Characterization of Fatty Acids as Biobased Organic Materials for Latent Heat Storage.

This work aims to characterize phase change materials (PCM) for thermal energy storage in buildings (thermal comfort). Fatty acids, biobased organic PCM, are attractive candidates for integration into active or passive storage systems for targeted application. Three pure fatty acids (capric, myristic and palmitic acids) and two eutectic mixtures (capric-myristic and capric-palmitic acids) are studied in this paper. Although the main storage properties of pure fatty acids have already been investigated and reported in the literature, the information available on the eutectic mixtures is very limited (only melting temperature and enthalpy). This paper presents a complete experimental characterization of these pure and mixed fatty acids, including measurements of their main thermophysical properties (melting temperature and enthalpy, specific heats and densities in solid and liquid states, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity as well as viscosity) and the properties of interest regarding the system integrating the PCM (energy density, volume expansion). The storage performances of the studied mixtures are also compared to those of most commonly used PCM (salt hydrates and paraffins).

Study of the Phase Transitions in the Binary System NPG-TRIS for Thermal Energy Storage Applications.

Neopentylglycol (NPG) and tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (TRIS) are promising phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage (TES) applications. These molecules undergo reversible solid-solid phase transitions that are characterized by high enthalpy changes. This work investigates the NPG-TRIS binary system as a way to extend the use of both compounds in TES, looking for mixtures that cover transition temperatures different from those of pure compounds. The phase diagram of NPG-TRIS system has been established by thermal analysis. It reveals the existence of two eutectoids and one peritectic invariants, whose main properties as PCMs (transition temperature, enthalpy of phase transition, specific heat and density) have been determined. Of all transitions, only the eutectoid at 392 K shows sufficiently high enthalpy of solid-solid phase transition (150-227 J/g) and transition temperature significantly different from that of the solid-state transitions of pure compounds (NPG: 313 K; TRIS: 407 K). Special attention has also been paid to the analysis of metastability issues that could limit the usability of NPG, TRIS and their mixtures as PCMs. It is proven that the addition of small amounts of expanded graphite microparticles contributes to reduce the subcooling phenomena that characterizes NPG and TRIS and solve the reversibility problems observed in NPG/TRIS mixtures.