Development of an Open System for Evaluating Material Charging Characteristics from Industrial Waste Heat
Abstract
The current research tackles the energy trilemma of capture, storage, and re-use of industrial waste heat (IWH) by presenting the development of a lab-scale charge analyser for thermal storage (CATS) utilizing thermochemical materials (TCMs). The aim of the paper is to assess a materials performance over the reactor’s capabilities representing IWH. Here we will alter temperature, flow, and material quantity to produce a full operational window. The reactor has been designed to work as an open system, whereby the IWH stream will pass directly through any TCMs under consideration. For this study, silica gel was chosen as the material for commissioning the reactor as it is well understood from a mass loss perspective and its relative ease of material preparation. The reactor is capable of producing temperatures between 50-650°C and flows in the region of 200-900 l/min. During experimentation we can record the mass change (resolution 0.01g) up to a maximum of 10.2kg, temperature changes up to a maximum of 1100°C, and flows (between 0.2-25m/s).