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PEOPLE
Grzyb joins Conservation Solutions of Boston
Joseph A. Grzyb, CEO at Phase Change Energy Solutions since 2015, has left PCES to join Dan Cook as a partner at Conservation Solutions Corp.
Boston-based CSC provides corporate customers with energy and water conservation solutions, including PCM products from Phase Change Energy Solutions of Asheboro, N.C.
“CSC has been a leading distributor of products from Phase Change Energy Solutions for several years,” Grzyb, right, wrote in an e-mail sent late Friday to companies involved in the recent formation of the PCM Industry Association of North America. “My focus at the firm is to expand the business and provide engineered PCM solutions to companies across North America.”
Gryzb was elected president of the PCM association in October. The association’s mission is to promote the development and use of phase change material in North America.
“I would be pleased to continue in the role of president until our next association meeting later this year (date TBD),” he wrote in Friday’s email. “I propose that during our next meeting, we have a new vote for association president.”
Jan Kosny, the association’s executive director, expressed confidence that association work will continue “without any disturbance,” since Grzyb plans to serve as president until the next annual meeting.
PATENTS
Thermal composite material and compression sheet
U.S. patent application 20180049914 (applicant PolyPhysics Inc., Hampton, Va.):
“A temperature-controlled, compression sheet for use in hot or cold therapy applications, the sheet comprising: a composite sheet comprising a temperature control component and an elastic structural component; the temperature control component comprises a phase change material [13] having a predetermined, therapeutic, specific temperature of phase change from solid to liquid forms in the range of from about 32 degrees F. to about 122 degrees F.; and the elastic structural component is comprised of a material having elastomeric properties.”
Battery pack containing phase change material
U.S. patent application 20180053977 (University of Sherbrooke Research Consortium, Sherbrooke, Quebec):
“A battery pack for a vehicle is presented. The battery pack comprises a plurality of bricks, each brick of the plurality of bricks comprising a phase change material block, a side of the phase change material block defining a plurality of channels, and a plurality of battery cells, each battery cell being disposed at least in part in the phase change material block; and at least one connector for electrically connecting a first one of the plurality of bricks to a second one of the plurality of bricks, the at least one connector being disposed at least partially in one of the plurality of channels.”
IN BRIEF
• A business opportunity at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash: “Acquisition of a thermal energy ice storage system (TESS) that will be integrated with an existing chilled water distribution loop serving one building.” Bids are due March 8.
• In a pair of LinkedIn articles, SmartCAE‘s Stefan Braun shares his company’s approach to preparing PCM bricks for cold-chain shipments. “Our recommendation is to precondition PCMs outside the phase change range,” he writes. “This way, the PCM bricks are always in a well-defined state, providing their full latent heat rather than some undefined fraction. A repeatable, well-defined preconditioning process is a prerequisite for a robust box design.”
• The Maryland Energy Administration is accepting applications for its new Energy Storage Tax Credit Program, which offers up to $750,000 to residential and commercial customers who install qualified systems. “The rules specify that projects can store electrical energy: mechanical and chemical including electrochemical energy, in addition to thermal energy that ‘was once electrical energy,’ ” Utility Dive reports. “The rules also say all storage systems must store energy either for use as electrical energy at a later date or in a process that offsets electricity use at peak times.”
• Viessmann’s ESyCool Green propane-based heat pump refrigeration system has been awarded the government-backed German Innovation Prize for Climate and Environment. The system includes an ice thermal storage component.
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
For our full list of recent academic research, see puretemp.com/academic. Here are highlights from the past week:
From Energy and Buildings:• An Innovative Apparatus for Simulating Daily Temperature for Investigating Thermal Performance of Wallboards Incorporating PCMs
• New formulation and characterization of enhanced bulk-organic phase change materials
From Applied Energy:
• Use of partial load operating conditions for latent thermal energy storage management
• Microencapsulated phase change materials with composite titania-polyurea (TiO2-PUA) shell
• Characterization of desert sand to be used as a high-temperature thermal energy storage medium in particle solar receiver technology
From Energy Conversion and Management:
• Ca(NO3)2-NaNO3/expanded graphite composite as a novel shape-stable phase change material for mid- to high-temperature thermal energy storage
From Journal of Environmental Management:
• Cumulative energy demand and global warming potential of a building-integrated solar thermal system with/without phase change material
From Procedia Manufacturing:
• Application of Combined Materials for Baby Incubator
From Thermal Science and Engineering Progress:
• Thermal management of photovoltaic solar cells using polyethylene glycol 1000 (PEG1000) as a phase change material
From Materials & Design:
• Numerical analysis of the freeze-thaw performance of cementitious composites that contain phase change material (PCM)
From Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells:
• Cold-crystallization of polyelectrolyte absorbed polyol for long-term thermal energy storage
From Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics:
• Thermal Properties of Lauric Acid Filled in Carbon Nanotubes as Shape-stabilized Phase Change Materials
From Journal of Facility Management:
• Case Study of Load Shifting Using Thermal Energy Ice Storage in Public Facilities
From International Institute of Refrigeration:
• Phase change material thermal energy storage for a large scale ammonia chiller/heat pump system
From International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology:
• Thermo-physiological comfort of business clothing incorporating phase change materials in a cold environment
NETWORKING
Connect with PCM experts and industry leaders on LinkedIn
More than 1,200 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. New members include Diane Williamson, encapsulation technician at Encapsys LLC, Appleton, Wis.; Andrew Gregory, sales engineer at Viking Cold Solutions Inc., Houston, Texas; and David Williams, president, Pelican BioThermal, Plymouth, Minn.