Selection principles and thermophysical properties of high temperature phase change materials for thermal energy storage: A review

Abstract

Phase change thermal energy storage (TES) is a promising technology due to the large heat capacity of phase change materials (PCM) during the phase change process and their potential thermal energy storage at nearly constant temperature. Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted on medium and low temperature PCMs in recent years, there has been a lack of a similar systematic and integrated study on high temperature PCMs and high temperature thermal energy storage processes. Analyzing the available literature, this review evaluates the selection principles of PCMs and introduces and compares the available popular material selection software options. The thermophysical property data of high temperature PCMs is comprehensively summarized, including high temperature molten salts and metal alloys. Several heat transfer and performance enhancement techniques are summarized and discussed as potential alternative methods to overcome poor thermal conductivity when using high temperature molten salt as the PCM. The common thermophysical property measurement methods used in literature are also summarized and compared. This review gives a broad overview of material selection, innovation and investigation of thermophysical properties for high temperature PCM development, and will be a helpful reference for the design of high temperature phase change TES systems.