Thermal Energy Storage With Phase Change Material-A State-Of-The

Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Sustainable Cities and Society

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scs
Thermal energy storage with phase change materialA state-of-the

art review
Dan Nchelatebe Nkwetta, Fariborz Haghighat
Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Keywords:
Phase change materials
Thermal energy storage
Hot water tank
a b s t r a c t
Recently, thermal energy storage (TES) has received increasing attention for its high potential to meet
cities need for effective and sustainable energy use. Traditionally, energy was stored in the form of
sensible heat which requires large volume of storage material. The storage volume can be signicantly
reduced if energy is stored in the form of latent heat and thus can benet enormously practical applications. The existing approaches in the design, integration and application of phase change materials
(PCMs) in domestic hot water tanks (HWT) and transpired solar collector (TSC) using water/air as the
heat transfer media are reviewed. Crucial inuencing factors are considered, including thermo-physical
properties of different PCMs, different congurations of PCMs in HWT and TSC, and the limitations of
each technique. This paper also discusses the existing simulation, design tools and experimental studies
related to PCMs usage in HWT and central thermal storage.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Building sector contributes immensely to the total energy consumption, particularly for its space conditioning and domestic hot
water. Energy use and emissions result from both direct sources (on
site use of fossil-fuels) and indirect sources (heating, electricity,
cooling and energy embodied in different construction materials). Prez-Lombard, Ortiz, and Pout (2008) reported that primary
energy has grown by 49% and CO2 emissions by 43%, with an average annual increase of 2% and 1.8%, respectively. Based on the
International Energy Agency (IEA) reports on energy consumption
trends and promoting energy efciency investments, it is estimated
that the building sector in developed countries is consuming over
40% of the global energy with 24% of greenhouse gas emissions. The
growing peak demand of todays energy consumption for heating
or cooling contributes signicantly to a portion of utility-wide total
demand and may lead more often to brown or black outs. During
peak energy demand periods, the cost of generating, distributing
and maintaining electricity by the utility companies is higher compared to non-peak periods (Agyenim & Neil, 2010). This cost is
likely to increase due to the increase demand of improved thermal
comfort and emerging techniques such as electronic gadgets and
electric cars. Moreover, it is estimated that every day, over 2 million people immigrate to cities and thus more mega cities packed
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 514 848 2424x3192; fax: +1 514 848 7965.
E-mail addresses: fariborz.haghighat@concordia.ca, haghi@bcee.concordia.ca
(F. Haghighat).
2210-6707/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2013.05.007
with densely high-rise buildings are needed to accommodate this

population.
The highly packed built urban environment inuences the heat
dissipation (Urban Heat Island) and pollution (Urban Pollution
Island) due to the reduction of airow, city ventilation (Haghighat
& Mirzaei, 2011). Impact of urban heat island (UHI) and urban
pollution island (UPI) on mortality rate and heat related diseases
are extensively addressed in the literature (Hayhoe, Sheridan,
Kalkstein, & Greene, 2010; Kinney, ONeill, Bell, & Schwartz, 2008).
Hajat, Kovats, Atkinson, and Haines (2002) reported an increase of
3.34% in death for every 1 C temperature increase above 21.5 C.
This implies that cities are expecting more fatalities during heat
waves, and preparing urban-wide programs to confront beforehand prognosis solutions (Ng, 2009). Energy generated from fossil
fuels is extensively used in buildings for domestic hot water, space
heating and/or cooling applications resulting in millions of tons
of carbon dioxide (CO2 ), climate change and related greenhouse
gas emissions. The growing concern about environmental problems
and the high costs of new power plants calls for new approaches
to building technologies to stop this growth in electricity (ASHRAE
handbook-HVAC Application, 1991). This has promoted the need
for a reduction in CO2 emissions via signicant increase in energy
efciency of buildings. To offset related greenhouse gas emissions,
renewable energy sources must make a signicant contribution to
global energy production, storage and usage of which solar energy
is a major contributor (Kalogirou, 2004a,b). Renewable energy
resources have massive energy potential but are not always fully
accessible, can be diffused, or are regional, variable and intermittent. To sustain economic growth, issues relating to the supply
88
D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100
and efcient use of energy must be addressed in the design of

low energy buildings and sustainable cities. Nkwetta, Smyth, Lo,
and Mondol (2008) reported that future energy systems require
some combinations of retrotting and adaptiveness, since no single source of energy is capable of optimizing for all applications.
To achieve the European Union targets of 2020, it is necessary to
encourage the retrotting of existing buildings using local incentives and policies (DallO, Galante, & Pasetti, 2012). Dall et al. (2012)
provided a methodology for evaluating the potential energy savings
of retrotting residential building stocks and reported that by using
the envelope retrotting alone it is possible to reduce the energy
used in the residential sector by up to 24.8% by 2020. Rosa, Cumo,
Garcia, Calcagnini, and Sferra (2012) reported an energy consumption reduction of 1416% resulting from corrective interventions on
the buildings using recycled non-toxic local materials and reduced
environmental impact throughout their life cycle.
Gu, Sun, and Wennersten (2013) reported that the existing technologies for renewable energy are not yet sufciently economically
efcient and thus prevent the replacement of fossil fuels. They also
reported it is impossible to generate enough energy using solar
technology at the local sites and thus the needs not to overlook
energy efciency. They concluded that the two main contributors
to domestic energy consumption in the city are the household
and transport energy uses. They recommended that energy issues
should not be considered as single element (notwithstanding the
high performance) but be considered from a systems perspective point of view. This is because the high performance of single
systems may not produce the same efciency/performance when
integrated and functioning as a system. The economical and successful application of renewable energy technologies to improve
energy use and energy efciency of buildings and offset related
greenhouse gas emissions depends on efcient energy storage
options.
2. The need for energy storage

In regions with extreme weather conditions, a lot of variations
in energy demand and consumption are related to domestic hot
water demand, space heating and/or cooling applications and vary
drastically from day to night as well as seasonally. Changing energy
demand and consumption results in peak and off-peak energy
usage, leading to variation in energy prices offered by majority of
the utility companies with higher electricity rates being imposed
during peak-power demand (reecting the cost of electricity provided during peak periods) compared to off-peak power demand
(Agyenim & Neil, 2010; Lacroix, 1999). Wang and Yang (2012)
reported on enhancing the intelligence of the multi-zone building during its operations using particle swarm optimization (PSO).
They concluded PSO to be useful for maintaining the high comfort
level in a building environment when the total energy supply is in
a shortage. The mismatch between the energy supply and energy
consumed and the need to store excess energy that would otherwise be wasted as well as shifting peak power demand calls for the
need for thermal energy storage for different application areas (hot
water, space heating and air-conditioning). Thermal energy storage (TES) systems enable greater and more efcient use of these
uctuating energy sources by matching the energy supply to the
energy demand. This would greatly help to achieve a substantial
reduction in fossil-based energy utilization and subsequent reduction in UHI and UPI phenomena, and would help in the design
of sustainable cities. Two common methods of storing thermal
energy are sensible and latent heat storage. While the majority of
practical applications make use of sensible heat storage methods,
latent heat storage such as phase change materials (PCM) provides
much higher storage density, with very little temperature variation
during the charging and discharging processes and thus proving to

be efcient in storing thermal energy.
Domestic hot water is mostly provided using electric or gas
heaters which are simple, but they have very low efciency of
energy usage. Long and Zhu (2008), reported that electric resistance
water heaters are convenient for both installation and operation,
but their overall efciency in converting energy of fossil fuels to
electric energy and then to thermal energy is quite low and also
results in tons of greenhouse gas emission. The performance of
water heaters depends mostly on the position and the number
of the thermal elements, energy delivery to the uid stream, the
inlet/incoming water temperature, the size and the aspect ratio of
the tank, ow rate, and the location of the inlet and outlet of the
water heater (Bourke & Bansal, 2012). The main challenge is that the
system should be designed to be efcient, compact and economical with minimum impact on the environment. TES systems are
widely used for building applications and could be easily integrated
with a solar or a heat pump system, or be charged with purchased
electricity during off-peak periods. Techniques to improve the performance of TES using PCM have been investigated and include
improving heat transfer through the application of ns, enhancing
thermal conductivity, application of tube-in-shell TES, and application of micro-capsulation (Agyenim, Eames, & Smyth, 2009; Akgun,
Aydin, & Kaygusuz, 2008; Cabeza, Ibnez,

