Impact of pressure on the dynamic behavior of CO2 hydrate slurry in a stirred tank reactor applied to cold thermal energy storage

Phase change material (PCM) slurries are considered as high-performance fluids for secondary refrigeration and cold thermal energy storage (CTES) systems thanks to their high energy density. Nevertheless, the efficiency of such system is limited by storage dynamic. In fact, PCM charging or discharging rate is governed by system design (storage tank, heat exchanger), heat transfer fluid temperature and flow rate (cold or hot source), and PCM temperature. However, with classical PCM (ice, paraffin…), phase change temperature depends only on material/fluid nature and composition. In the case of gas hydrates, phase change temperature is also controlled by pressure. In the current work, the influence of pressure on cold storage with gas hydrates was studied experimentally using a stirred tank reactor equipped with a cooling jacket. A tank reactor model was also developed to assess the efficiency of this storage process. The results showed that pressure can be used to adjust phase change temperature of CO2 hydrates, and consequently charging/discharging time. For the same operating conditions and during the same charging time, the amount of stored energy using CO2 hydrates can be three times higher than that using water. By increasing the initial pressure from 2.45 to 3.2 MPa (at 282.15 K), it is also possible to decrease the charging time by a factor of 3. Finally, it appears that the capacity of pressure to increase CO2-hydrate phase-change temperature can also improve system efficiency by decreasing thermal losses.