Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165

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Energy and Buildings

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Air-based solar systems for building heating with PCM fluidized bed
energy storage
J.F. Belmonte a,b,∗ , M.A. Izquierdo-Barrientos c , A.E. Molina a,b , J.A. Almendros-Ibáñez a,b
a
Escuela de Ingenieros Industriales, Dpto. de Mecánica Aplicada e Ingeniería de Proyectos, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario s/n,
02071 Albacete, Spain
b
Renewable Energy Research Institute, Section of Solar and Energy Efficiency, C/ de la Investigación s/n, 02071 Albacete, Spain
c
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, ISE Research Group, Thermal and Fluid Engineering Department, Avda. de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Madrid,
Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This work studies the integration of a fluidized bed energy storage unit containing Phase-Change Mate-
Received 20 May 2016 rials (PCMs) into solar air-based systems for heating of buildings. The use of a PCM fluidized bed energy
Received in revised form 26 July 2016 storage unit in air systems offers an interesting alternative to the usual energy storage media based on
Accepted 12 August 2016
packed beds of rocks or pebbles because it enables faster charging (or discharging) of the thermal energy
Available online 17 August 2016
storage (TES), associated with high energy densities provided by the latent heat of the PCM. The airflow
rate that passes through the solar collectors is sufficiently high to provide satisfactory fluidization of the
Keywords:
bed, achieving high heat transfer coefficients.
Air solar heating systems
Fluidized bed storage unit
The results of the simulation study conducted on the proposed air system show that the system can
Phase-change successfully supply a significant part of the heating requirements of a single-family house in locations
TRNSYS® with mild winter conditions, such as Barcelona and Madrid, where a TES containing between 1000 and
MATLAB® 2000 kg of PCM achieves solar contributions of about 50%. For locations with more severe winter condi-
tions, such as Zurich and Stockholm, very large storage capacities (up to 5000 kg of PCM) combined with
large collector areas (20 m2 ) are required to meet between 20 and 25% of the house heating needs.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction as the storage medium [6,7]. To store significant amounts of solar

Solar air heaters (SAHs) are simple in construction, reliable for
winter or summer operation and economical. Because they use air
as the heat transfer fluid (HTF), the possibility of boiling or freez-
ing is eliminated, and leakage of fluid and corrosion are not major
concerns when using SAHs [1,2]. They can be used for a variety
of purposes, including different drying processes, building space
heating, regenerating dehumidifying agents, etc. [3–5]. Although
they offer a high potential in terms of energy savings, they are
barely used for building space heating. The most important bar-
rier that had to be overcome to promote a more widespread use
of SAHs is the limited number of mature and commercially avail-
able thermal energy storage (TES) systems that can be integrated
with SAHs; these systems, typically consist of solutions based on
the use of rocks and pebbles in packed-bed sensible storage units
∗ Corresponding author at: Escuela de Ingenieros Industriales, Dpto. de Mecánica
Aplicada e Ingeniería de Proyectos, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Uni-
versitario s/n, 02071 Albacete, Spain.
E-mail address: juanf.belmonte@uclm.es (J.F. Belmonte).
energy using a rock or pebble bed, large volumes of TES units are
required because of their relatively low volumetric energy densities
[8]. This fact, along with the better thermo-physical properties of
liquid HTFs than air from a heat transfer perspective (e.g., water has
a 4-times-higher specific heat and 24-times-higher thermal con-
ductivity than air at room temperature), which can also act as both
the HTF and the energy storage medium, have led to the extensive
use of liquid collectors instead of SAHs in active heating systems
for buildings.
Fluidized beds present multiple advantages over packed (rock
or pebble) beds, such as higher heat transfer coefficients, uniform
temperatures in the beds and high mixing rates, which reduce the
charging or discharging times compared with a packed bed under
the same conditions [9]. Despite these advantages, the use of flu-
idized beds in low-temperature solar applications has not been
widely adopted because of the excellent thermo-physical proper-
ties of the liquid HTFs described above. Wagialla et al. [10] proposed
a simple model for a fluidized bed energy storage system and
compared the model with experimental results of the hot air tem-
perature at the exit of the bed. In addition, El-Halwagi et al. [11]
theoretically studied a regenerator system with a fluidized bed and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.08.041
0378-7788/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165 151

and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems of buildings [24–27], in hot

