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• Evaluate three novel latent heat storage designs for cogeneration application. • Conduct 3-D simulation to study secondary flow effect in spiral coil heat exchanger. • Test scaled-down prototype to infer heat transfer rate in novel encapsulated designs. • Compare storage thermal performance and costs between designs for integration. Well-integrated thermal energy storage units can enhance flexibility and profitability for a cogeneration system by enabling its decoupling of electricity and heat production. In the present study, novel latent heat thermal energy storage technologies are numerically investigated on their thermal and economic performance to evaluate their implementation at an existing combined cycle power plant. Three commercially available storage designs are analyzed: one shell-and-tube heat exchanger design based on planar spiral coils, and two types of advanced macro-encapsulated designs with capsules resembling ellipsoid and slab in shape, respectively. For the spiral coil design, three-dimensional flow velocity and temperature fields are simulated with finite volume method to predict the transient storage heat transfer process, including the effect of secondary flow induced by centrifugal forces. For the macro-encapsulated designs, effective heat transfer coefficients between heat transfer fluid (HTF) and phase change material (PCM) are inferred from scaled-down storage prototyping and testing. A one-dimensional two-phase packed bed model was developed based on the apparent heat capacity-based enthalpy method to numerically study the heat transfer in macro-encapsulated PCM. With an operating temperature range of 46–72 °C and a HTF supplying flowrate range of 4.2–8.4 m3/h defined by the cogeneration strategy, thermal power and accumulated storage capacity are calculated and compared for the first three hours of charge and the first hour of discharge for the three designs. The effect from increasing the HTF flowrate to accelerate charging/discharging processes is indicated by the simulation results. Performance comparison among the three designs shows that the slab capsule design exhibits the highest accumulated storage capacity (710 kWh) and state of charge (40%) after three hours of charge, though it has a lower theoretical total storage capacity (1760 kWh) than the spiral coil design (1830 kWh). The ellipsoid capsule design shows a slightly lower accumulated storage capacity (700 kWh) than the slab design for 3-hr charge and an equivalent accumulated storage capacity/depth of discharge (250 kWh/14%) as the latter. Furthermore, the storage power cost of the slab capsule design is the lowest, by 6–12% lower than the spiral coil design and by 2–3% lower than the ellipsoid capsule design. However, with the highest design flowrate of 8.4 m3/h, the low state of charge (below 40%) after three hours and the low depth of discharge (below 14%) after one hour indicate that redesigning the heat transfer boundary conditions and the configurations of the three units are necessary to meet desirable storage performance in cogeneration applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A new cylindrically encapsulated latent heat storage unit is built and tested. • A parametric study is conducted on the supply conditions of heat transfer fluids. • The effects of a stratified flow regime to the thermal performance are evaluated. • The horizontal and vertical orientations of the storage tank are compared. • Phase segregation of phase change materials is indicated with vertical orientation. Abstract The integration of latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) units with heating systems in buildings is regarded as a promising technology for heating load management; however, so far a limited number of experimental studies have been reported that focus on space heating applications on a representative scale. In this study, we develop and test a 0.38 m3 LHTES unit containing cylindrically macro-encapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) with a melting temperature range of 44–53 °C and with gross mass of 154 kg. The unit has been tested with two tank orientations, horizontal and vertical. In the horizontal orientation tests, parametric studies show that increasing the difference between heat transfer fluid (HTF) supply temperatures and phase-change temperatures of PCMs, as well as increasing HTF flowrates, can both reduce the complete melting/solidification and complete charging/discharging time. Non-linear charging/discharging rates in PCMs are observed. The vertical orientation enables the forming of either a stratified or mixed flow regime in the tank. For charging, the stratified flow provides higher charging rates in PCMs compared to the mixed flow. When discharging the unit with a stratified HTF flow at 35 °C, lower HTF flowrates prolong the discharging time during which the released heat sustains an outlet temperature above 45 °C. Finally, comparisons between horizontal and vertical orientation tests reveal that although the vertical orientation can shorten the charging/discharging time by up to 20% for the entire unit to reach an energy density of 30 kWh/m3, it leads to decrease in PCM thermal capacity by at most 8.2%. The speculated cause of this loss is phase segregation suggested by observed fluid motions in PCM cylinders. This study comprehensively characterizes an LHTES unit providing insights to optimizing its operating strategies considering its coupling with space heating systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates ellipsoid-shaped macro-encapsulated phase change material (PCM) on a component scale. The selected PCM is a paraffin-based commercial material, namely ATP60; differential scanning calorimetry and transient plane source method are used to measure ATP60's thermo-physical properties. A 0.382 m3 latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) component has been built and experimentally characterized. The temperature measurement results indicate that a thermocline was retained in the packed bed region during charging/discharging processes. The experimental characterization shows that increasing the temperature difference between the heat transfer fluid (HTF) inlet temperature and phase-change temperature by 20 K can shorten the completion time of discharge by 65%, and increasing HTF inlet flowrate from 0.15 m3/h (Re = 77) to 0.5 m3/h (Re = 256) can shorten the completion time of charge by 51%. Furthermore, a one-dimensional packed bed model using source-based enthalpy method was developed and validated by comparison to experimental results, showing discrepancies in the accumulated storage capacity within 6.6% between simulation and experiment when the Reynolds number of the HTF inlet flow ranges between 90 and 922. Compared with a conventional capsule shaped in 69-mm-diameter and 750-mm-long cylinders, the ellipsoidal capsule shows 60% less completion time of discharge but 23% lower storage capacity. Overall, this work demonstrates a combined