(Image and text courtesy of MIT) Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to prevent wax-based PCMs from releasing their stored heat until triggered by light. MIT’s Professor Jeffrey Grossman stated that “the trouble with thermal energy is, it’s hard to hold onto it,” So his team developed what are essentially…
In order to extend electric vehicle battery life, by protecting batteries from extremes of temperatures, Constellium plans to use wax-based PCMs in aluminium body sections (see http://www.autonews.com/article/20170731/OEM10/170739985/ev-bodies-part-of-the-power-source). The body structure consists of extruded aluminum members that have a hollow cavity, which is filled with a phase change material that acts as a passive cooling system for a battery.…
On very hot days, the power grids in the USA are under considerable strain to maintain power to all the country’s air conditioners. A new start-up in Chicago, NETenergy, works on the premise “why store electricity to generate cold air when you could store cold instead” (see http://midwestenergynews.com/2017/03/22/chicago-startups-thermal-battery-is-adaptive-solution-to-spikes-in-electricity-demand/). A chemical engineering professor at the University of…
Image courtesy of NASA NASA has developed a phase change material heat exchanger — PCM HX for short — which stores energy by thawing a wax-based phase change material using hot coolant. That energy is later rejected by the spacecraft’s radiator, which then refreezes the wax and prepares it for the next heat load. This new type…