 (applicant Gamesa Innovation & Technology, S.L., Sarriguren, Spain):
“The invention relates to the use of phase change materials (PCMs) to delay icing or to cause de-icing in different wind-driven power generator elements. The invention also relates to the method for delaying icing or causing de-icing in different wind-driven power generator elements based on the use of phase change materials (PCMs), said method comprising: a) obtaining the PCMs, and b) incorporating the PCMs obtained into different wind-driven power generator elements.”
Vehicle seating assembly
U.S. patent application 20180229632 (applicant Ford Global Technologies LLC, Dearborn, Mich.):
“A vehicle seating assembly comprises a body with a center portion and four corner portions and a seating surface. A supporting layer is disposed below the body. A thermal transfer node is disposed in the body. The thermal transfer node includes a heat sink and a thermoelectric device. The heat sink is located between the seating surface and the thermoelectric device. The heat sink and the thermoelectric device are configured to draw heat away from the heating surface. A fluid moves proximate the thermal transfer node and into the supporting layer to draw heat away from the thermal transfer node. A phase change material is disposed between the seating surface and the heat sink.”
Cooling electronic devices in a data center
U.S. patent application 20180235108 (applicant Google LLC, Mountain View, Calif.):
“A data center cooling system includes a thermosiphon, an actuator coupled to the thermosiphon, and a controller. The thermosiphon includes an evaporator; a condenser; and at least one conduit coupled between the evaporator and the condenser to transport a working fluid between the evaporator and the condenser. The controller is coupled to the actuator and configured to operate the actuator to adjust a liquid level of the working fluid in the evaporator based, at least in part, on a parameter associated with a heat load of one or more data center heat generating computing devices.”
Renewable energy heater
U.S. patent application 20180231332 (inventors Momoe Anno, Miri Yasuda, Nidhi Jaju, Mai Morita and Youkie Shiozawa, Tokyo, Japan):
“A portable heating device that includes a phase changing material mixture to absorb and release thermal energy and warm a space via convection heating. The phase changing material mixture includes sodium sulfate decahydrate, sodium chloride, and sodium polyacrylate. The phase changing material mixture is contained in portable aluminum capsules. A holder, also made of aluminum, can be used to carry one or more of the aluminum capsules.”
IN BRIEF
• Four middle school students in Beijing have raised enough money to send three Arktek vaccine containers to Zimbabwe. The PCM-equipped containers, which cost about $5,800 each, keep diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and other vaccines at a safe temperature for weeks without refrigeration. The girls presented the fundraiser as an entry in the Public Benefit International Challenge for Youth 2018. They also visited the factories in Shandong province to see how the containers are manufactured. Although they didn’t win the competition, the girls continue to raise money to send more Arktek containers to African nations.
• New from Transparency Market Research: “Cooling Fabrics Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 – 2025”
• India and Indonesia have signed a memo of understanding that recognizes, for the first time, the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil and the Indian Palm Oil Sustainability frameworks as legitimate sustainability efforts. The Solvent Extractors Association of India, the Indonesian Palm Oil Board and supply chain development organization Solidaridad signed the agreement July 16.
• Nominations are being accepted for the Young Scientist Research Award, which recognizes substantial research contributions in one of the areas represented by a division of the American Oil Chemists’ Society. The award, sponsored by the International Food Science Centre A/S, recognizes young researchers whose work “has significantly effected an advance within their discipline, or holds substantial promise for such an effect in the near future.” Nominations are due by Oct. 1.
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
For our full list of recent academic research, see puretemp.com/academic. Here are highlights from the past week:
From International Journal of Thermal Sciences:• An experimental and a numerical analysis of the dynamic behavior of PCM-27 included inside a vertical enclosure: Application in space heating purposes
From Journal of Molecular Liquids:
• Thermal conductivity enhancement in organic phase change material (phenol-water system) upon addition of Al2O3, SiO2 and TiO2 nano-inclusions
From Applied Thermal Engineering:
• Experimental and numerical investigations of nano-additives enhanced paraffin in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger: A comparative study
• Three-dimensional numerical and experimental investigation of the behavior of solar salts within thermal storage devices during phase change
From Energy Conversion and Management:
• Formulation of a model predictive control algorithm to enhance the performance of a latent heat solar thermal system
• Performance assessment of a new hydrogen cooled prismatic battery pack arrangement for hydrogen hybrid electric vehicles
From Carbohydrate Polymers:
• Chitosan composite microencapsulated comb-like polymeric phase change material via coacervation microencapsulation
From Renewable Energy:
• Analytical Considerations on Optimization of Cascaded Heat Transfer Process for Thermal Storage System with Principles of Thermodynamics
From Proceedings of Microscopy & Microanalysis 2018:
• In-Situ TEM Observation of Crystallization in Phase-Change Material
• Controlling the heat evolution of cement slurry system using microencapsulated phase change materials
From Energy:
• Phase-changing materials for thermal stabilization and thermal transport
NETWORKING
Connect with PCM experts and industry leaders on LinkedIn
More than 1,300 people have joined a LinkedIn group devoted to the discussion of phase change material and thermal energy storage. The Phase Change Matters group is an interactive complement to the award-winning blog and newsletter of the same name.
You are invited to join the group and connect with PCM and TES experts from around the world. This week we welcome Jimmy Kollmer, business development manager at Polar Leasing Co., Columbus, Ohio; Hakeem Niyas, faculty member at National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India; Vivek Silwal, thermal engineer, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Hyderabad, India; Pavel Rudak, senior mechanical engineer at Huawei Technologies, Minsk, Belarus; and Harshul Gupta, CEO at RGEES, Asheville, N.C.