Novel medium temperature PCMs for industrial applications

Paraffins are probably the best known organic phase change materials (PCMs) but there are many other classes of organic compounds which can be used in a thermal storage. Sugar alcohols have recently attracted the attention of many researchers because these materials are safe, cheap, have high melting enthalpy and cover a large range of melting temperatures (about 100 to 200 °C).
Our idea is to use sugar alcohols for industrial applications in the temperature range > 100 °C and to substitute a conventional steam or thermal oil storage with a PCM storage based on these materials. For high performance and operation some properties of the sugar alcohols, particularly the low thermal conductivity and the large degree of sub-cooling, must be improved. Within TES4SET we modify sugar alcohols by creating mixtures and even synthesize new organic compounds to create storage materials which are safe and environmentally friendly and operate reliably and with high performance in an industrial application such as steam or thermal oil process.