TY - JOUR
T1 - Corrosion effect of phase change materials in solar thermal energy storage application
AU - Vasu, Anusuiah
AU - Hagos, Ftwi Y.
AU - Noor, M. M.
AU - Mamat, R.
AU - Azmi, W. H.
AU - Abdullah, Abdul A.
AU - Ibrahim, Thamir K.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by Universiti Malaysia Pahang under the internal grant RDU 1403120.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The thermal energy storage (TES) system using phase change materials (PCMs) has been studied since past three decades. PCMs are widely used in heat storage applications due to their high storage density, as well as the wide range of melting and solidifying temperatures. Nevertheless, the main disadvantage of PCMs, especially salt hydrates, is their corrosive behavior with container materials. PCMs are normally encapsulated in containers, hence the compatibility of the container materials with PCM plays an important role. As such, this paper summarizes the investigations made on the corrosion behavior of PCM in various applications, besides suggesting ways to reduce (or rectify) the effect for long term successful energy storage. Moreover, PCM-storage material interaction in the latent heat TES system is important as the issue of corrosion affects the life of the container, as well as the performance of TES. The compatibility of the most commonly used PCMs with several major container materials was reviewed and it was revealed that stainless steel has emerged as the most compatible storage container material among others. On the other hand, aluminum was found to be corrosive when it is used with salt hydrates. Nonetheless, some contradictory articles are reported that several salt hydrates demonstrated compatibility with container materials. Corrosion causes thinning of cross sectional area of materials, making it brittle thus leading to an easy collapse. This situation is even more critical mainly in large scale concentrating solar thermal power plants. Hence, with the fact that there are currently large scale power plants employing TES under operation and under construction; issues pertaining to PCM-storage material compatibility should be properly and accurately addressed. Therefore, more research work is recommended in the area of finding new eutectics and less corrosive container material(s).
AB - The thermal energy storage (TES) system using phase change materials (PCMs) has been studied since past three decades. PCMs are widely used in heat storage applications due to their high storage density, as well as the wide range of melting and solidifying temperatures. Nevertheless, the main disadvantage of PCMs, especially salt hydrates, is their corrosive behavior with container materials. PCMs are normally encapsulated in containers, hence the compatibility of the container materials with PCM plays an important role. As such, this paper summarizes the investigations made on the corrosion behavior of PCM in various applications, besides suggesting ways to reduce (or rectify) the effect for long term successful energy storage. Moreover, PCM-storage material interaction in the latent heat TES system is important as the issue of corrosion affects the life of the container, as well as the performance of TES. The compatibility of the most commonly used PCMs with several major container materials was reviewed and it was revealed that stainless steel has emerged as the most compatible storage container material among others. On the other hand, aluminum was found to be corrosive when it is used with salt hydrates. Nonetheless, some contradictory articles are reported that several salt hydrates demonstrated compatibility with container materials. Corrosion causes thinning of cross sectional area of materials, making it brittle thus leading to an easy collapse. This situation is even more critical mainly in large scale concentrating solar thermal power plants. Hence, with the fact that there are currently large scale power plants employing TES under operation and under construction; issues pertaining to PCM-storage material compatibility should be properly and accurately addressed. Therefore, more research work is recommended in the area of finding new eutectics and less corrosive container material(s).
KW - Corrosion
KW - Metal container
KW - PCM
KW - Thermal energy storage
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U2 - 10.1016/j.rser.2017.03.018
DO - 10.1016/j.rser.2017.03.018
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85015400266
SN - 1364-0321
VL - 76
SP - 19
EP - 33
JO - Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
JF - Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
ER -