A new method for supercooling suppression of microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) has been developed by optimizing the composition and structure of the microcapsule resin shell. The microcapsules comprising paraffin octadecane encapsulated in melamine–formaldehyde resin shell were...

Nanocapsules containing phase change material (PCM) n-dodecanol as core and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as shell were synthesized by miniemulsion polymerization with polymerizable emulsifier DNS-86 and co-emulsifier hexadecane (HD). The nanocapsules were characterized by using Fourier...

The use of latent heat thermal energy storage for thermally buffering vehicle systems is reviewed. Vehicle systems with transient thermal profiles are classified according to operating temperatures in the range of 0–800°C. Thermal conditions of those applications are examined relative to...

A LiNO3/KCl-expanded graphite (EG) composite phase change material (PCM) was prepared for solar thermal energy storage application at high temperature (∼200°C). In such composite material, eutectic system LiNO3/KCl is characterized by high phase change latent heat and EG serves as the heat...

Thermal storage systems with phase change materials are predominantly designed, analysed and optimised through numerical modelling. An alternative simplified method is being proposed for the characterisation of these phase change thermal storage systems. The method is based on the...

The influence of radiation heat transfer during the phase change process of a storage material has been numerically analyzed in this study. Emphasis has been placed on the thermal characterization of a single constituent storage module rather than an entire storage system, in order to precisely...

Considerable research has been conducted on heat transfer enhancement of phase change materials (PCMs) in thermal energy storage systems. A new concept of a heat transfer enhancement technique for a tube-in-tank phase change thermal energy storage system, dynamic melting has been investigated...

In many studies, carbon nanoparticles with high values of thermal conductivity (10–3000W/mK) have been embedded into phase change thermal energy storage materials (PCMs) in order to enhance their bulk thermal properties. While a great deal of work to date has focused on determining the effect...

From aspect of energy consuming to pump heat transfer fluid, there is no sound basis on which to create an optimum design of a thermal energy storage unit. Thus, it is necessary to develop a parameter to indicate the energy efficiency of such unit. This paper firstly defines a parameter that...

A biofuel micro trigeneration prototype has been developed to utilise local energy crop oils as fuel in rural areas and developing countries. Straight plant oils (SPOs) only leave behind very little carbon footprint during its simply production process compared to commercial biodiesels in...