experimental and numerical characterization approach for applying novel macro-encapsulated PCM geometries for heating-oriented LHTES. • Investigation of a novel PCM in ellipsoidal macro-encapsulation. • Characterization of thermo-physical properties of an organic PCM. • Prototyping of a 15 kWh storage and charge/discharge thermal performance testing. • Validation of a one-dimensional numerical model within 6.6% uncertainty. • Comparison of thermal performance of ellipsoidal and cylindrical encapsulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Proposed new latent heat storage integration layouts for load shift with a heat pump. • Utilized de-superheater and subcooler in heat pump to charge storage in new layouts. • Simulated dynamic load shift performance with validated storage and heat pump models. • Improved energy efficiency with new layouts against conventional one using condenser. • Assessed economic and environmental load shift effect and provided investment advice. Integrating latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) units into building heating systems has been increasingly investigated as a heat load management technology. A conventional LHTES integration method for heat pump based heating systems is to connect the heat pump's condenser for charging the LHTES unit. This integrating layout however usually leads to increased electricity input to the heating system. To underline this issue and provide solutions, this paper presents three new LHTES integrating layouts where the LHTES unit is connected with the de-superheater of the main heat pump (Case 2), the condenser of a cascaded booster heat pump cycle (Case 3), or a combination of using both the de-superheater and the booster cycle (Case 4). In the context of a multi-family house in Stockholm, a quasi-steady state heating system model was developed to evaluate the new integrating layouts, which were benchmarked against the baseline heating system without storage (Case 0) and the conventional integrating layout using the main heat pump condenser (Case 1). Hourly electric power input to the heating system was modelled for calculating the performance indicators including the heating performance factor, the operational expense and justifiable capital expense, and the indirect CO 2 emissions. Two load shifting strategies were simulated for an evaluation period of Week 1, 2019: 1) charge during off-peak hours (8 pm to 6 am) and 2) charge during daytime hours (10 am to 7 pm). The simulation results of the off-peak charging strategy show that, in Cases 2–4, the heating performance factor is 22%-26% higher than Case 1 and the operational expense can be reduced by 2%-5% as compared with Case 0. The savings in the operational expense can justify the capital expense of 11 k-25 k Swedish Krona (SEK) for the LHTES systems in Cases 2–4 assuming a 15-year operation. Furthermore, the advantage of using the daytime charging strategy is principally the mitigation of CO 2 emissions, which is up to 14% lower than the off-peak charging strategy. In summary, higher energy efficiency for heating is validated in the three new proposed integration layouts (Cases 2–4) against the condenser charging layout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latent heat thermal energy storage has been receiving increasing interests in residential heating applications. In this paper, a numerical heat transfer model was built with finite element method for a cylindrically encapsulated latent heat storage prototype and used for investigating its thermal performance optimization measures. The model was validated against four sets of experimental results for both charge and discharge, as the difference in accumulated storage capacity between simulation and experiment is less than 4%. Transient storage inlet boundary conditions were set in simulation for discharge considering the thermal output from the coupled radiators. The results of the optimization analyses show that: 1) reducing the capsule diameter from 69 mm to 15 mm shortens the completion time of charge and discharge by up to 70%, however, at the expense of 23% decrease in total storage capacity; 2) using parabolic or linear time-increasing heat transfer fluid flowrate profiles than a time-constant one extends around twofold the useful discharge timespan; 3) increasing the storage vessel diameter from 0.6 m to 0.7 m and to 0.8 m prolongs the useful discharge timespan from 2 hrs to the recommended 3 hrs, though the further enlargement to 0.8 m results in a lower state of charge after 3 hrs due to increase in unexploited storage capacity. From the numerical optimization study, we proposed a storage design adjustment of using 15 mm-diameter phase change material capsules in a 0.7 m-diameter cylindrical storage vessel, coupled with a parabolic flow strategy, to improve the storage on-peak discharging performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A commercial sodium acetate trihydrate-based PCM is tested with two methods. • T-history tests are conducted for determining PCM thermal properties. • A storage prototype is developed to investigate PCM's full-scale thermal performance. • PCM thermal behavior is different between the two test methods. Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) has been receiving increasing attention from researchers and engineers. A practical LHTES installation requires a deep understanding of phase change material's (PCM's) thermal behavior under thermal property testing and realistic operating conditions. To enrich this understanding, an experimental study on a commercial sodium acetate trihydrate-based PCM (Climsel C58) is presented in this article. C58 was characterized with two test methods: T-history tests and full-scale LHTES tests. The results are presented and discussed to exhibit the thermal behavior of C58 with these two test methods and the variations between them. With T-history tests, the thermal properties of C58 such as melting/solidification temperature range (57–61 °C/55–50 °C) and latent heat of fusion (216 kJ/kg) were determined. In full-scale LHTES tests, a parametric study was conducted to investigate the effects of heat transfer fluid flowrate and operating temperature range on the thermal performance of a 0.38 m3 storage prototype containing cylindrically macro-encapsulated C58. Moreover, longitudinal and radial PCM temperature distributions in full-scale tests were analyzed, suggesting the presence of phase separation. In general, C58 behaved differently between the two test methods regarding phase separation (negligible in T-history tests), supercooling effects (within 3 K in full-scale but up to 10 K in T-history tests), and thermal energy storage capacity (10% lower in full-scale tests). When using C58 or other salt hydrate-based PCMs for large-scale heat storage, these thermal behavior differences between the property-measurement and the application-oriented environments should be properly addressed in the design stage to ensure performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]