Sol, Roca, & Nogus,
2006a). Energy storage does not only improve the performance and
reliability of energy systems but plays an important role in conserving the energy and reducing the mismatch between energy supply
and demand.
2.1. Applications and advantage of phase change materials (PCM)
in HWT
Water has been used and is currently being used as a storage
medium (sensible heat storage) in most of the low temperature
applications. In such systems, as the energy is stored in the storage
medium, the temperature of the storage material (water) increases.
Latent thermal storage on the other hand, in which energy is
stored in the material due to phase change, has attracted considerable interest in recent times due to its operational advantages.
Hasnain (1998a,b) reported that thermal energy storage technologies can play an important role in re-shaping patterns of electricity
use for both hot water, and space heating and cooling. He further highlighted that thermal storage systems can be applied in
most buildings with signicant heating needs, and thus electricity rates can allow thermal storage to be competitive with other
forms of heating. Domanski, El-Sayed, and Jaworski (1994) and
Fuqiao, Maidment, Missenden, and Tozer (2002) reported that PCM
thermal storage technology, due to its high latent heat storage density and compactness, allows for greater exibility in choosing a
location for the storage system. Some of the operational advantages; smaller temperature swing between day indoors and night
outdoors, smaller size and lower weight per unit of storage capacity with high energy storage density were reported (Fuqiao et al.,
2002). Regin, Solanki, and Saini (2008) provided a detailed classication of the phase change process and reported that the storage
capacity depends on the PCM latent heat value and specic heat
capacity.
In addition, these systems are not only reliable and exible but
can reduce electrical demand and utility charges, use less and or at
least no more energy than conventional systems, and cost no more
than non-storage systems. According to Hasnain (1998a,b) the economic aspect of TES in buildings is easily noticed where cooling
demands signicantly contribute to high demand charges. In the
phase transformation of the PCM, the solidliquid phase change of
material is of interest in thermal energy storage applications due
to the high energy storage density and capacity to store energy as
latent heat at constant or near constant temperature. In solidliquid

transformation, there is generally a small change in volume compare to solidgas and liquidgas transformations which occupy
large volumes with high latent heats. The large changes in volume turn to make the phase changes not of interest due to the
complexity and large system sizes (Hasnain, 1998a,b; Ibrahim and
Marc, 2002). A complete review of different types of phase change
material used, their characteristics and classication, merits and
demerits as well as experimental techniques undertaken to investigate the behavior of PCMs in both melting and solidication phases
has been reported (Agyenim, Neil, Eames, & Smyth, 2010; Cabeza,
Ibnez,
Sol, Roca, & Nogus, 2006a,b; Cabeza, Castell, Barreneche,
De Gracia, & Fernndez, 2011; Dincer & Rosen, 2003; Kenisarin
& Mahkamov, 2007; Mohammed, Khudhair, Siddique, & Razack,
2004; Verma, Varun, & Singal, 2008). Cabeza et al. (2011) further
highlighted the need for the development of PCM containers to
be directed toward demonstration of physical and thermal stability, since PCM must be able to undergo repetitive cycles of heating
and cooling. According to Agyenim, Neil, et al. (2010) a number of
companies like Cristopia, RUBITHERM, TEAP, Climator, Mitsubishi
Chemical and EPS Ltd are also involved in the commercialization of
PCMs.
2.2. PCM heat transfer enhancement and PCM selection criteria
One of the greatest barriers to the wide application of most
PCMs is related to very low thermal conductivity, and thus needing improve heat transfer techniques to increase the charging and
discharging rates. The development of latent heat thermal storage system involves the understanding of phase change materials,
heat exchangers and PCM containers materials. The rate of charging and discharging of the PCM storage system depends on the
type of heat exchanging surface (Hasnain, 1998a). He reported that
thermal conductivity of the heat exchanger container material and
effective thermal conductivity of the PCM are important parameters in the selection and usage of PCM. The melted fraction of
the PCM depends on these parameters (Hasnain, 1998a) and the
poor performances of heat exchangers lead to insufcient ow of
heat from the latent thermal energy storage systems (Agyenim,
Knight, & Rhodes, 2010; Hasnain, 1998a; Sharma, Sharma, Buddhi,
& Won, 2006). The heat transfer has been improved by developing
and enhancing the performance of different types of heat exchangers such as direct contact heat exchanger with immiscible heat
transfer uid in the PCM (Farid & Yacoub, 1989), double pipe heat
exchanger (Fath, 1991) and classical double pipe or shell-and-tube
heat exchanger in cylindrical capsule (Domanski et al., 1994).
The charging (melting) and discharging (solidication) of PCM
RT35 with ve different heat exchangers as heat storage, two different ow rates and two different water inlet temperatures were
experimentally investigated (Medrano et al., 2009). They concluded
that in the turbulent regime Reynolds numbers are better/desirable
for faster phase change processes since it reduces the phase change
time to about half. The rate of heat transfer is reduced by the formation of the solidication layer on the heat exchanger surface and
increasing the heat transfer uid (HTF) ow rate and decreasing
the HTF inlet temperature improves the solidication rate (Farid,
Khudhair, Razack, & Al-Hallaj, 2004). Increasing the driving force
(water inlet temperature and PCM phase change temperature)
decreases the phase change time and consequently, increases the
average phase change power. Heat conduction problems are difcult to solve due to variable properties and moving boundaries
(El-Dessouky & Al-Juwayhel, 1997; Hale & Viskanta, 1978, 1980;
Hasnain, 1998a; Kerslake & Ibrahim, 1993). They concluded that
in analyzing heat conduction problems for actual system design,
periodic solutions are preferable compared to the present methods
(exact, integral, transient and purely numerical).
89
Additionally, the melting time and temperature distribution in

technical grade PCM was reported with conclusion for the need
of a detailed heat transfer study regarding the qualitative and
quantitative data for effective design of heat exchangers. These
authors suggested that heat transfer study involving the use of different types of heat carrying tubes with or without the types of
extended surfaces integrated to at least a prototype heat storage
unit should be further investigated. Sharma et al. (2006) studied
the effect of thermo-physical properties of heat exchanger container materials on the thermal performance of the storage system.
They concluded that an increase in thermal conductivity of container material results in a decrease in the PCM complete melting
time. Also they reported that the thickness of heat exchanger container material on the melted fraction of the PCM is in-signicant,
and the initial PCM temperature does not have signicant effect on
the melted fraction of the PCM. In addition, it was reported that
the boundary wall temperature plays an important role during the
melting process and has a strong effect on the melted fraction.
Nallusamy, Sampath, and Velraj (2007) reported that the poor
heat transfer rate during charging and recovery processes makes
the latent heat storage systems not in commercial use as much
as sensible heat systems (SHS). They pointed out the fact that the
solidliquid interface drifts away from the convective heat transfer
surface during the phase change, increasing the thermal resistance of the growing layer of solidied PCM. The instantaneous
heat stored during the initial charging period/process was reported
to be high and turn to decrease with time due to temperature
drop resulting from decrease in temperature differential between
the HTF and the storage tank (Nallusamy et al., 2007). However,
the major advantage of a combined storage system is that during
increase and uniform charging and discharging process, the PCM
starts melting and the heat stored remains almost uniform (due to
constant temperature difference between the HTF and the storage
tank) for a longer period, which will be useful for many practical
applications. They also reported that the mass ow rate has a signicant effect on the average charging rate for the cumulative heat
stored. Agyenim and Neil (2008) provided thermo-physical properties of PCMs with melting temperatures ranging from 50 to 60 C
suitable to store heat of fusion at a constant or near constant temperature. They further investigated the use of store energy from an
air source heat pump to take advantage of off-peak electricity tariff
and concluded that, the heat exchanger system used was not good
enough to achieve the high heat transfer rate. Thus, new designs
of heat exchanger to improve heat transfer rate and temperature is
imperative but still to be developed and extendedly tested.
El-Sawi, Haghighat, and Akbari (2013) investigated numerically
the effect of convective heat transfer on the melting rate of PCM of
a thermal performance of centralized latent heat thermal energy
storage (CLHTES) system. They also through a parametric study
investigated the effect of the temperature, PCM phase change temperature range, and the temperature difference of the incoming
air and PCM melting temperature on thermal performance of the
CLHTES. Zhou and Zhao (2011) and Tian and Zhao (2013) reported
that metal foams are considered to be a promising solution to the
heat transfer enhancement of PCMs due to their excellent physical
characteristics like relatively high thermal conductivity, ultra-light
isotropic structures with porosity in the range of 8597% and much
more continuous matrix to easily transfer the heat to PCMs. Tian
and Zhao (2011) reported the effect of different metal foams on
the heat transfer in PCMs. They pointed out, at the two-phase
zone and liquid zone, metal foams have larger ow resistance that
suppressed the natural convection in PCMs. They nevertheless, concluded that the rate of heat transferred through the metal foam
solid structure to the whole domain of PCMs was faster and the
overall heat transfer performance of the PCMmetal foam sample
was still superior compared to that of the pure PCM samples (thus
90
the enhancement of heat conduction offsets or exceeds the natural