Notation water tanks [28] or in solar facilities [29–31]. Recently, Izquierdo-
Barrientos et al. [32–35] have published a series of papers analyzing
Latin letters
the potential use of a fluidized bed with a granular PCM as a thermal
Ac solar collector area (m2 )
energy storage system. They observed higher efficiencies when the
c specific heat (kJ/kg K)
energy is stored in latent form and higher heat transfer coefficients.
d diameter of the bed (m)
They also corroborated the stability of the granular PCM over more
d̄p mean particle diameter (␮m)
than 75 h of continuous operation without a decrease in the energy
E energy stored or released (J)
storage capacity.
f liquid fraction (%)
From the standpoint of maximization of the solar contribution
H̄ monthly average hourly solar radiation on horizon-
to meeting the heating loads of a building, the integration of SAHs
tal (W/m2 )
with fluidized bed systems containing PCMs is of particular interest
L height of the bed (m)
for the following reasons:
m mass (kg)
Q̇ heat storage or release rate (kW)
Q̇Solar Coll solar energy rate provided by collectors
1. The low heat capacity of air permits even small amounts of solar
Q̇heating build thermal energy rate required to meet building
radiation to enable operation of the SAHs and loading of the
heating needs
fluidized bed system. This aspect is especially relevant for the
Q̇unload TES thermal energy rate transferred by the TES to the
proposed system, as it is designed to provide heating during win-
building (unload)
ter when the solar radiation intensity may be low with few fully
t thickness of the bed (m)
available hours for loading operation during the daytime.
T temperature (◦ C)
2. Unlike liquid solar heating systems, the proposed system does
U-value overall loss coefficient (W/(m2 K))
not need heat exchangers. As a result, lower SAHs outlet tem-
U superficial gas velocity (m/s)
peratures are required for operation, increasing the utilization
Umf minimum fluidization velocity (m/s)
factor of the system.
3. The high heat transfer coefficients of the fluidized bed system
Abbreviations
during SAH operation enable fast loading of the TES system (i.e.,
HDD18.3◦ C heating degree-days adjusted to a base of 18.3 ◦ C
melting the PCM) during the day. In the same manner, the rather
HRS heat recovery system
stable heating loads of the building during the night also provide
PCM phase change material
an efficient unloading of the fluidized bed system because it will
TES thermal energy storage
usually operate at full load for extended hours.
SAHs solar air heaters
4. The low operating temperature level (generally below 40 ◦ C)
SFH single-family house
with almost isothermal heat storage and release of the flu-
idized bed system allows greater thermal efficiency of the SAHs,
Greek symbols
which perform more efficiently at low fluid inlet temperatures.
 density (kg/m3 )
In addition, because the building is heated by an all-air heating
 variation (–)
system, in which thermal energy is directly carried by ductwork
i enthalpy during the phase change (kJ/kg)
to the conditioned spaces, the minimum utilization temperature
T temperature difference (◦ C)
required to provide heating can only be a few degrees (typically
Q̇ heat rate transferred (kW)
8–12 ◦ C) above the temperature of the conditioned zones. The
 thermal conductivity (W/mK)
use of other types of air-conditioning systems, such as all-water
Subscripts or air-and-water systems, has not been considered in this study
amb ambient as they would require the use of heat exchangers to heat an
s solids in the bed intermediary HTF (e.g., water), increasing the minimum required
w wall of the bed temperature level at the air collector outlet (between 10 and
20 ◦ C depending on the heat exchanger effectiveness), which
would result in a significant reduction in the collector efficien-
cies.
a bypass to control the exit temperature of the air. They studied
the influences of different operational parameters, such as gas flow
rate, mass of solids and bed aspect ratio, on the performance of the The aim of this study is to present and evaluate the energy per-
system. More recently, Chen et al. [12] studied the application of formance and solar contribution to meeting the heating loads of
a silica gel fluidized bed system to adsorb/desorb moisture in an a single-family house, that can be achieved by an active air heat-
air-conditioning system. Compared with packed beds, better per- ing system based on the combination of SAHs and a PCM fluidized
formance was observed, achieving increments in the total amount bed system. This configuration has been simulated using the same
of moisture adsorbed/desorbed from an air supply stream by 20% single-family house prototype (as the base case) and in the same
and reductions in pressure drops of approximately 30%. In other four locations used by the IEA SHC-TASK 32 [36].
applications, the use of fluidized bed systems is attracting increas- In the following sections, a detailed description of the modeling
ing interest. An example of such interest can be found in the review of the house and its air heating system in TRNSYS® [37] is provided,
of Zhang et al. [13], which highlights the potential of using fluidized with special emphasis on the fluidized bed system containing the
bed systems inside solar receivers for both heat capture and high PCM. Next, simulation results of representative output variables,
temperature heat storage in concentrated solar power plants. such as variations in the solar contribution and the auxiliary energy
In recent decades, energy storage in the form of latent heat required to meet the heating loads, using different design variables,
using Phase Change Materials (PCMs), has been studied in depth such as storage capacity, PCM melting temperature, building enve-
[14–16]. There are different examples of integrating PCMs as pas- lope or collector area at the four studied locations, are presented
sive elements in buildings [17–23], in the Heating, Ventilating and discussed. Finally, the main conclusions are summarized.
152 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165

Fig. 1. Main schematic of the overall solar heating system containing a fluidized bed with a PCM storage unit.

Fig. 2. Detailed schematic of the solar heating system.

