Abstract
As global energy demand increases while primary sources and fossil fuels’ availability decrease, research has shifted its focus to thermal energy storage systems as alternative technologies able to cover for the mismatch between demand and supply. Among the different phase change materials available, esters possess particularly favorable properties with reported high enthalpies of fusion, low corrosivity, low toxicity, low supercooling, thermal and chemical stability as well as biodegradability and being derived from renewable feedstock. Despite such advantages, little to no data on the thermal behavior of esters is available due to low commercial availability. This study constitutes a continuation of previous works from the authors on the investigation of fatty esters as novel phase change materials. Here, methyl, pentyl and decyl esters of arachidic acid, and pentyl esters of myristic, palmitic, stearic and behenic acid are synthesized through Fischer esterification with high purities and their properties are studied. The chemical structures and purities are confirmed through Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared Spectroscopy, Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, while the determination of the thermal properties is performed through Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Thermogravimetric Analysis. In conclusion, some correlations between the melting temperatures and the chemical structures are discovered, and the fatty esters are assessed based on their suitability as phase change materials for latent heat storage applications.
Highlights
The effective utilization of renewable energy sources has the potential to lower the rising global energy demand and to help establish a future based on sustainable use of energy
The samples were analyzed through Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-IR), Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
All ATR-IR spectra recorded showed a high degree of purity with sharp C=O and C-O-C stretching peaks from the esters arising in all samples around 1750 and 1150 cm− 1 respectively (Figure 1)
Summary
The effective utilization of renewable energy sources has the potential to lower the rising global energy demand and to help establish a future based on sustainable use of energy. Thermal energy storage is a key element in this prospect to adjust the imbalance between heat demand and supply, as well as to limit wastes and overproduction of heat [1,2,3,4]. Three different types of thermal storages exist and can be discerned based on the form in which heat is stored: Sensible (sensible heat storage, SHS), latent (latent heat storage, LHS), or chemical (chemical heat storage, CHS). The so-called phase change materials (PCM) allow storage of latent heat during reversible phase transitions. Latent heat storage presents the advantage over established sensible heat storage of providing higher energy
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