Development of high temperature phase change storage systems and a test facility

Disbatchability of renewable electricity is proving a serious drawback, reducing its growth potential in the Australian markets and internationally. This situation can be redressed through incorporating thermal storage into thermal solar technologies. Current thermal storage systems and materials have not demonstrated financial viability. The lack of a test facility for high temperature thermal storage research has limited the research effort and the validation of laboratory scale research outcomes in developing new materials and systems.

This project involves the establishment of a world-class high temperature thermal storage test facility to test prototype high temperature storage systems. The project also involves designing, constructing and testing two thermal storage systems that incorporate new phase change materials and heat transfer techniques with the aim of reducing the cost of high temperature, high density storage systems.

This project is funded by the the Australian Solar Institute for three years (2012-2015).

For further information, please contact Wasim Saman, Frank Bruno, Farid Christo or Ming Liu

High performance thermal energy storage systems with high temperature phase change material

The project will evaluate and test several currently available phase change materials with melting temperatures in the range of around 300 to 700 degrees elcius, which can be used to store the heat obtained from parabolic dishes and solar tower receivers. This research also will design and construct a prototype phase change thermal storage system for testing and model validation. Optimising the design for thermal performance using the computer model will be a priority.

This project is funded by the the Australian Solar Institute as a three year research fellowship (2011-2014).

For further information, please contact Wasim Saman, Frank Bruno or Ming Liu