2. Methods for thermal modeling and simulation
Fig. 1 is a basic schematic of the solar air heating system
presented in this work. This system mainly differs from typical
air-based solar systems in the use of a PCM fluidized bed unit for
energy storage; in a typical air-based solar system, the solar energy
is stored in a rock or pebble bed. During the loading process, hot
air is blown through the solar collectors to transfer heat energy to
the storage unit, melting the PCM. The unloading process occurs
during non-sunny hours, supplying hot air to the heated zones of
the building to either partially or fully meet the heating demand.
When the solar energy supplied by the storage is unable to meet
the heating loads of the building, supplemental heating provided
by auxiliary equipment is added to the air stream. In addition, to
satisfy the fresh air requirements in the zone, a mechanical venti-
lation system including an air-to-air heat recovery system supply
the required outdoor ventilation air to the zone.
Because the building analyzed is a single-family house, a sim-
ple heating system only containing one PCM fluidized bed storage
unit was used. Thus, it is not possible to combine modes for both
adding energy to and removing energy from the storage unit at the
same time. For larger buildings, a combination of PCM fluidized bed
storage units, where some units can operate in loading mode while
others operate in unloading mode, can be used. Although it requires
additional complexity of the control system, this configuration may
increase the solar contribution of the system.
A detailed schematic of the air heating system including its con-
trol system is shown in Fig. 2. In the studied system configuration,
the control system comprises two controllers: a solar controller to
control fan operation and a load-side controller to control return
fan operation as well as the position of two 3-way dampers. The
solar primary loop, which loads the fluidized bed storage unit, is
controlled by a differential temperature controller in combination
with a pyranometer in the plane of the solar collectors that controls
the start and stop sequence of the solar fan. The upper and lower
dead bands of the differential temperature controller are set to 10
and 2 ◦ C, respectively. Additionally, to minimize unnecessary over-
heating of the solar loop, the controller will set the solar fan to the
OFF position, regardless of the dead bands, if the temperature in the
PCM fluidized bed unit exceeds a high-limit cutoff temperature of
approximately 35–40 ◦ C, depending on the PCM melting tempera-
ture. To avoid intermittent and extended periods of low-efficiency
operation of the solar fan during the day, the controller will shut
down the solar fan unless the solar radiation measured by the pyra-
nometer rises above a minimum specified value of 200 W/m2 .
During solar fan operation, the solar controller sends a control
signal to the load-side controller, positioning the 3-way dampers
in the bypass mode of operation, in which all the air returning from
 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165
Fig. 3. Sketch of the single-family house (SFH) used in IEA SHC Task 32 [36].
the building bypasses the storage unit to the supply air ductwork.
In this mode of operation, only the auxiliary equipment is used to
provide heat.
During the unloading process, especially when this process
begins, the temperature in the bed of the storage unit may be a
few degrees above the temperature set point for utilization of the
auxiliary heating device. In this case, to adjust the supply tem-
perature of the airflow, the 3-way dampers divide the returning
flow into two streams: one stream passes through the storage unit,
and the remainder of the air stream is bypassed to the supply
ductwork, where these two air streams are mixed before going
to the conditioned space at the temperature set point for utiliza-
tion. To ensure that the air velocity in the fluidized bed storage
unit is always above the minimum fluidization velocity during the
unloading process, the 3-way dampers are set up with a minimum
position, limiting the airflow through the by-pass. Following sim-
ilar lines of reasoning, both the PCM melting temperature and the
utilization temperature for the air heating system should be equal
so that the flow rate passing through the fluidized bed unit will be
large enough to allow satisfactory fluidization of the bed. Jurinak
et al. [38] and the Results section of this work show that the frac-
tions of the heating load supplied by solar heating increase as the
utilization temperature of the auxiliary equipment is decreased.
Consequently, this temperature coincidence will provide better
thermal performance of the solar air heating system. These and
other considerations that affect the behavior of the fluidized bed
storage unit, including a complete description of the prototype
house and its associated solar air heating system, will be discussed
in the following subsections. The applicability of the concept and
the validation of the proposed system has been carried out using
validated models of the individual components, such as the flu-
idized bed storage unit, the air solar collectors, the heat recovery
Table 1
Building wall areas, boundary conditions and glazed apertures in the house envelope.
Wall type Area (m2 ) Boundary condition
Floor 70 Adiabatic
Exterior wall 50 External-Vertical-South
Exterior wall 40.5 External-Vertical-East
Exterior wall 40.5 External-Vertical-West
Exterior wall 50 External-Vertical-North
Roof 25 External-sky view factor 0.8 – South
Roof 61.4 External-sky view factor 0.4 – North
Internal 200 Internal
153
system, etc., properly combined to simulate an integrated system
in the TRNSYS® program. An experimental validation of the overall
system in a real-scale, should be evaluated though full-scale and
long-term testing at different locations which was not carried out
in this study.
2.1. Description of the single-family house base case
For comparative purposes, the prototype house used in this
work corresponds to the single-family house used in IEA SHC-TASK
32 [36]. The building input files used in the work are the same as
used in TASK 32, which are available on the TASK website; only
minor modifications of the input files (all of which are related to
the comfort indexes, which are not used in this work) were required
to implement the building model in the system simulation. In addi-
tion, the locations studied correspond to the ones studied in TASK
32, which are Madrid, Barcelona, Zurich and Stockholm.
The single-family house is a two-floor building modeled as a
single zone with a total volume of 354 m3 and an interior ther-
mal capacitance of 750 kJ/K which accounts for the thermal mass
provided by the air, furniture, other objects, etc. within the zone.
The air within the zone is modeled with the assumption that it is
well stirred; that is, it is characterized by a single uniform tem-
perature. Fig. 3 shows a sketch of the model house displaying the
most representative dimensions. Table 1 shows the characteristics
of the walls of the house, including wall types, areas, boundary
conditions and glazed areas in the house envelope. To increase the
thermal capacitance of the house, the model incorporates an addi-
tional internal wall of 200 m2 to represent the internal mass of the
internal partitions, furniture, etc.
The thermophysical properties of the individual materials and
their relative positions within the multi-layered constructions
Glazed area (m2 ) Window to wall ratio (–)
– –
12 0.24
4 0.1
4 0.1
3 0.06
– –
– –
– –
154 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165

Table 2
Details of the opaque composite walls for the 30 and 60 kWh/m2 year Single-Family House (SFH 30 and SFH 60) models (Zurich). The differences between the models are
indicated in bold.

External wall SFH 60 SFH 30 SFH 60 SFH 30

◦
W  kg   kJ
  W
  W

Layer n Description t (m) t (m)  mK
 c U-value U-value
m3 kgK m2 K m2 K

1 Plaster inside 0.015 0.015 0.600 1200 1.00 0.283 0.154

2 Vertical brick 0.210 0.210 0.700 1380 1.00
3 EPS 0.120 0.240 0.040 17 0.70
4 Plaster outside 0.030 0.030 0.700 1800 1.00

Ground floor SFH 60 SFH 30 SFH 60 SFH 30

W  kg   kJ
    
Layer n◦ Description t (m) t (m)  mK
 c U-value W
U-value W
m3 kgK m2 K m2 K

1 Wood 0.015 0.015 0.150 600 2.50 0.270 0.157

2 Plaster floor 0.060 0.060 1.400 2000 1.00
3 XPS 0.120 0.220 0.037 38 1.45
4 Concrete 0.200 0.200 1.330 2000 1.08

Roof ceiling SFH 60 SFH 30 SFH 60 SFH 30

◦
W  kg   kJ
  W
  W

Layer n Description t (m) t (m)  mK
 c U-value U-value
m3 kgK m2 K m2 K

1 Gypsumboard 0.020 0.020 0.211 900 1.00 0.275 0.189

2 Plywood 0.015 0.015 0.081 300 2.50
3 Rockwool 0.180 0.280 0.036 60 1.03
4 Plywood 0.015 0.015 0.081 300 2.50

Internal wall SFH 60 SFH 30 SFH 60 SFH 30

◦
W  kg   kJ
  W
  W

Layer n Description t (m) t (m)  mK
 c U-value U-value
m3 kgK m2 K m2 K

1 Clinker 0.200 0.200 0.230 650 0.92 0.962 0.962

Table 3
Details of the characteristics of the windows used for the 30 and 60 kWh/m2 year Single-Family House (SFH 30 and SFH 60) models (Zurich).

