Thermal Energy Storage in Phase Change Material Integrated Solar Collectors for Air Heating Application

Abstract

Abstract Solar energy is an abundant source of renewable energy which can able to support the expansion of energy demand. This review paper represents a complete literature review on recent developments in the phase change material (PCM) based solar collectors for air heating applications such as building heating, greenhouse heating, etc. In this paper thermal efficiency of various types of storage based collector and their performance for air heating (SAH) applications have been discussed. Based on the literature, it has been found that compared to basic solar air heating (SAH) systems, the collector-storage based air heating systems are able to provide higher efficiency with their capacity to recover and utilize the stored heat at night or cold weather conditions. These storage based collectors can be efficiently utilized for applications requiring medium operating temperature range during daytime as well as night times.