Applications
Applications of phase change materials include, but are not limited to:
- Thermal energy storage
- Conditioning of buildings, such as 'ice-storage'
- Cooling of heat and electrical engines
- Cooling: food, beverages, coffee, wine, milk products, green houses
- Medical applications: transportation of blood, operating tables, hot-cold therapies
- Waste heat recovery
- Off-peak power utilization: Heating hot water and Cooling
- Heat pump systems
- Passive storage in bioclimatic building/architecture (HDPE, paraffin)
- Smoothing exothermic temperature peaks in chemical reactions
- Solar power plants
- Spacecraft thermal systems
- Thermal comfort in vehicles
- Thermal protection of electronic devices
- Thermal protection of food: transport, hotel trade, ice-cream, etc.
- Textiles used in clothing
- Computer cooling
- Turbine Inlet Chilling with thermal energy storage
- Telecom shelters in tropical regions. They protect the high-value equipment in the shelter by keeping the indoor air temperature below the maximum permissible by absorbing heat generated by power-hungry equipment such as a Base Station Subsystem. In case of a power failure to conventional cooling systems, PCMs minimize use of diesel generators, and this can translate into enormous savings across thousands of telecom sites in tropics.
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