convection loss).
Mehling and Cabeza (2008) reported that a very common practical situation is that the charging and discharging time of the PCM
is usually limited and the heat needs to be absorbed or released
quickly. The heat transfer uid rapidly transfers the heat to the
PCM when a storage system is charged with only a single-stage PCM
which reduces the temperature differential between the PCM and
heat transfer uid due to reduced temperature of the heat transfer
uid. The poor heat transfer result in the PCM melting rapidly at
the entrance part where the heat transfer uid enters the storage
and more slowly at the end of the storage where the heat transfer
uid outows and thus recommended the use of cascaded thermal energy storage as a solution. They also reported that during
the charging process in cascaded thermal energy storage, PCMs
with lower melting temperature can be placed at the end of the
heat exchanger. As such, the temperature differential can be large
enough to ensure all the PCMs are melted. During the discharge process, cascaded thermal energy storage works efciently and has the
potential to solve the problem of PCM at the end of the storage not
likely to be used for latent heat storage since the temperature of
heat transfer uid rises (Mehling and Cabeza, 2008). Michelsa and
Pitz-Paal (2007) reported a more uniform heat transfer uid outlet
temperature during the discharging process and higher portion of
the PCM are likely to run through the phase change process for cascaded latent heat storage compared to the traditional single-stage
storage system for parabolic trough solar power plants. They also
reported higher energy utilization efciency for cascaded thermal
energy storage compared to the traditional single-stage thermal
energy storage system.
Tian and Zhao (2012) reported higher energy efciency and
exergy efciency of up to 30% and 23%, respectively for cascaded
thermal energy storage compared to the traditional single-stage
thermal energy storage system. Furthermore, they reported that
metal foam-enhanced cascaded thermal energy storage can further
increase heat transfer rate and the exergy transfer rate of cascaded
thermal energy storage by 27 times and thus reduced melting time
by 6787%. The increase heat transfer rate of 27 times depending
on the properties of the metal-foam samples used with higher pore
density and lower porosity likely to achieve a better performance.
Li-Wu et al. (2013) reported that the narrow temperature variations
(nearly isothermal) of PCM during melting can help protect the targeted devices from overheating since the PCMs serve as an energy
buffer. This PCM energy buffer is capable of extracting heat from
the hot spots on the devices before it can be dissipated efciently
to the surroundings.
Al-Hinti et al. (2010) reported the effect of water withdrawal
pattern on the performance of the PCM or the water temperature
in the tank. On using the water draw off pattern, the average water
temperature in the SHS tank drops from 71 C to 51 C, while the
PCM temperature drops by only 12 C from 72 C to 60 C (Al-Hinti
et al., 2010). Based on the temperature differential between the
two systems, they reported that the heat transfer rates from the
PCM to the water were higher compared to the SHS. Furthermore,
they reported the water temperature in the tank to be at 44 C,
12 h later, and only 7 C less than the starting temperature following the complete discharge. They concluded that the temperature
recovery pattern and reduced temperature drop is attributed to the
continuous release of heat from the PCM to the surrounding water.
They also investigated the hot water withdrawn from the system
according to the pattern to simulate suggested domestic day-time
consumption for a small family.
They concluded that withdrawal pattern has a limited effect on
the PCM or the water temperature in the tank due to the natural
stratication of water in the storage tank driven by density differences. Furthermore, the withdrawn batches were taken during
the time of the day where solar radiation was available with the
inlet temperature to the tank from the collector plates being higher
than the temperature of the discharged water from the bottom of
the tank. The effect on the average water temperature was not
signicant resulting from relatively small volume of water withdrawn compared to the total volume of water in the tank (Al-Hinti
et al., 2010). They concluded that day-time consumption of moderate amounts of hot water from the storage tank on sufciently
spaced time intervals when solar radiation is available, does not
adversely affect the nal water temperature or the overall performance of the system. In addition, they demonstrated that in cases of
extreme consumption during evening hours, the existence of PCM
can partially recover the temperature of water, and thus resulting in
extending the effective operational time of the system. Research on
different PCMs (Agyenim, Knight, et al., 2010; Agyenim, Neil, et al.,
2010; Sharma, Tyagi, Chen, & Buddhi, 2009; Zalba, Marin, Cabeza,
& Mehling, 2003) have concluded the following selection criteria to
be the most important in selecting and using the PCM:
Easy availability in large quantities and low cost.
Possess high latent heat of fusion per unit mass resulting in higher
amount of energy storage with smaller amount of material.
Melting point of the PCM can be selected to match the system
desired operating temperature range.
High specic heat to provide additional signicant sensible heat
storage effects.
Non-ammable, non-explosive and non-poisonous.
No or very small volume and temperature changes during the
transition.
Chemically stable with no chemical decomposition and corrosion
resistance to construction materials.
2.3. Latent heat storage (PCM) in HWT with water as a transfer
medium
Water is commonly being used as the heat transfer uid in many
applications. Water heaters have considerable thermal energy storage that can be used to manage the power demand of electrical
grids (Lacroix, 1999). The use of HWT with PCM as storage has
the potential to store energy during off-peak periods and to be
re-used during peak periods, thus reducing or shifting peak load
demand (Nallusamy et al., 2007; Sharma et al., 2006) as well as
reducing costs (capital investments related to peak power generations for the utility companies and thus less expensive services for
the customers).
Different methods have been proposed for adding PCM into hot
water tanks such as adding PCM elements inside a standard water
storage tank (Esen & Durmus, 1998; Mehling, Cabeza, Hippeli, &
Hiebler, 2003) as well as adding of the PCM into the solar collector loop (Rabin, Bar-Niv, Korin, & Mikic, 1995). Adding PCM to the
storage tank would improve the availability of hot water to the enduser due to more energy storage at the top surface and re-heating
of the top layer after a period of discharge as well as resulting in
smaller storage volume compared to sensible heat storage.
Dermott and Frysinger (1979) and Kamimoto, Abe, Sawata, Tani,
and Ozawa (1985) reported that the high storage density of PCM
with small difference in temperature change at different phase
transformation can be of merits in the use of waste heat and for
solar application. Parafn has been used as storage materials due
to its availability in large temperature range, safety, reliability,
cost and non-corrosiveness. However, only technical grade parafn which are chemically inert and stable below 500 C, show little
volume changes on melting and have low vapor pressure in the
melt form may be used as PCMs in latent heat storage systems
(Sharma et al., 2006). Parafn however shows some undesirable
properties like: low thermal conductivity, non-compatible with the
91
Fig. 1. Common congurations of HWT with PCM (a) HWT with PCM modules (Cabeza et al., 2006b) (b) A cross-sectional view of a cylindrical heat storage tank combine
with PCM (Sharma et al., 2009).
plastic container and moderately ammable which needs to be

