The Phase Change Matters e-mail newsletter is a weekly summary of the latest news and research on phase change materials and thermal energy storage. To subscribe, visit www.puretemp.com/subscribe. For more frequent updates, follow @puretemp on Twitter or visit the Phase Change Matters blog, www.puretemp.com/pcmatters.
IN BRIEF
• Glacier Tek LLC of Minneapolis is sponsoring seven quadriplegic cyclists taking part in a fundraising ride in Kenya’s Rift Valley next month. The Kenya Cycle Challenge 2019, organized by Regain, a U.K.-registered charity, is on track to raise 80,000 pounds to support quadriplegic athletes in Great Britain. More than 50 riders are expected to participate. The seven sponsored riders will be wearing PureTemp-powered Glacier Tek cooling vests to help them handle the 32º C heat they will likely encounter on the five-day ride. People with spinal cord injuries are vulnerable to heat stress because their bodies cannot send the signals needed to initiate sweating in response to hot conditions.
• Heat battery manufacturer Sunamp Ltd. is among the exhibitors at the InstallerSCOTLAND trade show in Glasgow, Scotland, on Thursday.
• CCT Energy Storage is on track to install its first commercial thermal energy device at a mobile phone base station in Adelaide, South Australia, before the end of the year following an agreement in principle with an Australian infrastructure provider. CCT unveiled its first 24kW device in March, describing it as the world’s first working thermal battery using silicon as a phase change material.
• Hundreds of Australia’s most environmentally advanced homes will open their doors to visitors on Sunday, Sustainable House Day 2019. At least two of the homes – Farrell’s House in Narara, New South Wales, and the 10 Star Home in Cape Paterson, Victoria – feature phase change technology. More than 33,000 people visited 226 homes across Australia last year.
PATENTS
Regenerative solid-solid phase change cooling for an energy storage device
U.S. patent application 20190273295 (applicant Anhui Xinen Technology Co. Ltd., Anqing Anhui, China):
“Disclosed is a technique for managing the temperature of rechargeable cells. An energy storage device can include a plurality of rechargeable cells disposed within a housing and a material disposed within the housing so as to completely surround each of the rechargeable cells in a particular plane. The material can have a thermal characteristic such that the material remains a solid upon absorbing heat from the rechargeable cells by changing a crystal lattice structure. Intrinsic latent heat properties of the material result in absorption or release of heat to maintain a temperature of a rechargeable cell within a pre-defined temperature range. A regenerative mechanism including a heat pump coil can restore the material to a lower energy crystal lattice structure.”
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
For our full list of recent academic research, see puretemp.com/academic. Here are highlights from the past week:
From Renewable Energy and Sustainable Buildings:• Study of Corrosion Effect of Micronal® Phase Change Materials (PCM) with Different Metal Samples
• Use of Phase Change Materials for Solar Systems Applications
• Performance Optimization of Concentrated Photovoltaic-Thermal (CPV-T) System Employing Phase Change Material (PCM) in Hot Climate
From Asia International Symposium on Mechatronics:
• Investigation for a Phase Change Immersion Cooling System
From Energy Conversion and Management:
• Experimental study of active phase change cooling technique based on porous media for photovoltaic thermal management and efficiency enhancement
From Renewable Energy:
• Enhanced properties of diatomite-based composite phase change materials for thermal energy storage
• Hybrid thermal energy storage with phase change materials for solar domestic hot water applications: Direct versus indirect heat exchange systems
From Journal of Applied Polymer Science:
• Surface modification of MWCNT and its influence on properties of paraffin/MWCNT nanocomposites as phase change material
From Energy and Buildings:
• Energy and emissions analysis of ice thermal energy storage in the western US
• Thermal energy storage characterization of cementitious composites made with Recycled Brick Aggregates containing PCM
From Solar Energy:
• Innovative passive heat-storage walls improve thermal performance and energy efficiency in Chinese solar greenhouses for non-arable lands
From Construction and Building Materials:
• Development of structural thermal energy storage concrete using paraffin intruded lightweight aggregate with nano-refined modified encapsulation paste layer
From Applied Energy:
• A comprehensive review on positive cold energy storage technologies and applications in air conditioning with phase change materials
From International Journal of Energy Research:
• Preparation and characterization of nano‐enhanced myristic acid using metal oxide nanoparticles for thermal energy storage
• Performance comparison of different combined heat and compressed air energy storage systems integrated with organic Rankine cycle
From xPRESS Polymer Letters:
• Editorial corner – a personal view / Thermal management with polymer composites
From International Symposium on Asphalt Pavement & Environment:
• Impregnation of Lightweight Aggregate Particles with Phase Change Material for Its Use in Asphalt Mixtures
From Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology:
• Development of new inorganic shape stabilized phase change materials with LiNO3 and LiCl salts by sol-gel method
From Advanced Functional Materials:
• Functional Soft Composites As Thermal Protecting Substrates for Wearable Electronics
NETWORKING
Connect with PCM experts and industry leaders on LinkedIn
More than 1,500 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 Mike Pintar, COO at NETenergy, Chicago, Ill.; Nick Giardino, principal engineer at Cornelius Inc., Glendale Heights, Ill.; David Wilks, senior research manager for consumer products at Kimberly-Clark, Appleton, Wis.; and Carl Waxberg, director, structured equity solutions, at Citi London, London, United Kingdom.