Investigation on thermal reliability and corrosion characteristics of glutaric acid as an organic phase change material for solar thermal energy storage applications

Abstract

The successful implementation of the latent heat solar thermal energy storage system depends on the long term thermal stability and corrosion characteristics of phase change materials (PCM). Glutaric acid (GA) is an organic PCM with phase transition temperature 94.97–99.20 oC and latent heat of fusion 184.8 J/g. Thermo-physical properties and corrosive nature of glutaric acid is investigated using accelerated thermal cycle method under controlled conditions. The study was conducted upon 2000 thermal cycles to explore the feasibility of material for long term usage in solar thermal applications. Relative percentage difference (RPD%), gravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques were used to evaluate the thermal stability and compatibility of glutaric acid. The test results reveal that glutaric acid tends to be a potential PCM for solar thermal energy storage applications due to its prolonged thermal stability and less corrosive nature on containment materials.