Latent Thermal Energy Storage for Solar Industrial Drying Applications

Amine Allouhi ()
Additional contact information
Amine Allouhi: Ecole Supérieure de Technologie de Fes, Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Route d’Imouzzer, Fes BP 2427, Morocco

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Solar heat is an attractive alternative in industrial processes. However, the intermittent and stochastic nature of solar energy necessitates the use of heat storage systems to bridge the gap between heat production and demand. This study introduces a validated numerical analysis approach to investigate the performance of latent storage tanks filled with spherical phase-change materials. A 1D thermal model is developed to describe the charging processes of adipic acid as PCM. The study examines the performance characteristics of latent heat storage in terms of stored energy and duration through parametric investigations. For mass flow rates ranging from 600 to 1000 kg/h, storage durations were found to vary from 440 to 582 min. The storage duration decreased significantly from approximately 1150 min at a charging temperature of 160 °C to 470 min at a charging temperature of 240 °C. The bed porosity affected the storage process, with a porosity of 0.5 achieving a thermal energy storage of around 344 MJ but requiring a longer charging time of about 610 min. Higher heating rates allowed for lower storage durations, with storage durations of approximately 460 min for a heating rate of 3 °C/min, compared to 660 min, for a heating rate of 0.5 °C/min.

Keywords: latent heat storage; packed bed; encapsulated PCM; thermal performance; industrial drying (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13254/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13254/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13254-:d:1232938

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().