Development of High Added Value Products from Industrial Minerals for Hybrid Energy Storage

Abstract

Industrial minerals are at the forefront of innovation and play an essential role in many innovative applications. Their functionalities and properties make them very versatile materials which are essential to many industries. A combination of properties such as heat capacity, density, price, availability, and eco-friendliness are exceptional and crucially advantageous of industrial minerals utilisation as thermal energy storage (TES) systems. This technology stocks thermal energy by heating or cooling a storage medium so that the stored energy can be used at a later time for heating and cooling applications and power generation. In this context, the utilisation of industrial minerals as carriers for impregnating phase change materials (PCM) can deliver new innovative products acting as short-term energy storage systems for construction applications to the market. TES is a technology that can solve the existing mismatch of energy supply and demand and improve buildings’ system performance by smoothing temperature fluctuations, as well as improving the reliability of the heating and/or cooling source. However, the most recent publications in this area are focused on PCM-enhanced building components thermal and kinetics analysis rather than focusing on the building component scale. This study is focused on the industrial minerals-PCM application as part of the building’s envelope, aiming to determine the benefits for buildings in terms of thermal energy performance and renewable energy penetration based on real data, harvested by an intelligent monitored building in Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park operated solely for research activities.