partly eliminated by slightly modifying the wax and storage unit
(Sharma et al., 2006).
Nallusamy et al. (2007) reported the temperature variation of
HTF during continuous and batchwise discharging processes for
both SHS system and combined storage system. They concluded
that batchwise discharging of hot water is advantageous for the SHS
system since the water outlet temperature remains almost constant
at 70 C throughout the process, whereas in the case of continuous discharging process the water outlet temperature decreases
continuously with time and it is suitable for limited practical applications. They concluded that the combined use of sensible and LHS
results in correcting the disadvantage of variation in water outlet
temperature experienced in the conventional SHS system. Cassedy
(2000) reported that the use of PCM such as parafn for thermal
energy storage at temperature of 50100 C proves to be chemically stable with no corrosion. However, they concluded that the
systems may not be cost effective since the cost of the systems
integrated with PCM almost doubles the cost of hot water systems. Improving and retaining heat at the upper portion of the
hot water tank (HWT) is critical since the hot water is with-drawn
from the upper part of the storage tank. The addition of PCM modules into the HWT result in many advantages (Barba & Spiga, 2003;
Cabeza et al., 2006b; Canbazoglu, Sahinaslan, Ekmekyapar, Aksoy,
& Akarsu, 2005; Kousksou, Bruel, Cherreau, Leoussoff, & El Rhaki,
2011; Nallusamy et al., 2006; Sharma et al., 2006, 2009; Sozen,
Vafai, & Kennedy, 1991) including:
Systems having much higher storage density in the upper portion/layer of the HWT.
Re-heating of the transitional layers being after partial withdraw
of the hot water.
Time taken to heat or re-heat the water in the HWT will be
reduced due to the presence of the heat from the PCM.
Increases the degree of thermal stratication in the HWT and thus
effective in increasing peak demand shift, energy conservation
and load management.
Improves the efciency of storage as intermediate heat can be
used to heat the colder lower layers.
Thermal stratication creates very low heat transfer in the vertical axis and thus storing heat for longer periods of time at the
upper part of the tank.
It is understood that HWT integrated with PCM is meritorious.
However, a good mastery of the temperature requirement of the
systems, melting and solidifying temperatures of PCMs, costs and
characteristics of container carrying the PCM with heat exchanger
effectiveness as well as tank conguration is imperative. Also, to
realize the full economic benets of PCM in hot water tanks, the
system must be well designed and sized based on the need of the
application.
2.3.1. Conguration of HWT with PCM, modeling, simulation and
experimental study
Residential, commercial and industrial buildings are high energy
consumers for hot water and space heating and cooling requirement. Different congurations of HWT with PCM are available in the
literature (Cabeza et al., 2006b; Kousksou et al., 2011; Nallusamy
et al., 2006; Sharma et al., 2009). Fig. 1 shows two examples of the
most common congurations.
Modeling, simulation and experimental studies have been used
for investigating the integration and performance evaluation of
hot water tanks with phase change material. Bony and Citherlet
(2007) developed a PCM model, using the TRNSYS type of water
tank storage (Type 860) for different shapes (plates, cylinders and
spheres) and numbers of PCM modules in the tank. They carried
out comparisons of measurements and simulations results to validate the model, taking into account the sub-cooling, hysteresis and
convection of the liquid part of the PCM and reported a good agreement between the monitored data and simulation results. They also
reported the need to reduce the simulation time. Talmatsky and
Kribus (2008) developed a mathematical model which describes
the heat storage tank with PCM, collector, pump, controller and
auxiliary heater.
They carried out annual simulations for different sites, load proles, different kinds of PCM and volume fractions, and concluded
that the use of PCM in the storage tank does not yield a signicant benet in energy provided to the end-user. They supported
their results by the fact that there is increase heat losses during the
92
night times resulting from the reheating of the water by the PCM.
They also reported that when the system is operating not close to
the melting point, the advantage of the latent heat is diluted by the
large amount of energy stored as sensible heat and thus innovative
design for the use of PCM is still to be further investigated.
Domestic electrical hot water cylinder incorporating encapsulated phase change material (PCM) in 57 vertical pipes was
investigated (Cabeza et al., 2011). They used a validated numerical
model to optimize the PCM distribution inside the water cylinder
under different hot water demand scenarios. They concluded that
using PCM in electrical HWT allows the use of low cost electricity
during low peak periods and increases the thermal energy storage
capacity of the cylinder. It was further reported that, even though
the amount of water inside the tank is reduced because of the tubes
containing the PCM, the PCM system resulted in stored heat by the
PCM being rapidly realized to the water. This heat further provides
longer period of hot water availability during the rst discharge
and the off-peak electricity was sufcient to fully melt the PCM in
all the evaluated cases (Cabeza et al., 2011). Additionally, the systems with the PCM have higher hot water discharge capacity with
demand coverage increasing from 40% to 55% in one case. Cabeza
et al. (2011) concluded that, the systems having large number of
small tubes can provide hot water for a longer period of time during
the initial discharge. However, the system will provide hot water
for a limited period of time after the initial discharge. They highlighted the fact that part of the heat stored by the PCM is released to
the water during this rst discharge resulting from the high area of
heat transfer between the tubes and the water. It was highlighted
that the systems with less tubes of larger diameter store the heat in
the PCM for posterior demands. They however concluded that the
PCM distribution inside the tank must be dened depending on the
timing and quantity of hot water demand.
Cabeza et al. (2005, 2006a) presented the modeling of a domestic
hot water tank with a PCM module using TRNSYS, TYPE 60PCM.
Fig. 2 illustrates different elements taken into account in each of the
node of the water tank and used for the energy balance equation
(Cabeza et al., 2006a).
To model the one-dimensionally stratication temperature in
the tank, Cabeza et al. (2006a) assumed that a stratied water-lled
sensible energy storage tank consisted of N fully mixed equal volume segments and determined the degree of stratication. They
investigated the re-heating and cooling effect of water surrounding the PCM in a hot water tank and concluded that the PCM-water
tank re-heated the water surrounding the PCM module when the
water temperature is lower than the PCM temperature. Regarding
the cooling effect, they reported that the layer not in contact with
PCM module cools down faster compared to water at the upper
Fig. 2. Schematic representation of energy ows into a node (Cabeza et al., 2006a).
layer. In their analysis, the temperature sensor at the upper layer of

the PCM-hot water tank showed a very similar pattern to the PCM
temperature curve with an increasing temperature due to latent
heat of the PCM during phase transition. They also investigated the
effect of time steps (6 min, 3 min and 1 min) on the performance of
the PCM. The conclusion from their investigation was that the time
step is a critical factor in evaluating the performance of PCMs in hot
water tank.
In addition, they highlighted that the shorter the time step,
the more precise and accurate the simulation results. They compared the measured and simulated temperature values at the upper
layer of the storage tank and reported a good agreement. However,
PCMs-hot water tank design optimization is still to be investigated
for different climatic applications and installations to improve the
performance of the system. According to Cabeza et al. (2006b) integration of PCM in the hot water tank for a single-family system
in Lleida, Spain, increased the solar fraction by up to 8%. Mehling,
Cabeza, Hippeli, and Hiebler (2002, 2003) investigated the performance of a PCM-module at the top of a stratied hot water tank.
They investigated two PCM modules using different melting temperatures compared to water based storage tank as illustrated in
Fig. 3. They reported that the advantages of the stratication were
not destroyed in the tank with PCM. Instead, the addition of a
PCM module at the top of the water tank resulted in higher storage density, allowing reheating of the transition layer after partial
unloading and compensation of heat loss in the top layer for a
considerable time.
Cabeza et al. (2006b) reported on an experimental evaluation
of HWT with granular PCM compound (90%) with graphite (10%)
added to the top of the storage tank to increase heat transfer rate.
The overall aim was to evaluate the behavior of a PCM in a HWT
Fig. 3. Heat stores with different temperature levels: left, water based; right, PCM based (Mehling et al., 2003).
under real life conditions in order to increase the performance

