Study of a passive radiative cooling coating on chemical storage tanks for evaporative loss control

All-day passive radiative cooling is a promising cooling technique achieves cooling without any energy input, thereby attracting tremendous attention. Most of the studies focus on building applications, but there remains a lack of information on other potential applications of radiative cooling systems. Herein, we report an application of a polymeric passive radiative cooling coating (PRCC) on the exterior surface of chemical storage tanks, which is often overlooked but exhibits great potential to efficiently control the evaporative loss of the chemicals. The PRCC exhibits strong solar reflectivity (96.2%) and emissivity (95%) in the mid-infrared wavelength range. According to the results of an outdoor test on a small-scale chemical storage container, the PRCC achieves 81.4%, 54.1%, and 19.8% of chemicals saved compared with a raw container, container painted with commercial white paint (CWP), and the shaded raw container, respectively. A numerical simulation is also conducted to estimate the chemical standing loss from an industrial large-scale chemical storage tank. It is found that the PRCC can achieve a saving of over 50% of the chemical compared with commercial white paint for a chemical storage tank, showing a promising potential to be applied on chemical storage systems.

Automated summary

The application of a polymeric passive radiative cooling coating (PRCC) on the exterior surface of chemical storage tanks is often overlooked but has great potential in efficiently controlling the evaporative loss of chemicals. The PRCC exhibits high solar reflectivity (96.2%) and emissivity (95%) in the mid-infrared wavelength range. Results from outdoor testing on a small-scale chemical storage container show that the PRCC can save 81.4%, 54.1%, and 19.8% of chemicals compared to a raw container, container painted with commercial white paint (CWP), and shaded raw container, respectively. Numerical simulation also demonstrates that the PRCC can achieve over 50% chemical savings compared to commercial white paint for industrial large-scale chemical storage tanks, thus indicating a promising potential for application in chemical storage systems.