Experimental Investigations of Beeswax Based Composite Phase Change Material

Abstract

Phase change material (PCM) can be utilized for thermal energy storage, where extra or waste heat is available. Extra heat generation is dangerous for various systems like electronics equipment, Solar panel, Li-ion battery, etc. that can reduce the efficiency or damage the systems. So, with the incorporation of PCM one can manage that extra heat. PCM can also store the available solar energy which may be utilized for solar water heating systems, solar stills, solar air heater, etc. In the current study, beeswax is used as PCM and graphite used as property enhancer. The fabrications of composite PCM have been done with melt-mixing method. Scanning electronic microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) were used to obtain morphology and chemical compatibility of the composite. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermal conductivity meter were indicated the melting temperature, melting latent heat, and thermal conductivity of the sample. SEM and XRD results revealed that the fabricated composite was only the physical combination of BW and graphite there is no extra chemical form during the combination. The DSC data indicated that melting temperature values were decreased from 61 to 58.5 °C at the same time latent heat also decreased from 160 J/g to 141 J/g. Thermal conductivity result showed that the value of conductivity increased from 0.25 to 0.76 W/m–K. All the results favored that the developed composite can be utilized for water heating units.