of the system via enhancing the storage performance. They concluded that increasing the quantity of the PCM from 2.1 kg to 6.3 kg
increased the energy density from 40% to 66.7% at a temperature
differential of 1 K as well as increased the energy density from 6%
to 12% at a temperature differential of 8 K. They reported that even
though thermally stratied storage tanks are an effective thermal
energy storage technique widely used in energy conservation and
load management, the use of PCM helps to maintain the thermal
stratication, increases the time the hot-water is made available
as well as may lead to a reduction in the sizes of the storage tanks
and reduction in the cost of the storage but still meeting the same
purpose. However, the selection criterion for the quantity of PCM
to be included in the modules of the HWT tank was not reported
and calls for detail selection criteria for system optimization.
Cabeza, Castell, et al. (2008) investigated the natural convection
heat transfer coefcients in PCM modules using external vertical
ns. They concluded that the use of external ns in PCM modules
reduces the time needed to transfer the heat to the surrounding
water and that the temperature difference due to natural convection also reduced. They also reported that the heat transfer
process was directly proportional to the size of the ns. The effects
of thermal and geometric parameters on the melting time of different PCMs with different tank congurations linked to a solar
assisted heat pump was theoretically modeled and reported by
Esen and Durmus (1998). They monitored the heat absorbed and
retrieved during the melting and solidication of the PCM, respectively, and concluded that the whole PCM melting time does not
only depend on the thermal and geometric parameters, but also on
the thermo-physical properties of the PCM. They also concluded
that the melting time of the PCM depends on the PCMs thickness
in the storage tank and thus, the selection of PCM and geometric
design of the PCM store should be taken into account together. A
comparison of hot water tank performance with and without PCM
(packed in cylinders with the heat transfer uid owing parallel to
it, pipes containing the uid embedded in the PCM and spherical
container with PCM) was reported (Bedecarrats, Strub, & Falcon,
1996; Saitoh & Hirose, 1985). They concluded that the duration of
the energy storage is decreased when the ow rate of the chilling
uid is increased and PCMs have the potential for greater energy
storage but both the technical and economic feasibility are still
subject to further investigations.
The thermal energy storage characteristics of both sensible (1%
carbon-steel) and latent heat storage packed bed consisting of
a horizontally lled channel with randomly packed particles of
myristic acid PCM in encapsulated spherical capsules were reported
(Sozen et al., 1991). They concluded that the average energy storage behavior did not have any major difference(s) when either
a constant or oscillating inlet boundary conditions is used. Regin
et al. (2008) reported that the rate of heat transfer to and from the
solid packed bed of PCM is based on the physical properties of the
uid, ow rate of heat transfer uid as well as the characteristics
of the packed bed. Barba and Spiga (2003) examined the behavior
of encapsulated PCM (salt hydrates) in a domestic hot water tank
employing three different geometrical congurations of the PCM
container. They concluded that the spherical capsules yielded the
largest energy density and the most rapid charge and release times
compared to the slab or the cylindrical geometry. Canbazoglu et al.
(2005) reported a 2.593.45 times performance enhancement in
storage time of hot water, mass of produced hot water and total
heat accumulated in the tank with PCM (sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate) compared to conventional hot water tank.
Jos, Zalba, Cabeza, and Mehling (2005) reported on the performance of PCM hot water tank by comparing the differences
of encapsulating in at plates parafn alone or embedding in a
graphite matrix to enhance the heat transfer. They concluded that
93
the addition of PCM in the storage tank increased the solar fraction,
improved the energy stored in the hot water tank and thus the availability of hot water to the end-user is increased and improved the
reheating of the top layer after a period of discharge. Long and Zhu
(2008) carried out both calculation and experimental analysis of air
source heat pump water heater with PCM for thermal storage during the storing and releasing phases of the PCM, taking into account
the advantages of off-peak electricity, higher efciency of energy
usage and smaller occupied space. They concluded that heat pump
water heaters with PCM using off-peak electricity is much more
effective than electric-resistance heaters, needing smaller space
compared to air-source heat pump with heaters in hot water tanks.
Long and Zhu (2008) reported that, due to the very low charging
and discharging rates of parafn, n were used to improve the
sodication and melting process. To investigate the performance
of packed bed latent heat thermal energy storage integrated with
solar water heating system, Nallusamy et al. (2006) carried out
parametric study (effect of porosity and uid ow rates for different inlet temperatures) and experimental studies (continuous
and batch wise discharge process). They concluded that the use of
packed bed latent heat storage reduces the size of the storage tank
and that batch wise discharge of hot water from the tank is best
suitable for intermittent demand of hot water.
2.3.2. Exergy analysis of PCM, stability of PCM and corrosion of
PCM containers
Dincer and Rosen (2003), reported that even though there
are many methods to evaluate and compared different thermal
energy storage systems; there is no generally acceptable method
to compare the achieve performance of storage systems operating under different conditions. They further expressed the need
to evaluate the performance of thermal energy storage systems
using the concept of exergy analysis which is based on the second law of thermodynamics. This method gives a closer value in
assessing and comparing the thermal performance of energy storage systems. Kousksou, Strub, Castaing Lasvignottes, Jamil, and
Bdcarrats (2007) examined energy and exergy analyses to understand the behavior of the system using either single or multiple
PCMs. Their numerical results show that the performance of the
latent thermal storage system can be improved by the judicious
choice of the melting temperature of the PCM and the use of multiple PCMs can improve the energy storage of the tank. However,
their results were limited to chosen typical days and the recommendation was that further research is imperative to evaluate the
energy and exergy efciencies during charging and discharging
periods under realistic seasonal period. To further develop the
exergy analysis, Cabeza, Sol, et al. (2008) provided a comparative
experimental study of two hot water storage tanks (one without
PCM and one with PCM) using the exergetic and energetic concepts at different uid ow rates. The PCM (4.9 kg) included in the
secondary coil heat exchanger located at the upper portion of the
tank increases the ratio of heat transfer surface to the PCM volume
compared to cylindrical PCM modules and results in easy manufacturability.
Most experimental work regarding the use of PCM modules in
hot water tanks has involved the use of commercial aluminum
bottles lled with almost identical amounts of PCM-graphite
composite material. This ignores the effect of boundary wall temperature on the melting process and melted fraction of the PCM
modules and call for further investigation with secondary storage
tank in hot water tanks. The conclusion, drawn from most of the
experimental studies involving hot water tanks and PCM modules,
is that there is higher energy storage density resulting from the
PCM and may lead to reduction in the size of the storage tanks.
The long term stability of the PCMs and the containers, especially regarding the poor stability of the material properties and
94
Table 1
Summary table for PCM-hot water tank (modeling and experimentation) reported in literature.
Publications/refs.
Objectives
Method used
Conclusions
Sozen et al. (1991)
Thermal energy storage characteristics of both

sensible (1% carbon-steel) and latent heat
storage packed bed.
Behavior of encapsulated PCM with three
different geometrical congurations.
To compare PCM-hot water tank (sodium
thiosulfate pentahydrate) with conventional
hot water tank.
Modelisation of a domestic hot water tank
with a PCM module.
HWT with PCM modules to evaluate the
behavior of a PCM in a HWT under real life
conditions to increase the performance of the
system via enhancing the storage performance.
Experimental
Better performance for the latent heat storage packed

bed.
Experimental
Spherical capsules yielded the largest energy density

and the most rapid charge and release times.
A 2.593.45 times performance enhancement in
storage time of hot water, mass of produced hot water
and total heat accumulated in the tank with PCM.
Validation of TRNSYS, TYPE 60PCM, the shorter the
time step, the more precise and accurate the
simulation results.
PCM re-heated the water surrounding the PCM module
faster, increase in temperature due to phase change of
the PCM, increasing quantity of the PCM increases
energy density.
The addition of PCM in the storage tank increased the
solar fraction, improvement in energy storage and
performance of the hot water tank. Improve the
availability of hot water to the end-user and reheating
of the top layer after a period of discharge.
Improvement in energy storage and performance of
the hot water tank, improve the availability of hot
water to the end-user and reheating of the top layer
after a period of discharge.
The addition of PCM in the solar collector results in
improvement in energy storage and performance of
the hot water tank, Improve the availability of hot
water to the end-user and reheating of the top layer
after a period of discharge.
Proves to be chemically stable with no corrosion but
may not be cost effective since the cost of the systems
with PCM almost doubles the cost of hot water
systems.
High storage density of PCM with small difference in
temperature change at different phase transformation
can be of merits in the use of waste heat and for solar
application.
Improvement in energy storage and performance of
the hot water tank.
The whole PCM melting time depends not only on
thermal and geometric parameters, but also on the
thermo-physical properties of the PCM.
Barba and Spiga (2003)

Canbazoglu et al. (2005)
Cabeza et al. (2005,

2006a,b)
Experimental
TRNSYS, TYPE 60PCM

Experimental and
numerical
Jos et al. (2005)
Performance of PCM hot water tank for a

single-family system.
Experimental
Esen and Durmus (1998)
PCM elements inside a standard water storage

tank, PCM-module at the top of a stratied hot
water tank.
Experimental
Rabin et al. (1995)
PCM into the solar collector
Experimental
Cassedy (2000)
Use of PCM such as parafn for thermal energy

storage at temperature of 50100 C.
Experimental
Dermott and Frysinger

(1979) and Kamimoto
et al. (1985)
PCM for waste heat and solar applications.
Experimental
Mehling et al. (2002, 2003)
PCM-module at the top of a stratied hot water

tank.
Effects of thermal and geometric parameters
on the melting time of different PCMs with
different tank congurations, thermal
performance of solar water heating systems
with cylindrical latent heat storage units
containing several PCMs.
A tank with pipes containing the uid being
embedded in the PCM and spherical container
with PCM compared to hot water tank.
Analysis of air source heat pump water heater
with PCM storage.
Experimental and
numerical simulation
Theoretical/numerically
To develop a PCM model, using the TRNSYS

type of water tank storage (Type 860) for
different shapes (plates, cylinders and spheres)
and numbers of PCM modules in the tank,
comparisons of measurements and simulations
results.
To develop a model which describes the heat
storage tank with PCM, collector, pump,
controller and auxiliary heater.
To evaluate the performance of thermal energy
storage systems using the concept of exergy
analysis.
To evaluate natural convection heat transfer
coefcients in phase change material (PCM)
modules with external vertical ns.
To compare study of two hot water storage
tanks (one without PCM and one with PCM).
TRNSYS (Type 860)
Esen and Durmus (1998)
Bedecarrats et al. (1996)

and Saitoh and Hirose
(1995)
Long and Zhu (2008)
Bony and Citherlet (2007)
Talmatsky and Kribus

(2008)
Dincer and Rosen (2003)
Cabeza, Castell, et al.