Building model U-value

W
 g-value U-frame
W
 Area frame/total window Construction Window ID TRNSYS
(–) (%) (mm) (–)
m2 K m2 K

SFH 60 1.4 0.622 2.3 15 4/16/4 2004

SFH 30 0.52 0.585 1.6 15 4/10/4/10/4 13006

are detailed in Table 2. This table includes specifications for two Table 4
Values of K1 , K2 , K3 used in the simulations to estimate the infiltration rates in the
building models: the single-family house with an annual heat-
building.
ing demand of 60 kWh/(m2 year) (called in the study SFH 60,
standing for single-family house with a heating demand of Description Value Unit
60 kWh/(m2 year)) and one with half of that heating demand, i.e., K1 0.1 (ach)
30 kWh/(m2 year) (called SFH 30). These values were calculated K2 0.017 (ach/K)
using the meteorological conditions of Zurich. The building models K3 0.049 (ach s/m)

only differ in the thicknesses of the insulation layers as depicted

in the table. Details of the characteristics of the windows used in
Table 5
both models (i.e., SFH 30 and SFH 60), including the identification Specifications of the solar air collectors used in the simulations [40].
references in the TRNBuild® libraries (the TRNSYS® program used
Specification Value Unit
to create and edit building models), are shown in Table 3.
The infiltration rates in the building were estimated using the Intercept (maximum) efficiency (a0 ) 0.82 W
(–)
simple “K1 , K2 , K3 ASHRAE method” [39]. This method calculates 1st-order loss coefficient (a1 ) 4.2
 mW2 K 
the infiltration rate V̇inf using the following expression: 2nd-order loss coefficient (a2 ) 0.034
m2 K2
1st-order Incidence Angle Modifier (IAM) coefficient (b0 ) 0.072 (–)kJ 
Capacitance of the collector 68 kg

V̇inf = K1 + K2 · (Tzone − Tamb ) + K3 · v (1)

2.2. Description of the solar air heaters

where K1 is the coefficient for constant volume flow of infiltration
under all environmental conditions, K2 is the coefficient for stack-
induced infiltration, and K3 is the coefficient for wind-induced
infiltration. The values of these coefficients used in the simulations
are provided in Table 4. Tzone is the air temperature in the occupied
zone, Tamb is the ambient temperature and v is the wind velocity.
Table 5 contains detailed specifications of the solar air collectors
used in the simulations. This technical information corresponds to
the JUMBO® model from the manufacturer GRAMMER SOLAR® [40].
The SAHs are mounted on the south roof of the house because
all of the locations are in the Northern Hemisphere. No more than
8 collector modules with a total area of 20 m2 can be mounted on
 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165
Fig. 4. Simulation scheme of the system used in the TRNSYS® interface.
the roof. The solar collectors are connected in series with an airflow
rate per unit of collector area of approximately 100 m3 /(h m2 ). This
airflow rate per unit of collector area is slightly below the maximum
recommended value by the manufacturer, being higher than the
standard values (which typically range from 20 to 70 m3 /(h m2 ))
to maintain an adequate fluidization of the fluidized bed storage
system. As indicated above, in particular for the maximum collector
area of 20 m2 , the airflow rate through the storage system is three
times the minimum airflow rate for fluidization (667 m3 /h).
The selected SAH slope corresponds to the slope that maximizes
the estimated total incident solar energy on the surface of the col-
lector’s for the simulation period, which is from the 1st of October
until the 31st of May. The chosen slopes were 50◦ for Madrid,
Barcelona and Zurich and 60◦ for Stockholm.
2.3. Description of the fluidized bed system with PCM
The transient behavior of the fluidized bed storage system was
modeled following Izquierdo-Barrientos et al. [33]. They proposed
a detailed model that is valid for both sensible and latent energy
storage and takes into account the energy stored in the walls of
the bed and the thermal losses to the surroundings. The model was
validated with experimental measurements in a lab-scale fluidized
bed system for different airflow rates. To reduce the computational
cost of the model, the energy looses and the energy stored in the
walls were neglected. These simplifications can be assumed in a
large-scale fluidized bed, such as the one studied in this work. The
ratio between the thermal capacity of the wall material and that
of the storage material, assuming that the bed thickness t is much
smaller than its diameter (t  d), is
Ew mw cw T
  c T   4 t 
w w
= ≈ (2)
Es ms is s is d
where mw and ms are the mass of the wall of the bed and the mass of
the solids in the bed, cw is the specific heat of the wall material, T
is the temperature increase in the bed, and is is the enthalpy vari-
ation of the solids in the bed. For the dimensions and the granular
PCM used in this work, assuming a bed of stainless steel, the energy
ratio is on the order of Ew /Es ∼ 10−2 . Regarding the energy losses to
the surroundings, the ratio between the superficial area and the bed
volume decreases linearly with the diameter of the bed. Therefore,
in a large-scale bed, the energy losses can be neglected compared
with the energy stored in the bed. In addition, the good insulation
155
and small temperature differences in this application also minimize
the thermal losses.
This model is only valid for fluidized bed operating in the bub-
bling regime. Therefore, it is important to assure that during the
simulation, the gas velocity in the fluidized bed is greater than the
minimum fluidization velocity. When the maximum collector area
(20 m2 ) considered in this study is used, the fluidized bed operates
with a ratio of U/Umf = 3 during the loading period, where U is the
superficial gas velocity in the bed and Umf is the minimum fluidiza-
tion velocity. At this velocity, the bed is operating in the bubbling
regime, and good mixing of particles is obtained [9]. Higher veloc-
ities could provoke changes in the fluidization regime or increases
in the elutriation of particles. When the minimum collector area
(10 m2 ) considered in this study is used, the ratio U/Umf is equal to
1.5, which is still sufficient to ensure adequate fluidization of the
bed. When the energy stored in the bed is delivered to the house,
a fraction of the air from the house can bypass the bed. This pro-
cess is used to obtain the desired temperature at the outlet of the
bed when the bed particles are at a temperature above the phase
change temperature; note that this temperature for the base case
is 27 ◦ C, and the bed is heated to 35–40 ◦ C. During this process, the
airflow rate through the bed has to be maintained above the min-
imum fluidization velocity to assure correct bubbling behavior of
the particles. When the bed is cooled to 27 ◦ C, any airflow bypasses
the bed, and the gas flow rate is constantly maintained from 1.5 to 3
times the minimum necessary rate for the fluidization (depending
on the solar collector area selected).
The bed diameter was fixed to d ≈ 1.3 m and the mass of the par-
ticles for the base case was 2000 kg, which results in a bed aspect
ratio between the height and the diameter of the bed of L/d ≈ 1. Dur-
ing the sensibility analysis of the system, the mass of the particles
was varied, and the height of the bed was changed, while the bed
diameter was fixed to assure the gas velocity remained between
U = 1.5 Umf and U = 3 Umf .
Table 6 shows the main characteristics of the granular PCM used
in the simulations, which is the same “commercial product” than
that used by Izquierdo-Barrientos et al. [33]: “GR bound PCM”. This
product, available from the manufacturer Rubitherm [41], consists
of an inorganic matrix in which the PCM (paraffin wax in this case)
is adsorbed and rigidly bounded regardless of whether the PCM
is in solid or liquid phase. Different paraffin waxes with a range
of melting temperatures can be contained in the granular material
depending on the application. Izquierdo-Barrientos et al. [33] used a
paraffin wax with a transition temperature of approximately 40 ◦ C.
156 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165

