Solar Engineering Of Thermal Processes

Phase change materials (PCM) can be employed in many fields because of their capacity to absorb and release energy when it is necessary. Nowadays, the number of studies about these materials is increasing because of their benefits in energy systems. This paper reviews the previous researches and developments on microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCM) in thermal energy storage (TES) systems, focusing on the different methods of encapsulations and also the different applications of these materials. This review aims to be a useful guide for the researchers in this area, because it explains the different types of phase change core materials, the different shells, the methods to microencapsulate these PCM, the most used techniques to characterize these microencapsulated phase change materials, and a revision of the main applications.

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Types, methods, techniques, and applications for microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCM): A review

In the last few years, the application of Model Predictive Control (MPC) for energy management in buildings has received significant attention from the research community. MPC is becoming more and more viable because of the increase in computational power of building automation systems and the availability of a significant amount of monitored building data. MPC has found successful implementation in building thermal regulation, fully exploiting the potential of building thermal mass. Moreover, MPC has been positively applied to active energy storage systems, as well as to the optimal management of on-site renewable energy sources. MPC also opens up several opportunities for enhancing energy efficiency in the operation of Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems because of its ability to consider constraints, prediction of disturbances and multiple conflicting objectives, such as indoor thermal comfort and building energy demand. Despite the application of MPC algorithms in building control has been thoroughly investigated in various works, a unified framework that fully describes and formulates the implementation is still lacking. Firstly, this work introduces a common dictionary and taxonomy that gives a common ground to all the engineering disciplines involved in building design and control. Secondly the main scope of this paper is to define the MPC formulation framework and critically discuss the outcomes of different existing MPC algorithms for building and HVAC system management. The potential benefits of the application of MPC in improving energy efficiency in buildings were highlighted.

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Model Predictive Control (MPC) for Enhancing Building and HVAC System Energy Efficiency: Problem Formulation, Applications and Opportunities

All you need to know about model predictive control for buildings

Heating and domestic hot water (DHW) systems account for 75% of energy consumption in residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Furthermore, thermal energy storage strongly reduces energy consumption. Storage devices of thermal energy from phase change material (PCM) are essential in solar thermal and waste heat energy technologies that match energy supply to demand and enhance their thermal performance. The storage of PCM thermal energy is more beneficial than sensible energy storage because of its high density of storage energy per unit volume/mass. This review presents previous works on thermal energy storage as applied to DHW and heating systems. PCM has been used in different parts of heating networks and DHW systems, including solar collectors, storage tanks, packed beds, and duct networks. Researchers have also investigated the application of PCM in heating and DHW systems to reduce greenhouse gas emission and electrical power consumption. Hence, PCM thermal energy storage is expected to lower cost and the volumes of heating and DHW systems.

Review of the application of phase change material for heating and domestic hot water systems

Characterization and energy performance of a slurry PCM-based solar thermal collector: a numerical analysis

Numerical model and simulation of a solar thermal collector with slurry Phase Change Material (PCM) as the heat transfer fluid

Design of a low-temperature solar heating system based on a slurry Phase Change Material (PCS)

https://iris.polito.it/bitstream/11583/2588484/1/Thermal%20metrics.pdf

Gianluca Serale

Papers

Model Predictive Control (MPC) for Enhancing Building and HVAC System Energy Efficiency: Problem Formulation, Applications and Opportunities

Characterization and energy performance of a slurry PCM-based solar thermal collector: a numerical analysis

Numerical model and simulation of a solar thermal collector with slurry Phase Change Material (PCM) as the heat transfer fluid

Design of a low-temperature solar heating system based on a slurry Phase Change Material (PCS)

Thermal Metrics for Data Centers: A Critical Review☆