(2008)and Cabeza, Sol,
et al. (2008)
Numerical and
experimental
Tank with PCM show better performance compared to

hot water tank.
Numerical/experimental
Heat pump water heaters with PCM using off-peak

electricity is much more effective than
electric-resistance heaters, needing smaller space
compared to air-source heat pump with heaters in hot
water tanks. It can be concluded that present work
could provide guidelines for air source heat pump
water heater with PCM for thermal storage.
Validated the potential of the proposed model, taking
into account the sub-cooling, hysteresis and
convection of the liquid part of the PCM.
Mathematical model in
MATLAB
Based on second law of
thermodynamics
Experimental-exergetic
and energetic concepts
Conduction and convection occurs. Concluded that the

use of PCM in HWT does not yield signicant benet in
energy provided to the end-user.
Gives a closer value in assessing and comparing the
thermal performance of energy storage systems.
The use of external ns in PCM modules reduces the
time needed to transfer the heat to the surrounding
water and the heat transfer process was directly
proportional to the size of the ns.
Including PCM in the second coil heat exchanger
located at the upper portion of the tank, increase the
ratio of heat transfer surface to PCM volume compared
to cylindrical PCM modules.
95
Table 1 (Continued)
Publications/refs.
Objectives
Method used
Conclusions
Nallusamy et al. (2006)
To investigate the performance of packed bed

latent heat thermal energy storage integrated
with solar water heating system.
Parametric and
experimental
Long and Zhu (2008)
To evaluate the use of n in thermal energy

storage systems.
To evaluate performance of domestic HWT
with PCM in 57 vertical pipes.
Experimental
They concluded that the use of packed bed latent heat

storage reduces the size of the storage tank and batch
wise discharge of hot water from the tank is best
suitable for intermittent demand of hot water.
The use of n improves the conductive coefcient of
solidication and melting process.
The use of PCM in HWT allows the use of low cost
electricity during low peak periods and increases
thermal energy storage capacity.
The use of stainless steel was the most
corrosion-resistant alloy to selected hydrated salts
with melting points range of 1532 C.
De Gracia et al. (2011)
Porisini (1988)
Li et al. (2011)
To evaluate corrosion resistance of metallic

alloys to hydrated salts used as PCM & thermal
performance reliability of PCM after repeated
thermal cycling.
Preparation, structure and thermal energy
storage property of capricpalmitic
acid/attapulgite form-stable PCM.
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
They concluded that the Capric acid and palmitic acid

can be absorbed uniformly into attapulgite and there
existed no chemical reaction between the
capricpalmitic acid and attapulgite
corrosion of the container carrying the PCM, has also been of interest. Porisini (1988) reported on the corrosion resistance of metallic
alloys to hydrated salts used as PCM for heat storage and the thermal performance reliability of PCM after repeated thermal cycling.
He concluded that stainless steel was the most corrosion-resistant
alloy for selected hydrated salts showing good thermal stability
after repeated thermal cycling. Cabeza et al. (2002) carried out
a corrosion resistance on different metals including copper and
aluminum in contact with molten salt hydrates. They concluded
that copper was resistant to calcium chloride and not to sodium
acetate while aluminum in contact with chlorides resulted in the
formation of Al(OH)3 and was prone to localized pitting corrosion and resistant to sodium acetate. Farrell, Norton, and Kennedy
(2006) reported that one of the draw backs of PCMs for thermal
energy storage is corrosion when they are in direct contact with
metal piping, plates or housings. They concluded that a conventional aluminum n expanded copper heat pipe heat exchanger will
experience galvanic corrosion and localized pitting corrosion when
immersed in the PCMs. They further highlighted preventive measures for corrosion in copper and aluminum material and reported
that the effects of galvanic corrosion can be reduced by using a large
aluminum anode surface and a small copper pipe cathode.
Parafn waxes have been used in many applications due to their
chemical stability, non-poisonous, no phase separation with only
a small change in volume during phase transformation with negligible degree of sub-cooling and excellent thermal stability (lack of
effect of the cycles on its properties) as well as degrading of thermal
behavior due to contact with metals (Banaszek et al., 2000; Liu &
Chung, 2001; Neeper, 2000; Py & Mauran, 2001). Li, Wu, and Kao
(2011) reported on the preparation, structure and thermal energy
storage property of capricpalmitic acid. They concluded that the
capric acid and palmitic acid can be absorbed uniformly and there
existed no chemical reaction between the capricpalmitic acid and
PCM. A summary table for PCM-hot water tank (modeling and
experimentation) reported in literature is provided in Table 1.
facade and or roof integrated. The perforated absorber surface of

the TSCs is heated using solar energy, which transmits thermal
energy to the ambient air. There is a cavity between the building envelope or the back plate and TSC through which the heated
air is drawn into the building to provide the space heating. To
avoid over heating of the building during summer periods, a bypass damper is used to help vent the heated air from the cavity
to the exterior of the building. Shukla et al. (2012) reported on
different conguration of TSC and their performances, and they
concluded that the ow rate, wind velocity, absorptivity and porosity are the most critical factors affecting the efciency of these
collectors. They further reported that integrated systems have signicant advantages over non-integrated systems such as an add-on
to the building envelope which enhances durability of building
envelope and reduces the balance of system cost (BOS). The system is ideal to be used in the buildings in combination with other
technologies like PV, heat pump and PCM storage. Hybrid collectors (PV/T) have been investigated by different authors (Anderson,
Duke, Morrison, & Carson, 2009; Delisle & Collins, 2007) and concluded that the technology is attractive due to the low cost and high
efciency. However, PCM integration potential with PV/T is still to
be investigated.
The use of air as heat transfer uid in solar air collectors with
PCM storage has shown interest. This has resulted from the fact that
the stored heat from the mounted TSC with PCM can be released
in to the buildings at night helping to extend the effective operation time of the system. Also non-integrated systems often have
higher maintenance cost compared to integrated systems (Shukla
et al., 2012). Goyal, Tiwari, and Garg (1998) carried out research
on the thermal energy storage with air collectors and classied
the air collectors based on their application as shown in Fig. 4.
Stritih and Novak (2002) reported on the promising performance
in using stored heat from PCM storage in solar wall for heating and
ventilation.
2.4. The use of air as the transfer medium
2.4.2. Conguration, modeling, simulation and experimental

study of solar air collectors with PCM storage
Morrison and Abdel-Khalik (1978) developed a model for studying transient behavior of PCM and performances of solar heating
systems using air and liquid as transfer medium. In conjunction
with simulation techniques, they determined that the performance
of heating systems with latent and sensible heat storage depends
on the storage size, collector quality and location.
The model developed by Morrison and Abdel-Khalik (1978) was
further extended by Vakilaltojjar and Saman (2001) to include a
PCM storage unit for space heating and cooling integrated with a
reverse cycle air conditioning system. The model was made-up of
Transpired solar collectors (TSC) using air as the heat transfer

medium are used to provide the space heating requirement and
have proven to be highly efcient for pre-heating fresh air. TSC are
commonly classied as standalone or building integrated, glazed
or unglazed one-pass or double-pass system with a perforated
absorber layer.
2.4.1. Functioning of TSC
The perforated absorber surface is generally a metallic sheet
(usually steel or aluminum), which can be integrated to the building
96
Air Heaters
Without storage
Porous
With storage
Non-porous
Latent heat
(PCM)
Sensible heat
Water
Ground
Sand
Concrete
Brick
Fig. 4. Classication of solar air heaters.