Table 6
Properties of the granular PCM used in the fluidized bed:  is the density, i is the enthalpy change during the phase change, cp,liquid is the specific heat of the material when
the PCM is in liquid form, cp,solid is the specific heat of the material when the PCM is in solid form, d̄p is the mean particle diameter and Umf is the minimum fluidization
velocity.

 (kg/m3 ) i (kJ/kg) cp,liquid (kJ/(kg K)) cp,solid (kJ/(kg K)) d̄p (mm) Umf (m/s)

1550.5 44.0 1.0 1.0 0.54 0.13

Table 7
Parameters of the air-to-air heat recovery system used in the simulations.

Description Value Unit

Airflow configuration Counter-flow (–)

Exhaust airflow rate 120.4 kg/h
Fresh airflow rate 120.4 kg/h
Exhaust air pressure drop 57 Pa
Fresh air pressure drop 57 Pa
Exhaust and fresh fans power 2 × 32 W
Sensible percent effectiveness 60 %

In our study we selected for the base case a melting temperature of

27 ◦ C (although this value was varied later in a sensibility analysis)
but the rest of properties, which are summarized in Table 6 of the
manuscript, were practically identical.

2.4. Description of the heat recovery system

To model the heat recovery system, the standard component

Type 667 was implemented in the TRNSYS® simulations. This
component uses a “constant effectiveness” approach, which can be
used to model a heat recovery system with any air–air stream con-
figuration (e.g., parallel flow, cross-flow or counter-flow) as well
as the sensible and latent fractions of the heat exchange. The heat
recovery system parameters used in the simulations, which corre-
spond to the technical data sheets provided by the manufacturer
[42], are provided in Table 7.
The use of the air-to-air heat recovery system to satisfy fresh air
ventilation rate requirements plays a very important role in reduc-
ing the ventilation heating loads of the building, as will be discussed
and highlighted in Section 3. A constant ventilation level of 0.7
air changes per hour (ach) was considered sufficient to maintain
adequate indoor air quality in the house.

2.5. Modelling and simulation of the solar air heating system in

the TRNSYS® environment
Parametric TRNSYS simulations are conducted at the same four
locations used by the IEA SHC-TASK 32 [36], namely Madrid,
Barcelona, Zurich and Stockholm. The simulation scheme is pre-
sented in Fig. 4. The configuration of the air heating system depicted
in Figs. 1 and 2 is modeled within the TRNSYS environment by the
set of connected components shown in Fig. 4. For clarity and orga-
nization, dashed boxes have been included in the figure dividing
the system into the three main groups of components according to
Fig. 1.
The simulation scheme is centered around the fluidized bed
storage model, which is a nonstandard component in TRNSYS® that
is written in MATLAB® [43] according to the equations proposed
by Izquierdo-Barrientos et al. [33] and linked to TRNSYS® using the
Type 155 to enable an integrated simulation of the house and its
solar air heating system as a whole. The fluidized bed storage model
provides a link and energy buffer between the solar heat source
and the building heating loads. The heat source side, which is the
solar primary loop, is composed of the models of the solar collec-
tors (Type 539), a constant speed fan (Type 925) and a differential
controller (Type 2), whereas the heating loads side is composed
of the models of the building (Type 56), a constant speed return
Fig. 5. Monthly average hourly global horizontal radiation and heating degree-days
adjusted to a base of 18.3 ◦ C for the studied locations.
fan (Type 925), the dampers (Type 11) and an auxiliary heater
(Type 6). These components are controlled by the load-side con-
troller, which uses the control signals from the solar differential
controller and thermostat (Type 1052) to position the dampers in
the TES loading/unloading modes and activate (if needed) the aux-
iliary heater according to the green dash-dotted lines shown in the
figure. Two different weather file processors (Type 15) that read
the same weather data file, i.e., one for the solar collectors and the
other for the building, as well as other auxiliary components for
unit conversion (Type 57), intermediate calculations, etc., are also
included in the simulation scheme.
The simulation includes the months between October and May.
This simulation period is chosen because it is the most relevant for
heating demands in the European residential sector, as shown in
Fig. 5(b); this figure illustrates how the monthly heating degree-
days adjusted to a base of 18.3 ◦ C vary for the studied locations.
To meet part of the building heating loads, solar energy is used,
which is available for the studied locations in the average quan-
tities depicted in Fig. 5(a), which shows monthly average hourly
 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165 157

