Abstract
This study aims to develop paraffin waxes based phase change material emulsion with low supercooling degree, which can be applied in a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems to maximize the use of natural heating and cooling sources via solar thermal collectors or evaporative coolers, and to raise the energy efficiency of the chillers operating at off-peak period. In this study, a kind of hexadecane-water emulsion with small droplet size was prepared and analyzed. The modified Multi-Wall Carbon Nano-Tube (MWCNT) particles were dispersed in emulsion as the nucleating agent to reduce supercooling degree. The MWCNT particles were modified with strong acids H2SO4 and HNO3 to increase the compatibility with the organic liquid. Thermal analysis of the hexadecane-water emulsions with well-dispersed MWCNT particles by Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) indicated that the supercooling degree of emulsion was significantly decreased. The effective ranges of nucleating agent concentration were summarized which provided a promising way of improving the performance of system energy efficiency in TES systems.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Kasza KE, Chen MM (1985) Improvement of the performance of solar energy or waste heat utilization systems by using phase-change slurry as an enhanced heat-transfer storage fluid. J Sol Energy Eng 107:229–236
Regin AF, Solanki SC, Saini JS (2008) Heat transfer characteristics of thermal energy storage system using PCM capsules: a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 12(9):2438–2458
Günther E, Schmid T, Mehling H, Hiebler S, Huang L (2010) Subcooling in hexadecane emulsions. Int J Refrig 33:1605–1611
Sangwal K (2007) Additives and crystallization processes: from fundamentals to applications. Wiley, New York
Yamagishi Y, Sugeno T, Ishige T, Takeuchi H, Pyatenko AT (1996) An evaluation of microencapsulated PCM for use in cold energy transportation medium. In: Proceedings of the 31st intersociety energy conversion engineering conference, IECEC 96, Washington, DC, USA, pp 2077–2083
Huang L, Gunther E, Doetsch C, Mehling H (2010) Subcooling in PCM emulsions—part 1: Experimental. Thermochim Acta 509:93–99
He Q, Tong W, Liu Y (2007) Experimental study on super-cooling degree of nanofluids for cryogenic cool storage. J Refrig 28:33–36
Zhang XJ, Wu P, Qiu LM, Zhang XB, Tian XJ (2010) Analysis of the nucleation of nanofluids in the ice formation process. Energy Convers Manage 51:130–134
Zhang S, Wu J-Y, Tse C-T, Niu J (2012) Effective dispersion of multi-wall carbon nano-tubes in hexadecane through physiochemical modification and decrease of supercooling. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 96:124–130
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong SAR government for providing support to this research through GRF PolyU 5241/11E.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Zhang, X., Niu, J., Wu, J., Zhang, S. (2014). The Study on Paraffin-Water Emulsion PCM with Low Supercooling Degree. In: Li, A., Zhu, Y., Li, Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 262. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39581-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39581-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39580-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39581-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)