Review of Solar Cooking Using Latent Heat Storage <sup></sup>

Abstract

Use of latent heat storage system using Phase Change Materials (PCM) is an effective way of storing thermal energy and has several advantages like high storage density, isothermal nature of the energy storage etc. Solar cooking is one of the solutions to overcome increasing demand of fossil fuels in country like India. However it suffers from problems like low solar intensity, fluctuations during cloudy environment, limited availability (only during few hours of the day), and fluctuations with time. Use of latent heat storage system in solar cooking, can overcome some of the problems listed above. In this paper, efforts were made to gather the information on previous works on solar cooking system using PCM, use of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for evening / night cooking and conceptual design of solar cooker using PCM. This review will be important for further research in this field. Heat storage system enables cooking food during cloudy sky or in the evening. Hence, solar cooker with PCM storage will increase the utility and reliability of the solar cookers. As the source temperature raises, the chemical bonds within the PCM breaks which changes phase from solid to liquid. The phase change is a heat-seeking (endothermic) process and therefore, the PCM absorbs heat on melting. Upon storing heat in the storage material, the material begins to melt when the phase change temperature is reached. The temperature then stays constant until the melting process is completed. The solar energy stored during day time can be used directly for cooking or can be stored in PCM and used during night/evening time.