Latent Heat Thermal Storage Tank Research Articles

Design, modeling, and thermo-economic optimization of an innovative continuous solar-powered hybrid desalination plant integrated with latent heat thermal energy storage

Ever-increasing needs for freshwater over the globe have made scientists investigate and find out viable solutions to overcome this concern. In line with this fact, multi-objective optimization of a solar-assisted hybrid desalination plant, which encompasses multi-effect distillation with thermal vapor compression and humidification-dehumidification units, was carried out during this study. Parabolic trough solar collectors play the role of a supplier of required input energy to run this system. In addition, there is a heating and storage unit, which includes a latent heat thermal storage tank to store the excess heat gained by solar collectors and an auxiliary boiler to assist in supplying the required heat for desalination units. Design parameters such as Parabolic trough solar collectors rows, phase change materials, number of multi-effect distillation system effects, motive steam flow rate, and last effect brine temperature of multi-effect distillation system which have the greatest impact on the performance of the system are selected. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm was employed to conduct multi-objective optimization. According to the optimization results, the total cost rate of the system and the sustainability index is 0.548 $/s and 1.54 respectively. In addition, adding the humidification-dehumidification unit to the system contribute to producing 0.5% more fresh water and brings 0.1% extra cost.

An analytical and comparative study of the charging and discharging processes in a latent heat thermal storage tank for solar water heater system

Over the last decades, the science of solar cells has been substantially soared; however, the existence philosophy needs to follow almost the same mechanism due to the known limitations. Building upon this fact, until now, several generations of solar collectors have been introduced to the field of renewable energies. This current study reports an analytical investigation of the new compact design of evacuated heat pipe solar water heater integrated with latent heat storage tank. This device has a set of evacuated heat pipe solar collector (ETHPSC) arrays directly connected to a tank, which is filled by paraffin wax as the phase change materials (PCM). This work is carried out in two steps. Firstly, the system is modeled theoretically by applying the mathematical equations by using MATLAB in order to study the thermal performance of the thermal battery. Afterwards, a parametric and comparative investigation is conducted to study the performance of the system with different PCMs, different climate condition and different flowrates. This study is also carried out to compare the model with the conventional system. In the baseline system, and for the best chosen PCM, the system efficiency is between 32 and 42% in low solar radiation days, while it is in the range of around 40 ± 3% in the high radiation intensity days, whereas these magnitudes are ∼57% and higher than 50% in the new design, respectively. The efficiency of the new design, for all three types of PCMs, in a typical sunny day is in the range of the 36–54%, while, interestingly and positively, this efficiency increases to the range of 47–58% in a typical cloudy/rainy day. On the other hand, this trend happens reversely for the conventional system. Overall, the average efficiencies of the proposed system are increased from approximately 10% to 58% for three different PCMs in compared to the baseline.

Performance modeling and techno-economic analysis of a modular concentrated solar power tower with latent heat storage

In this paper, we present performance simulations and techno-economic analysis of a modular dispatchable solar power tower. Using a heliostat field and power block three orders of magnitude smaller than conventional solar power towers, our unique configuration locates thermal storage and a power block directly on a tower receiver. To make the system dispatchable, a valved thermosyphon controls heat flow from a latent heat thermal storage tank to a Stirling engine. The modular design results in minimal balance of system costs and enables high deployment rates with a rapid realization of economies of scale. In this new analysis, we combine performance simulations with techno-economic analysis to evaluate levelized cost of electricity, and find that the system has potential for cost-competitiveness with natural gas peaking plants and alternative dispatchable renewables.

Simulation and Dynamic Characteristics of Discharging Process of Storage Tank Used in Conventional Air-Conditioning

Mathematical model of heat transfer process of a latent heat thermal storage tank was established, dynamic performance and melting process of cool storage tank were simulated by the apparent heat capacity method. the relation of melting rate along with time and cold thermal energy released along with time were obtained. The results show that no appreciable change in the total cold thermal energy released is observed for the increase of flow rate, whereas improvement on total cold thermal energy released due to the increase of inlet temperature is detectable. At the cool discharge condition, the best inlet temperature of storage tank is at 12°C-13°C.

Energetic performance analysis of a ground-source heat pump system with latent heat storage for a greenhouse heating

In this study, a ground-source heat pump heating system with a latent heat thermal storage tank was designed while its thermal energy storage performance was investigated. The heating system mainly consists of a ground heat exchanger, a heat pump, a cylindrical latent heat thermal storage tank, measuring units and a heating space of model-sized glass greenhouses with 30 m 2, located in the greenhouse district of Fırat University, Elazığ, in Turkey. In the experiments, the performance characteristics of a ground-source heat pump greenhouse heating system with a 246 m horizontal 12.7 mm nominal diameter horizontal closed-loop ground heat exchanger and the use of phase change materials (PCM) for energy saving and management in greenhouses were investigated. The heating coefficient of performances of the ground-source heat pump (COP HP) and the overall system (COP sys) are obtained, to be in the range of 2.3–3.8 and 2–3.5 respectively. Although significant savings are possible with this heating system, a substantial investment in equipment and facilities may be required. The experiments results were obtained from October to May in heating seasons of 2005–2006. The results showed that the utilization of ground-source heat pump-PCM is suitable for greenhouse heating in this district.