statistics for global solar radiation incident on a horizontal surface
(H̄) per unit area for the four studied locations, in W/m2 . These
figures illustrate the existing mismatch between solar energy avail-
ability and building heating demand.
The SAHs are modeled using the Type 539. This component
was chosen because it can model the effect of the heat capacity
of the collector on its thermal performance, an aspect that can
be very important in the study to accurately assess the transient
operation of the collectors, particularly during the early morning
and late afternoon when radiation levels are insufficient to allow
continuous operation.
Due to the low heat capacity of air and the size of the solar col-
lector array (with up to 8 collector modules connected in series),
a small simulation time step must be used to prevent simulation
instability and convergence problems. A time step length of 1 min
was used in the study. Some convergence checks on the simulation
results using shorter time step values have shown that no meaning-
ful accuracy improvements can be achieved. Simulation time steps
larger than 1 min may cause convergence problems when small
heat storage capacities (PCM masses of 100 and 200 kg) are used.
A warm-up period of a week is considered for all of the simula-
tions conducted. This value ensures good accuracy of the simulation

Fig. 6. Example of main temperatures and heating rates for seven days of operation of the system. Simulation results for a storage capacity of 2000 kg of PCM with a melting
temperature of 27 ◦ C in Madrid.
158 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165

Fig. 7. Thermal energy (a) and specific thermal energy (b) transferred to the building from the TES as functions of storage capacity.

results by reducing the influence of the initial temperatures of the
PCM fluidized bed system and the building during the first days of
simulation to a negligible effect.
3. Results and discussion
The most relevant simulation outputs of the system are shown
in Fig. 6. This figure shows the performance of the system during
seven days of operation in January in Madrid, indicating the main
temperatures and heating transfer rates in the fluidized bed system.
In Fig. 6(a), Tamb indicates the ambient temperature; Tzone indicates
the temperature in the occupied zone; Tsetpoint indicates the set
point temperature in the zone, which varies between 19 and 21 ◦ C,
depending on the time of day; and Tbed indicates the temperature
in the bed of the fluidized bed unit. The liquid fraction of the PCM
is also plotted and denoted in the figure as f. The figure shows how
the fluidized bed system is loaded during the day by the SAHs. Once
the bed reaches a temperature 8 ◦ C above the melting temperature
of the PCM (chosen to be 27 ◦ C in the figure), the solar blower stops.
Thus, the working temperatures of the system are constantly quite
stable and low, increasing the life expectancies of the components
and minimizing the insulation requirements of the fluidized bed
 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165 159

Fig. 8. Solar fraction (F) (a) and the ratio of the solar fraction over the maximum solar fraction (F/Fmax ) (b) as functions of the storage capacity.

system, as its temperature is only a few degrees above the ambient
temperature.
Because the system is designed to include only one fluidized
bed storage unit, which is more appropriate for single residential
buildings, when the storage is in the loading mode, the auxiliary
equipment is responsible for meeting all the heating loads of the
building. Although this situation is not desirable from the point
of view of energy conservation, its impact on the energy perfor-
mance of the system can be considered moderate because the most
relevant heating loads for prolonged periods occur at night, as can
be seen in Fig. 6(b). On the other hand, using only one storage unit,
the resulting system is simpler, inexpensive, and much easier to
control. Regarding the control strategy, precisely controlling a flu-
idized bed system when it operates under a partial load can be
very difficult due to the lower bound that the minimum fluidization
velocity imposes on the airflow rates. Fig. 6(b) shows the solar heat
transfer rate delivered by the solar loop to the fluidized bed unit,
which is denoted Q̇Solar Coll ; the total heating load of the building,
160 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165

Fig. 9. Auxiliary energy required to meet building heating demand as a function of storage capacity.

Fig. 10. Total heat transferred from the exhaust air stream to the fresh air stream by the heat recovery system as a function of the storage capacity.

which is denoted Q̇heating build ; and the portion of the load that is
covered by solar energy from the thermal storage unit, which is
denoted Q̇unload TES . To specify its order of magnitude and daily vari-
ations, the heat rate transferred by the Heat Recovery System to the
ventilation air stream (Q̇HRS ) was also included in the figure.
The variations in the liquid fraction of the PCM indicate the load-
ing/unloading operation stages of the system. For example, Fig. 6(a)
reveals that a storage capacity of 2000 kg of PCM for Madrid has an
energy storage capacity equivalent to approximately the heating
load of the house for one day, which is sufficient to meet most of
the night heating loads of the building and constantly keep the flu-
idized bed unit at the melting temperature (during the solidifying
process) for prolonged periods of operation each night.
3.1. Influence of the storage capacity
Fig. 7(a) shows simulation results for the solar energy provided
to the building from the fluidized bed storage unit for the four
studied locations and for the two building envelopes considered
as functions of the storage capacity in terms of the mass of the
PCM when the maximum collector area that can be installed on the
roof is considered. Simulation results are obtained for a collector
area of 20 m2 facing south at a slope of 50◦ for Madrid, Barcelona
and Zurich and 60◦ for Stockholm, these same conditions apply to
Figs. 8–11. To see the effect of the storage capacity more clearly,
the storage capacity (expressed in kg of PCM) is illustrated using a
logarithmic scale in the figure. The useful solar energy provided to
 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165 161

