NOVEL SMART POLYMER – SORBENT-BASED THERMAL BATTERY FOR LOW-TEMPERATURE ENERGY STORAGE APPLICATIONS

El Ouaragli, Jihan

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NOVEL SMART POLYMER – SORBENT-BASED THERMAL BATTERY FOR LOW-TEMPERATURE ENERGY STORAGE APPLICATIONS

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The growing global energy consumption has created an urgent need to find new ways to use energy resources more efficiently and rationally. Thermal energy storage systems provide the potential to attain energy savings and reduce the environmental impact of energy use. Recently, there has been an increased interest in sorption thermal energy storage systems (STES) due to their high storage density and the ability to retain heat indefinitely at ambient temperatures without self-discharge. However, the complexity, lack of control and poor thermal and mass transport due to the large scale of current STES technologies all lead to relatively low-efficiency systems, severely limiting their widespread implementation. To address these challenges, this Ph.D. research proposes a novel and compact smart polymer-sorbent STES system with passive material-enabled mechanisms for controlled low-temperature thermal energy storage. A combination of numerical and experimental work is carried out to investigate the underlying science behind the proposed system. Various passive STES systems were designed at the material, components, and system levels. The thermal performance of these systems was studied, focusing on their application for cold environment thermal protection. Moreover, the influence of various design parameters was examined, along with their implications to the transport processes. Hence, this research reveals the complex coupling effects of the transport processes within the proposed systems and provides insights and guidance for engineering emergent small-scale passive STES applications.

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