Review on latent thermal energy storage using phase change material

Abstract

One of the appealing technologies that contributes to raising the energy storage density is latent heat thermal energy storage. The heat of fusion is isothermally stored at a temperature representing the temperature at which a phase-change material transitions between phases. The current research provides a review of how phase transition materials are used in melting and solidification. Generally, the range of working temperature extends from -20 °C to 200 °C for solidification and melting applications. The first range (-20 to 5 °C) is employed for commercial and domestic refrigeration. The second range (5 to 40 °C) is utilized to lower the energy requirements for air-conditioning applications. The applications includes in third range (40 to 82 °C) are solar collector and heating of water. Applications of absorption cooling, waste electricity generations, and heat recovery are operated at high temperature range (82 to180 °C). There are various types of PCMs for all the above temperature ranges. The present review paper will discuss the application field, Geometry, PCM type, heat transfer augmentation technique and their effects on the performance. The conclusions are mentioned to give more insight about the PCM behavior in various applications.