Fig. 11. Solar fractions (F) as functions of the PCM melting temperature for storage capacities of 1000 kg of PCM (a) and 2000 kg of PCM (b).

the heated zones of the building increases sharply for low stor-
age capacities and more sharply for more severe climates, such
as Stockholm and Zurich, due to the greater heating loads of the
house in those locations. The strongest influence that the building
envelope insulation has as the storage capacity increases appears in
Madrid, where more insulated building envelopes are able to con-
siderably reduce the heating loads because of the increased passive
solar gains as the available winter solar resource is high, as depicted
in Fig. 5(a).
Fig. 7(a) shows that small increases can be achieved near the
knees in the curves, which occur for larger PCM mass values of
1000 kg for Barcelona, 2000 kg for Madrid and 5000 kg for Zurich
and Stockholm; however, these values do not justify their applica-
tions in terms of energy savings potential. The sizes of these storage
capacities are reasonable from the standpoint of the required space
for residential-scale applications as they corresponds to storage
volumes of approximately 1, 2 and 5 m3 , respectively.
Fig. 7(b) shows the solar energy per kg of PCM that is effec-
tively delivered to the building for the same situations covered in
Fig. 7(a). As expected, greater energy storage effectivenesses (in
terms of useful solar energy transferred to the building per kg of
PCM) are achieved for the smaller storage capacities. This storage
effectiveness is particularly high in locations with severe winters,
such as Stockholm and Zurich. For storage capacities between 1000

