SUSHEAT will make technological improvements for novel, renewable heat storage systems for Thermal Energy Storage (TES). TES is required for the SUSHEAT energy system that aims to deliver high-temperature heat for industrial processing applications to generate steam, distillation and drying for food and product manufacturing.
Select phase change material for TES system
The first task of the SUSHEAT TES system will be to study and select the adequate Phase Change Material (PCM) that will be assessed for the cascade structure of the two heat batteries for temperature, material compatibility and melting point.
SUSHEAT aims for a melt temperature reaching towards 180°C, instead of the more common bio-based melt-temperatures below 100°C. The varying, intermittent availability of the renewable energy sources, particularly waste heat and ambient energy, need to be upgraded to between 150°C – 250°C before they can be used for thermal heat industrial needs.
The heat upgrade system will address this challenge through the two-battery approach. One battery will store the waste energy at a low temperature, which is later upgraded. The other will store heat at a high temperature, to be used on demand for processing needs. Addressing the ideal PCM for the TES will enable an efficient transfer of heat for the industrial process.
Design new TES storage tank
The parallel task for the SUSHEAT Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system is to design a new storage tank by using inspiration from nature combined with AI which is a completely novel approach for TES. The study of biomimetics combined with evolutionary algorithms will drive the ingenuity of the tank design to invent a higher-performance tank to store and transfer heat.
The engineering applications will mimic natural solutions anchored in the study of the distribution of fluids from plant leaves and in animal and human lungs. Additive manufacturing (3-D printing) will be used to construct the TES tank that will require less material delivering sustainability and cost benefits.
The thermophysical properties of the PCM and the performance of the TES system will depend on the design of the storage tank and the optimization of the heat transfer between the heat transfer fluid and the energy storage material. The SUSHEAT TES system will be validated at a Technical Readiness Level of 5 which is demonstration and validation at laboratory level.
GREiA Research Group leads TES
Professor Luisa F. Cabeza and Dr. Carles Mateu from the GREiA Research Group, University of Lleida, Spain, will lead the research and development of the TES system with other partners, including the start-up Italian company i-TES which is specialized in innovative thermal storage solutions. i-TES founders M. Santovito and N. Muscarà will contribute their expertise to the project.
