Development of a Heat Storage Material for Elevated Temperatures
Abstract
This paper describes the development and the properties of a new heat storage material for thermal storage around 120°C. The material is intended to be applied in a packed bed in direct contact to a heat transfer medium, e.g. air, water or glycol. Erythritol, Polyethylene and Adipic Acid turned out to be most suitable for an encapsulation with a polymeric coating. For the primary shaping casting and pressing were tried experimentally. The selection of the coating material took place under consideration of many aspects, in particular of a practicable coating technology. Silicone rubber was chosen as the preferred encapsulation material for a coating process which bases on injection moulding of half shells. A significant number of 32 mm diameter spheres for testing purposes were produced in a small series in laboratory scale. Various tests showed that the silicone encapsulated HDPE is the most promising material. The new material is intended for example for the storage of solar heat for industrial process applications.