Fig. 12. Solar fractions (F) as functions of collector area and storage capacity. Simulation results for a PCM melting and utilization temperature of 27 ◦ C.
162 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165
Fig. 13. Thermal energy transferred to the building from the TES as functions of collector area and storage capacity. Simulation results for a PCM melting and utilization
temperature of 27 ◦ C.
and 5000 kg of PCM, for the four locations, this parameter is within
the range of 0.25–1.5 kg kWh
of PCM
and decreases slowly as the storage
capacity increases.
The solar contributions to the heating loads of the house are
shown in Fig. 8. This figure shows the absolute solar fractions (F) in
Fig. 8(a) and the relative solar fractions (F/Fmax ), expressed as the
actual solar fraction over the maximum solar fraction achievable
by the solar air system (considered to be when the storage capacity
approaches infinity), for the studied locations and the two build-
ing envelopes in Fig. 8(a). The proposed solar air system showed
good capacity to provide relatively high solar fractions for Madrid
and Barcelona. In this manner, a mass of 2000 kg of PCM is capable
of carrying more than one-half of the total heating requirements
for Madrid and Barcelona. Different situations occur in Zurich and
Stockholm, where about one-quarter and less than one-fifth are
provided for a storage capacity of 2000 kg, respectively. While
important increments in F (or in F/Fmax ) are achieved as storage
capacity is added up to approximately 1000–2000 kg, according to
Fig. 8(b), very small increases can be achieved for storage capacities
above 5000 kg, i.e., a less than 15% increase for any studied location
and envelope.
To ensure occupant comfort levels during both day and night for
the entire heating season, in addition to solar energy, the air sys-
tem requires the use of auxiliary (i.e., conventional) energy. Fig. 9
shows the auxiliary energy needed to assure meeting the building
heating loads for each studied location during the months between
October and May and for the two building envelopes considered
when a collector area of 20 m2 is used. As expected, the auxiliary
needs tend to decrease with the storage capacity for any location
and envelope. The maximum decrement rates are observed for low
storage capacities, and very small variations occur for very large
storage capacities (for storage capacities above 5000 kg of PCM, the
effects can be considered negligible). The reduction in the auxiliary
energy consumption as the storage capacity increases is lower in
better insulated buildings, as heating loads are also lower, which
reduces their potential energy savings.
The heats recovered from the exhaust air stream that is trans-
ferred to the fresh air stream for the four locations and for the
two building envelopes are shown in Fig. 10. This figure confirms
the high energy contribution of the heat recovery system, which
for locations with mild winter conditions, such as Barcelona and
Madrid, is similar to or greater than the total heating load met
by the solar air system. For more severe climates, such as Zurich
and Stockholm, the total amount of heat recovered during the
heating period increases up to approximately 4100 and 5200 kWh,
respectively. These values are greater in magnitude but have lower
relative importances because they correspond to only one-half or
one-third of the total energy required to meet the building heat-
ing needs. As expected, for any location and building envelope, the
heat recovery system shows that its performance is insensitive to
storage capacity. This figure also shows increments in the energy
recovered in better-insulated buildings, which can be attributed
to the higher temperature levels in the heated spaces as thermal
losses through the building envelopes are reduced.
3.2. Influence of the melting temperature
The variations in the solar fraction of the heating load, F, using
a collector area of 20 m2 with a PCM melting temperature of Tm
are shown in Fig. 11. Fig. 11(a) shows the simulation results for a
 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165
storage capacity of 1000 kg of PCM, and Fig. 11(b) shows the results
for a storage capacity of 2000 kg. Both figures show that F decreases
linearly with Tm from a maximum value reached when the melt-
ing temperature is 27 ◦ C to a lower value obtained when it is 10◦
higher. These results indicate the strong influence of the melting
temperature on the solar air system performance. As expected, as
the melting temperature decreases, the critical radiation level to
load the fluidized bed storage is reduced, increasing the utilizability
of the system. That is, increasing the available hours of operation of
the system is crucial to providing as much solar energy as possible
during the winter period, which is characterized by short and cold
days, many of which are cloudy. Because a minimum difference in
temperatures of 8 ◦ C between the supply and set point must be set,
melting temperatures lower than 27 ◦ C are not considered, other-
wise airflow rates through the ductwork may be too high, resulting
in excessively high pressure drops and noise levels.
The slopes of the curves vary depending on the location and
storage capacity. The system performance is considerably more
sensitive in locations with higher solar contributions, such as
Barcelona and Madrid, with greater reductions in the solar fraction
that are more relevant as the storage capacities increase.
3.3. Influence of the collector area
Fig. 12 is a plot of the solar contribution of the heating load
as a function of the collector area and storage capacity. In total, 5
different collector areas, including 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5 and 20 m2 (4–8
modules), and 4 different storage capacities, which cover the cases
for a small storage capacity of 500 kg of PCM (0.5 m3 in volume),
normal storage capacities of 1000 and 2000 kg of PCM (1 m3 and
Fig. 14. Solar fraction (F) as a function of storage volume per unit collector area (m3 /m2 ). Typical values for liquid-based systems (0.05–0.10 m3 /m2 ) and the initial values
of the range for pebble bed storage air-based systems (0.10–0.50 m3 /m2 ) have been included. Simulation results for a PCM melting and utilization temperature of 27 ◦ C.
163
2 m3 , respectively), and a very large storage capacity of 5000 kg
of PCM (5 m3 ), have been analyzed. For all the studied locations,
an increase in the collector area from 10 to 20 m2 has no or very
little effect on the solar contribution for the small storage capacity
of 500 kg of PCM. However, when very large storage capacities are
used (5000 kg of PCM), the solar fractions increase significantly; this
effect is more pronounced for more severe climates, such as Zurich
or Stockholm, where the solar contribution for a collector area of
20 m2 is almost twice the corresponding amount for a collector
area of 10 m2 . Intermediate results are obtained for normal storage
capacities of 1000 and 2000 kg of PCM.
Similar conclusions can be reached when the solar energy pro-
vided to the building from the fluidized bed storage unit is analyzed,
which is shown in Fig. 13. This figure shows that the solar energy
provided to the building is relatively insensitive to the collector
area for the small storage capacity, and its value progressively
increases as the storage capacity increases. Moreover, the figure
clearly shows that for any location, the system performance is con-
siderably more sensitive to the storage capacity than to the collector
area; this effect is more pronounced for locations with mild win-
ter conditions, such as Barcelona and Madrid. In these locations,
the cost of solar collectors and their installation cannot be justified
beyond a collector area of 10 m2 because the useful solar energy
provided to the building during the winter increases little with
increasing the collector area, i.e., increments in the collector area
above 10 m2 in these locations do not lead to an increase in the uti-
lizability of the solar energy, defined as the fraction of the incident
solar radiation on collectors that can be converted to useful heat
supplied to the building. No further reductions in the collector area
can be considered because the same airflow rate passes through
164 J.F. Belmonte et al. / Energy and Buildings 130 (2016) 150–165
the solar collector array and the fluidized bed storage, and lower
airflow rates may impede stable fluidization in the fluidized bed if
the minimum fluidization velocity is not reached.
Fig. 14 shows the solar fractions provided by the system for
the five collector areas of 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5 and 20 m2 as func-
tions of the storage volume per unit collector area for the studied
locations. This figure includes typical ranges of storage volume per
unit collector area (m3 /m2 ) reported by Duffie and Beckman [1].
For liquid-based systems, this storage index is typically between
0.05 and 0.10 m3 /m2 , while for pebble bed storage air-based sys-
tems, it is typically in the range of 0.10–0.50 m3 /m2 . This figure
shows that compared with conventional storage system technolo-
gies, such as water tanks used in liquid-based system or pebble
bed storage units typically used in air-based systems, the fluidized
bed system exhibits the capacity to provide relevant solar fractions
with relatively low volumetric energy densities. For example, for
Madrid and Barcelona, solar contributions greater than one-third
and one-half are obtained for typical water tank sizes of 0.05 and
0.10 m3 /m2 , respectively. These storage sizes are similar to the liq-
uid systems but with the benefits of using air as the HTF. For Zurich
and Stockholm, a greater storage volume per unit collector area is
recommended only if installing large collector areas is feasible. For
locations with more severe winter conditions, values between 0.1
and 0.25 m3 /m2 (typical values of small-medium pebble bed units)
considerably improve the energy performance.
4. Conclusions
This work reports the thermal performance of a simple solar air
system including a PCM fluidized bed energy storage system for
building heating. Several sensitivity analyses showing the effects
of the storage capacity, melting temperature of the PCM, building
envelope and solar collector area on the solar contribution were
conducted.
Airflow rates through the solar collectors with areas between
10 and 20 m2 (using typical airflow values per collector area of
approximately 100 m3 /(h m2 )) permit adequate fluidization of the
fluidized bed storage systems with a bed aspect ratio between the
height and diameter L/d ≈ 1 and d ≈ 1.3 m, containing 2000 kg of
PCM. TRNSYS simulation results of the solar air-based systems with
a fluidized bed unit with a normal storage capacity of 2000 kg of
PCM have been proven to have sufficient capacity to meet approx-
imately one-half of the total heating requirements of the studied
single-family house for locations with mild winter conditions, such
as Madrid and Barcelona. Very large fluidized bed storage units with
5000 kg of PCM and 20 m2 collector areas are only recommended
for locations with severe winter conditions, such as Zurich and
Stockholm, because in these locations, the useful solar energy for a
collector area of 20 m2 is almost twice the corresponding amount
for an area of 10 m2 .
The integration of PCM fluidized bed energy storage units in
solar air-based systems can significantly reduce building heating
requirements, potentially offering efficient energy storage for solar
air collectors, an aspect that has been the major factor limiting
the more widespread application of solar air collectors for building
heating.
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