Owing to the increasing awareness about energy-related issues such as global warming, the use of sustainable resources is gaining increased attention worldwide. Unfortunately, the intermittency of renewable alternatives such as solar is a major challenge in the development of this type of clean technologies. Thermal energy storage in the form of latent heat by using phase change materials (PCMs) is considered one of the most attractive strategies to address possible unbalances between energy production and consumption. Over the last decades, fatty acids have been proposed as possible green PCMs to improve the energyefficient design and techno-economic performance of solar systems. Compared to paraffins, usually extracted from crude oil, fatty acids are less toxic and can be produced from sustainable feedstock. However, like many other organic compounds, fatty acids exhibit lower thermal conductivity, which usually slows down the accumulation and release of stored energy. Among the strategies proposed in the literature to improve the thermal performance of PCM-based systems, the dispersion of carbon-materials has proved promising efficacy. In this work, three different saturated fatty acids with carbon numbers of 12-16, namely lauric, myristic and palmitic acids, are investigated both pure and loaded with 0.25 wt.% of graphene platelets. Samples were characterized in terms of latent heat, melting temperature and thermal conductivity from 283 K to 343 K. A comparison between the obtained results will be shown, together with an analysis of the available literature data.
Fatty acids loaded with graphene nanoplatelets as phase change materials for solar thermal energy storage
L Fedele;S Rossi;
2023
Abstract
Owing to the increasing awareness about energy-related issues such as global warming, the use of sustainable resources is gaining increased attention worldwide. Unfortunately, the intermittency of renewable alternatives such as solar is a major challenge in the development of this type of clean technologies. Thermal energy storage in the form of latent heat by using phase change materials (PCMs) is considered one of the most attractive strategies to address possible unbalances between energy production and consumption. Over the last decades, fatty acids have been proposed as possible green PCMs to improve the energyefficient design and techno-economic performance of solar systems. Compared to paraffins, usually extracted from crude oil, fatty acids are less toxic and can be produced from sustainable feedstock. However, like many other organic compounds, fatty acids exhibit lower thermal conductivity, which usually slows down the accumulation and release of stored energy. Among the strategies proposed in the literature to improve the thermal performance of PCM-based systems, the dispersion of carbon-materials has proved promising efficacy. In this work, three different saturated fatty acids with carbon numbers of 12-16, namely lauric, myristic and palmitic acids, are investigated both pure and loaded with 0.25 wt.% of graphene platelets. Samples were characterized in terms of latent heat, melting temperature and thermal conductivity from 283 K to 343 K. A comparison between the obtained results will be shown, together with an analysis of the available literature data.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
