Effective enthalpy of organic phase change material applied in a thermal energy storage cooperating with a district heating system

Jarosław Karwacki, Piotr Leputa, Roman Kwidzinski and Marcin Lackowski

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 243, issue C

Abstract: As part of modernizing the office building of the district heating operator in Ostrołęka, Poland, a new hybrid substation was built. The system is designed to both heat and cool the office building and is powered by the district heating network. It incorporates an adsorption chiller, three phase change material storages, a photovoltaic system and a smart management system. This paper focuses on the design and experimental determination of the exact characteristics of the phase change material storage, which is intended to support the chiller on the power supply side. The PCM used is RT62HC, with a peak phase change temperature of 63 °C and narrow phase transition characteristics. The design, presented briefly, highlights the experimental setup, the characterization of the phase-change material, and the thermal-hydraulic properties of the finned-tube heat exchanger. The laboratory tests included both the charging and discharging processes of the storage. During the tests, a ramp-type thermal forcing was used at rates of 0.5 K/h, 1 K/h, 2 K/h, and 3 K/h. Based on the tests, the dynamic characteristics of the storage were determined in the form of an effective enthalpy function. The results of this analysis were also used to determine the storage density of the system, which was found to be 49 kWh/m³ in the temperature range of 57 °C–67 °C. In this temperature range, the PCM storage has up to 4.5 times greater thermal capacity than a storage with water.

Keywords: Compact fin and tube heat exchanger; Experimental storage characterization; Mathematical modelling; Phase change material (PCM); Thermal energy storage (TES); District heating system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:243:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125001818

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.122519

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