11 CHEM ERT - PCM

26/08/13

Hunter Cooper
A phase-change material is a material or substance that has a relatively high heat of fusion, that
when it undergoes a phase change (solid to liquid, or liquid to gas etc.) at a certain temperature, is
stores or releases large amounts of heat energy. The material absorbs/releases energy, for no
change in temperature, until the phase change is complete. Various PCM’s that are made out of
multiple compounds’’ freezing/melting points can be modified by adjusting the percentages of the
mixing compounds. (Hes, 2013) The heat energy that is absorbed or released is called the latent heat
of the material, making PCM’s latent heat storage units. (Wikipedia, 2013) PCM’s that are required
to absorb and release large amounts of energy in the phase changes require a large latent heat of
fusion, and to be very dense, to hold as much possible heat per measurement squared.

An example of a phase change material is water. Water is a substance that can change phase, from
solid to liquid to gas. For example, when water freezes, it releases large amounts of energy in the
form of latent heat of fusion. When this ice is melted, an equal amount of energy is absorbed from
the surrounding environment. PCM’s are used as thermal energy storage whereby heat can be
stored from one process or period in time, and used at a later date or different location. (PCM
Products, 2009)

PCM’s can also be categorised into 3 categories: eutectics, salt hydrates, and organic materials.
Eutectics are usually solutions of salts in a liquid, generally water. Eutectics usually have a phase
change at a temperature below 0 °C. Salt hydrates are almost identical to eutectics, except the phase
change at temperatures above 0 °C. Organic materials are usually polymers, such as waxes, oils, fatty
acids and polyglycols. (PCM Products, 2009)

There are 3 things that need to be explained from the magazine table. They are specific heat,
density, and heat capacity. Specific heat is the heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of
a substance one degree Celsius. Specific heat is measure in kJ/Kg/oC. It is the amount of joules
needed to raise a gram of a certain material by one degree Celsius. The density of an object is its
mass per unit volume. Density is measured in kg/m3. Heat capacity is the amount of energy a
substance can hold per its volume measurement. In this case, the heat capacity is measured in
kJ/m3/oC.

When designing the storage tank, 3 main points have to be taken into consideration when choosing
the material. They are specific heat, density and heat capacity. The tank material needs to have a
fairly low specific heat, so it heats up quickly, have a low density so it also heats up faster due to not
having to heat up as much of the mass, and a low heat capacity, so it doesn’t store heat instead of
the PCM holding the heat. Aluminium is the best at 2/3 subjects, as it has the lowest density (2740
kg/m3) and the lowest heat capacity (2548 kJ/m3/oC). This means that it would be the overall best
material to build the tank out of. See appendix for table 1.

This tank needs to obtain at least 1500 MJ in one day to supply the house with heat for 3 days. The
tank size would be found by taking the heat needed for the 3 days divided by the heat received in
the season, in this case winter, as if it holds enough heat in winter, it will hold more than enough in
summer. See equation 1 for working out of daily energy.

This means the face/s of the tank must have at least a 119.04 m2 surface area combined that is able
to absorb the necessary amount of heat. To make this an easier figure to work with, we will use
 120m2. See equation 2 for working out of surface area. The dimensions of the tank should be length
x width x height. The face should be 10m x 10m, to give the surface area of 100m2.

This means the top must have a surface area of 20m2. This means the length must be 10m long, as it
must fit with the face, and the depth of the tank will be 2m2 to fulfil the surface area requirements.
This means the tank will have the dimensions of 2m x 10m x 10m. This means the box holds a
volume of 200m3.

Figure 1 shows tank's dimensions

Highest latent heat Highest heat of fusion Best melting point Density
capacity
1. Glauber’s salt Glauber’s salt Glauber’s salt Sodium
Thiosulfate
Pentahydrate
2. Sodium Thiosulfate Sodium Thiosulfate Paraffin Calcium
Pentahydrate Pentahydrate Chloride
3. Calcium Chloride Water Sodium Thiosulfate Glauber’s salt
Pentahydrate
4. Water Paraffin / calcium Calcium Chloride Water
chloride
5. Paraffin Paraffin / calcium Water Paraffin
chloride

For working out which material should be used inside the tank, we need to take in the PCM’S
density, as it needs to be fairly dense to hold heat, we need to take in its melting temperature, as we
want it to change at around room temperature, and to have a small temperature range, so it doesn’t
take lots of energy to change from one temperature to another. This is because it would be
impractical to phase-change at 100 oC, as no ambient temperature is that high. And lastly, we must
take in the latent heat capacity, as this is how much energy it can hold. By looking at table 2 (see
appendix), we can categorise the substances from best to worst in each category:

