Innovative Phase Change Material (PCM) for Heat Storage for Industrial Applications

A new Phase Change Material (PCM) based on a salt hydrate which can be incorporated in latent heat storage systems for efficient handling of thermal energy around 100 °C has been prepared. Compared with the pure salt hydrate, the results showed that the newly developed salt hydrate PYCO-PCM-1 is of high thermal stability. The storage capacity of 83.33 kWh m-3 for a temperature range ΔT = 20 K, corresponds to about four times the energy which can be stored with the same volume of water. Expanded graphite has been proven as a promising additive for improving the conductivity of PYCO-PCM-1.