Adopted from Goyal et al. (1998).
several parallel layers of PCM slaps with air owing through the
passage between the PCM slabs. In their analysis, they ignored the
sensible heat and assumed heat transfer to occur only at a constant melting temperature with initial PCM temperature assumed
equal to melting point. They reported that maximum sensible heat
transfer occur once the PCM melted completely with melting point
of 29 C and inlet air temperature of 40 C, respectively. Using a
two dimensional model, they reported that heat transfer occurring
in the vertical direction resulted from the temperature difference
between the airow along the surface of the PCM and the PCM layer.
In addition, the horizontal heat transfer was due to variation in
temperature of PCM along the horizontal plane directions. Jurinak
and Abdel-Khalik (1979) presented an empirical method for sizing
PCM storage unit for solar air collectors at different climatic location during the heating period. They concluded that optimization
of solar air collector with PCM storage is necessary to achieve any
benets. Belusko, Saman, and Bruno (2001) reported on the development of mathematical models and a full scale prototype system
for a roof integrated solar heating systems with PCM storage. The
PCM used was calcium chloride hexahydrate and they concluded
that the system ensured maximum use of solar energy, absorbed
and stores energy during the day and released the stored energy at
night to heat the living space.
Numerical analysis of PCM thermal storage unit with melting
and freezing at varying wall temperature was reported by Halawa,
Bruno, and Saman (2007). They realized a very low heat transfer
rate during the nal period of melting or freezing resulting from
small temperature differential between the air and the PCM. During the heating mode, the heat stored/released during the nal
period may not be useful due to an unsuitable air temperature
delivered by the thermal storage unit. They concluded that for a
proper design of such systems (PCM thermal storage with varying wall air temperature), the following factors must be carefully
taken into account: range of outlet and inlet temperature and air
ow rates, type of PCMs, the match between energy stored/released
and comfort requirement.
A small unit of solar wall air collector with thermal energy
storage option and building ventilation system was investigated
by Sokhansan and Schoenau (1991) and a payback period of 45
years was reported. Tyagi et al. (2012) reported on the comparative experimental study of a typical solar air heater collector
with and without temporary heat energy storage (THES) material.
Their evaluation based on energy and exergy analyses, found that
the efciencies in case of heat storage material/uid are signicantly higher than that without THES. They further reported slightly
higher efciencies in case of parafn wax compared to hytherm oil.
A seasonal thermal energy storage using parafn wax as a PCM
and at plate solar air collectors was used in heating a greenhouse (Hseyin, 2005). He reported average net energy and exergy
efciencies of 40.4% and 4.2%, respectively, and thus showing a
large difference (36.2%) in terms of energy and exergy efciencies. He further concluded that exergy efciency being the measure
of the quality of energy is more signicant and correctly reects
the thermodynamic and economic value of the storage operation
than energy efciency and should be considered in the evaluation
and comparison of thermal energy storage systems. The need of
design and operational parameters in order to optimize the thermodynamic efciency of thermal energy storage systems as well as
improving the exergy efciency by reducing exergy loss and auxiliary energy consumptions during the charging and discharging
processes was highlighted.
Hseyin and Aydn (2009) reported the analytical and experimental performance analysis of phase change material employed
to analyze the transient thermal behavior of the PCM storage unit
during the charge and discharge periods for greenhouse heating.
The conclusion was that the solar air collector integrated with PCM
created a 69 C temperature differential between the inside and
outside of the greenhouse, providing about 1823% of total daily
thermal energy requirements of the greenhouse for 34 h, in comparison with the conventional heating device. It is requested that
further research be conducted on latent heat storage for greenhouse
applications and modeling of the heat storage systems to help in
optimizing the management of the heat storage systems. A seasonal thermal energy storage using parafn wax as a PCM to heat a
greenhouse of 180 m2 oor area was reported by Hseyin (2005).
An average daily rate of thermal exergy transferred and stored in
the latent heat storage (LHS) unit were 111.2 W and 79.9 W, respectively. with average net energy and exergy efciencies of 40.4% and
4.2%, respectively.
Experimental results and two-dimensional theoretical mathematical model of PCM to analyze the transient thermal behavior
of the storage unit during the charge and discharge periods was
reported by Saman, Bruno, and Halawa (2005). They concluded
that the warm air from the roof integrated air collector is circulated through the spaces between the PCM layers (charging the
storage unit) and the stored heat is used to heat the ambient air
before being admitted to a living space. Within the living space a
signicant warming effect is perceived during the initial periods of
delivering air to the living space during the heating mode and thus
concluded that it is advantageous from the thermal comfort point
of view.
Alkilani, Sopian, Sohif, and Alghol (2009) examined indoor performance predication for output air temperature resulting from the
discharge in a solar air collector with PCM storage with the goal to
absorb and store the solar energy. Their system illustrated in Fig. 5
consisted of a single-transparent glazed solar air collector, isolated
duct and integrated PCM storage unit. The storage unit was divided
into a single row of cylinders containing the PCM with the cylinders placed in the cross ow of forced air stream. The parafn wax
(PCM) with a mass fraction of 0.5% aluminum powered was used
97
Table 2
Summary table for air collectors with PCM storage reported in literature.
Publications/refs.
Objectives
Method used
Conclusions
Morrison and Abdel-Khalik

(1978)
To studying transient behavior of PCM and

performances of solar heating systems using
air and liquid as transfer medium.
To size PCM storage for solar air collectors at
different location during the heating period.
Model and simulation

techniques
The storage size, collector quality and location have an

effect on the performance of heating systems.
Empirical
The size of the PCM storage and solar collectors determine

the energy collection and density of PCM storage can lead
to small storage tanks.
The payback period was 45 years.
Jurinak and Abdel-Khalik

(1979)
Sokhansan and Schoenau
(1991)
Vakilaltojjar and Saman
(2001)
Belusko et al. (2001)
Stritih and Novak (2002)

Alkilani et al. (2009)
Krishnananth and
Murugavel (2012)
Fatah (1994)
Enibe (2002)
Enibe (2003)
Tyagi et al. (2012)
Hseyin and Aydn (2009)
Saman et al. (2005)
Kousksou et al. (2007)
Halawa et al. (2007)
Hseyin (2005)
The use of small unit of solar wall air collector

with thermal energy storage option and
building ventilation system.
To study a PCM storage unit for space heating
and cooling integrated with a reverse cycle air
conditioning system.
To study performance of full scale prototype
system for a roof integrated solar heating
systems with PCM storage.
To store heat from PCM storage in solar wall
for heating and ventilation.
Indoor performance predication for output air
temperature resulting from the discharge in a
solar air collector with PCM storage.
Performance of a double-pass solar air
collector integrated with parran PCM storage
with aluminum capsules.
To predict the performance of a solar air
collector integrated with PCM storage with a
copper tubes absorber lled with PCM.
Evaluated the performance of a single glazed
natural convection solar air heater integrated
with parafn wax as PCM storage.
Transient thermal analysis of a natural
convection solar air heater integrated with a
parafn type phase change material (PCM).
To compare experimentally a typical solar air
heater collector with and without heat energy
storage.
To analyze the transient thermal behavior of
the storage unit during the charge and
discharge periods for greenhouse.
To analyze the transient thermal behavior of
PCM storage unit during the charge and
discharge periods.
To understand the behavior of the system
using either single or multiple PCMs.
To understand the analysis of PCM thermal

storage unit with melting and freezing at
varying wall temperature.
A seasonal thermal energy storage using
parafn wax as a PCM and at plate solar air
collectors in heating a greenhouse.
Experimental
Model
Mathematical and
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Heat transfer occurred in the vertical (due to temperature

difference) between air ow along the surface of PCM and
PCM layer and horizontal (due to variation in temperature
of PCM along the horizontal plane) directions.
The system ensures maximum usage of solar energy
absorbed.
Promising performance in the use of store heat from PCM
storage in solar wall for heating and ventilation.
Freezing time of the PCM was inversely proportional to the
mass ow rate.
The system delivered higher temperature air throught out
the day with higher efceicny recorded in the evening
hours.
System showed better performance otherwise the daily
average efciency was 26% and 63%.
Peak air temperature rise of 15 K with peak cumulative
useful efciency of close to 50%. The system is suitable for
use as solar cabinet crop dryer for medicinal plants and
aromatic herbs.
Day-long maximum predicted cumulative useful and
overall efciencies being 13 and 18%, respectively.
Experimental
The efciencies in case of heat storage material/uid are

signicantly higher than that without THES.
Experimental
Providing about 1823% of total daily thermal energy