By looking at the table above, and table 2 in the appendix, we can see that Glauber’s salt tops ¾
categories. This means it holds the most heat out of the phase-change materials, as it has a latent
heat capacity of 666.018 kJ/m3/°C. (See appendix for equation 3) This means that since we have

Table 3 Shows PCM’s compared against each other in highest latent heat capacity, highest heat of fusion, Best melting
point, and the densest.
roughly 200m3 of volume in the tank, it will hold more than enough energy for the 3 days. Glauber’s
salt also has the highest heat of fusion of 454 kJ/Kg, meaning it takes and hold the most energy out
of the rest during phase change from solid to liquid. And lastly, it has the best melting point, as it
melts at a near ambient temperature of 31-33°C, meaning it doesn’t take much heat to phase
change the material. This small temperature range also means it doesn’t take immense amounts of
energy to change it, for example, if the temperature range was over 10°C, it would need far more
energy to raise the temperature by 10°C. The only thing Glauber’s salt didn’t top was the density, as
it was beaten by Sodium Thiosulfate Pentahydrate and Calcium Chloride.

If the tank were to be painted, it would only increase the chance of the tank gaining more heat if the
paint was black, as it would absorb more sun rays, and hence reflect the rays if it were white.
However, this would only affect the heating of the house, not the cooling of the system or house.

Overall, we can see that that the tank would need to be made out of a light or not dense material
that has a low heat capacity, so the tank won’t hold the heat. The best material for that would be
Aluminium. When looking at the size, orientation to sun, and faces to the sun for the tank, we can
see that the top and 1 large face side will be exposed; therefore we want to aim these two sides to
either the east, to absorb the morning sun, or to the west to absorb the afternoon sun. The larger
face will need a dimension of 10m x 10m, and the top side having a dimension of 10m x 2m. When
choosing the PCM, we can clearly see the Glauber’s salt is the best bet, as it is the best in 3
categories out of the 4. By using these results we can see we want a tank made out of aluminium
that is 10m x 10m x 2m that is full of Glauber’s salt.
Appendix

Table 1

Material Specific Heat Density Heat Capacity

(kJ/Kg/oC) (kg/m3) (kJ/m3/oC)

Steel 0.50 7903 3952

Copper 0.38 8947 3400

Aluminium 0.93 2740 2548

Equation 1

Winter Energy – 350 Milliwatts hours per cm2 – Tweed Valley

Milliwatt hours
350 2 – convert Milliwatts to Megawatts
cm

Megawatt hours
0.00000035 2 – convert per square cm to per square m
cm

Megawatt hours
0.0035 2 Per day
m

1 megawatt hour = 3600 mega joules (MJ)

∴ = 12.6MJ per day per m2

Equation 2

Overall Needed Energy for 3 days

Area=
Overall Sun Energy∈Winter

1500 MJ
Area= Area=119.04 m
2
12.6 MJ
Equation 3

kJ
3
m kg kJ
Latent heat capacity =Density 3 × Heat of fusion
°C m kg
 kJ
3
' m kg kJ
Wate r s Latent heat capacity =Density 3 × Heat of fusion
°C m kg
kJ
3
' m kg kJ
Wate r s Latent heat capacity =1000 3 ×334
°C m kg

kJ
3
' m
Wate r s Latent heat capacity =334 , 00 0
°C

kJ
3
' m
Wate r s Latent heat capacity 334,000
°C

This was repeated with other Phase-change materials.

Table 2

Material Density Heat of Fusion Melting Temperature Latent heat capacity

(kg/m3) (kJ/kg) (oC) (kJ/m3/°C)
Water (H2O) 1000 334 0 334,000

Glauber's salt (Na2SO4.10 H2O) 1467 454 31 – 33 666,018

633,528
Sodium Thiosulfate Pentahydrate
1676 378 48 – 50
(Na2S2O3.5 H2O)

Paraffin (CnH2n+2) 822 315 44 258,930

Calcium chloride (CaCl2.6 H2O) 1644 315 29 - 48 517,860

Bibliography
Belén Zalbaa, J. M. (2003). Review on thermal energy storage with phase change: materials, heat
transfer analysis and applications. In J. M. Belén Zalbaa, Applied Thermal Engineering (pp.
251 - 283). Spain: University of Spain.

Hes, D. (2013, August 1). Design snap shot 15: Phase change material. Retrieved August 1, 2013,
from Melbourne Phase Change Material Eco-source:
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/Sustainability/CH2/DesignDelivery/Documents/
CH2_Snapshot15.pdf

PCM Products. (2009). Phase Change Materials: Thermal Management Solutions. Retrieved August
11, 2013, from Phase Change Materials: Thermal Management Solutions:
http://www.pcmproducts.net/

Wikipedia. (2013, June 30). Phase-change Material. Retrieved August 1, 2013, from Phase-change
Material - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-
change_material