Energy recovery from domestic radiators using a compact composite metal Foam/PCM latent heat storage

Talebizadeh Sardari, Pouyan; Babaei-Mahani, Roohollah; Giddings, Donald; Yasseri, Sirous; Moghimi, M A; Bahai, Hamid

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd With the increasing demand for energy consumption in domestic buildings and consequent CO2 emission, there is a need to provide proper products to reduce energy loss. Domestic radiators for space heating can be improved by using a Compact Latent Heat Storage (CLHS) unit mounted on the wall side surface in order to offer energy saving and peak-shaving. The unit offers the potential to save otherwise wasted energy from the back surface of the radiator to the walls in the charging mode of the energy storage system. When the heating system is turned off, the CLHS unit discharges the stored heat towards the room to provide a uniform temperature on the surface of the radiator. An aluminium foam embedded inside the bulk Phase Change Material (PCM) can modify the heat storage/retrieval rate. A PCM is selected depending on the radiator's surface temperature, which is almost equal to the hot water temperature delivered to the radiator. Different metal foam porosities are examined and compared with the PCM-only alternative (i.e. without metal foam enhancement). The results show the porous-PCM CLHS alternative provides an almost constant temperature during the discharging process equal to 54 °C. However, for the PCM-only alternative, the temperature of the surface reduces continuously. Using the porous medium results in a shorter melting time, about 95% of what is needed for the PCM-only alternative. Increasing the metal foam porosity results in shorter charging/discharging time; however, since the surface temperature of the porous-PCM unit is almost constant for different metal foam porosities, a system with higher porosity (97%) is desirable.

Citation

Talebizadeh Sardari, P., Babaei-Mahani, R., Giddings, D., Yasseri, S., Moghimi, M. A., & Bahai, H. (2020). Energy recovery from domestic radiators using a compact composite metal Foam/PCM latent heat storage. Journal of Cleaner Production, 257, Article 120504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120504

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 9, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Feb 12, 2020
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Mar 25, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 13, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production
• Print ISSN: 0959-6526
• Electronic ISSN: 1879-1786
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 257
• Article Number: 120504
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120504
• Keywords: Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment; Strategy and Management; Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering; General Environmental Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4100356
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620305515