requirements of the greenhouse for 34 h.
Experimental/Theoretical
(mathematical)
Within the living space a signicant warming effect is

perceived during the initial periods of delivering air to the
living space.
Performance of the latent thermal storage system can be
improved by the judicious choice of the melting
temperature of the PCM and the use of multiple PCMs can
reduce the irreversibility inside the storage tank.
Low heat transfer rate during the nal period of melting or
freezing resulting from small temperature differential
between the air and the PCM.
Reported average net energy and exergy efciencies of
40.4% and 4.2%, respectively and thus showing a large
difference (36.2%) in terms of energy and exergy
efciencies.
Numerical
Numerical
Experimental
Fig. 5. Single-pass solar air heater integrated with PCM unit (Alkilani et al., 2009).
to improve the heat transfer with the conclusion that the freezing
time of the PCM was inversely proportional to the mass ow rate.
Krishnananth and Murugavel (2012) investigated the experimental performance of a double-pass solar air collector integrated
with parran PCM storage with aluminum capsules. They concluded that the solar air heater with parafn as storage delivered
higher temperatures air throught out the day with higher efceicny recorded in the evening hours. Three different option; PCM
capsule above absorber plate, PCM capsule below absorber plate
and PCM capsule above back plate were further evaluated experimentally by Krishnananth and Murugavel (2012) and conlcuded
that the systems with the PCM capsule placed above the absorber
plate was the most efcient. Fatah (1994) researched on the performance of a solar air collector integrated with PCM storage with
an absorber made up of copper tubes lled with PCM with melting temperatures of 51 and 43 C. He concluded that this system
98
showed better performance otherwise the daily average efciency

was 26% and 63%.
Enibe (2002) contructed and evaluated the performance of a
single glazed natural convection solar air heater integrated with
parafn wax as PCM storage (under real life conditions). He
reported peak air temperature rise of 15 K with peak cumulative
useful efciency of close to 50% and conlcuded that the system is
suitable for use as solar cabient crop dryer for medicincal plants,
aromatic herbs and other crops not needing exposure to direct sunlight. Enibe (2003) reported on the transient thermal analysis of a
natural convection solar air heater consisting of a single-glazed at
plate solar collector integrated with a parafn type phase change
material (PCM) energy storage subsystem and a rectangular enclosure serving as the working chamber. He concluded that the time of
peak temperature and overall temperature proles for the absorber
and heat exchanger plates, the heated air, and glazing surface were
within 10 C. A maximum predicted airow rate of 0.01 kg s1 , corresponding to a maximum inlet velocity of 0.33 m s1 with the
day-long maximum predicted cumulative useful and overall efciencies of 13 and 18%, respectively were also reported. Table 2 is a
summary of air collectors with PCM storage reported by different
authors in the literature.
3. Conclusion
The applications in which PCMs can be used are many and thus
needing different PCMs to be critical analysis. This review paper
presents different congurations, modeling, simulation and experimental studies conducted for PCMs hot water tanks and TSC with
PCMs storage. It helps to clarity the factors and most important
selection criteria to be taken into account when selecting and using
different PCMs. PCMs usage has the potential to improve the storage capacity, serve energy as well as shifting and smoothing peak
power demand when integrated for use in hot water tanks and
space heating.
Despite the merits reported by different researchers regarding
the use of PCM in HWTs, some few authors concluded in their ndings that the use of PCM in HWT does not yield signicant benet
in energy provided to the end-user and the systems may not be
cost effective since the cost of the systems integrated with PCM
almost doubles the cost of hot water systems. However, innovative system design, reduction in heat losses and further testing
of such systems are to be further investigated. From a practical
application need, the effect of boundary wall temperature on the
melting process and melted fraction of the PCM modules in hot
water tanks has been given little attention due to the use of commercial aluminum bottles. Higher energy utilization efciency and
exergy efciency of up to 30% and 23%, respectively, were been
reported for cascaded thermal energy storage compared to the
traditional single-stage thermal energy storage system. However,
further investigation with cascaded thermal energy storage in hot
water tanks is required.
Moreover, there is lack of clear selection criterion for the quantity of PCM to be included in the PCM modules of the thermal
energy storage for system optimization as well as complete cost
analysis of such systems. It is desirable to select the TES based
on the following criteria: cost, efciency, environmental impact,
life cycle cost, safety, and the required space. Further research
is needed to develop a procedure for comparison and to further
assess accurately the performance of these systems in real life
conditions with different usage pattern under different climatic
conditions. Transpired solar collectors with PCM storage have the
potential to improve the total daily thermal energy and reduce
energy mismatch between energy generation and use. However,
optima selection and design criteria to be taken in to account are;
PCM with higher latent heat, improve collector quality and location
of the collector as they determine the energy collection and density of PCM storage which can further reduce the size of the storage
tanks and associated system costs. Optimal design and integration
reduces heat losses. Integrated transpired solar collectors with PCM
storage systems have signicant advantages over non-integrated
systems such as an add-on to the building envelope which enhances
durability of building envelope and reduces the balance of system
cost (BOS).
However, national and international test standards and commonly acceptable modeling tools for different applications with
PCMs are still not widely available making it difcult for comparison to be made. To reduce and or solve this problem, model
development and integration, national and international test standards for different applications with PCMs should be harmonized,
made compatible to each other and widely available. Additionally,
suitable design of heat exchangers to improve the heat transfer
rates, details on PCM stability and corrosion of PCM containers
for long term use, systematic approach in the design, integration
and evaluation of PCM integrated in HWT, used with solar air collectors and other storage tanks for space heating is to be further
investigated, in particular to large scale real life applications. The
impact of urban residences on energy consumption and carbon
emissions concluded that the two main contributors to domestic energy consumption are the household and transport sectors.
Furthermore, energy issues should not be considered as single element notwithstanding the high performance as this may not be
efcient but should be considered from a systems perspective.
The optimization, control and automation of these systems and not
elements/components are further needed.
Acknowledgments
The authors will like to appreciate the FQRNT for providing funding to the rst author for a post-doctoral fellow during which this
research is conducted, and the Public Works and Government Services Canada for its support.
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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Sustainable Cities and Society

Thermal energy storage with phase change materialA state-of-the

with densely high-rise buildings are needed to accommodate this

D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100

and efcient use of energy must be addressed in the design of

2. The need for energy storage

during the charging and discharging processes and thus proving to

Aydin, & Kaygusuz, 2008; Cabeza, Ibnez,

D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100

latent heat at constant or near constant temperature. In solidliquid

Additionally, the melting time and temperature distribution in

D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100

the enhancement of heat conduction offsets or exceeds the natural

D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100

plastic container and moderately ammable which needs to be

D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100

layer. In their analysis, the temperature sensor at the upper layer of

D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100

under real life conditions in order to increase the performance

D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100

Sozen et al. (1991)

Thermal energy storage characteristics of both

Better performance for the latent heat storage packed

Spherical capsules yielded the largest energy density

Barba and Spiga (2003)

Cabeza et al. (2005,

TRNSYS, TYPE 60PCM

Jos et al. (2005)

Performance of PCM hot water tank for a

Esen and Durmus (1998)

PCM elements inside a standard water storage

Rabin et al. (1995)

PCM into the solar collector

Use of PCM such as parafn for thermal energy

Dermott and Frysinger

PCM for waste heat and solar applications.

Mehling et al. (2002, 2003)

PCM-module at the top of a stratied hot water

To develop a PCM model, using the TRNSYS

TRNSYS (Type 860)

Esen and Durmus (1998)

Bedecarrats et al. (1996)

Bony and Citherlet (2007)

Talmatsky and Kribus

Cabeza, Castell, et al.

Tank with PCM show better performance compared to

Heat pump water heaters with PCM using off-peak

Conduction and convection occurs. Concluded that the

D.N. Nkwetta, F. Haghighat / Sustainable Cities and Society 10 (2014) 87100

Nallusamy et al. (2006)

To investigate the performance of packed bed

Long and Zhu (2008)

To evaluate the use of n in thermal energy

They concluded that the use of packed bed latent heat

De Gracia et al. (2011)

To evaluate corrosion resistance of metallic

They concluded that the Capric acid and palmitic acid

facade and or roof integrated. The perforated absorber surface of

2.4. The use of air as the transfer medium

2.4.2. Conguration, modeling, simulation and experimental

Transpired solar collectors (TSC) using air as the heat transfer