Latent heat storage materials and systems: A review

The use of a latent heat storage system using Phase Change Materials (PCM) is an effective way of storing thermal energy (solar energy, off-peak electricity, industrial waste heat) and has the advantages of high storage density and the isothermal nature of the storage process. It has been demonstrated that, for the development of a latent heat storage system, choice of the PCM plays an important role in addition to heat transfer mechanism. The information on the latent heat storage materials and systems is enormous and published widely in the literatures. In this paper, we make an effort to gather the information from the previous works on PCMs and latent heat storage systems. This review will help to find a suitable PCM for various purposes a suitable heat exchanger with ways to enhance the heat transfer, and it will also help to provide a variety of designs to store the heat using PCMs for different applications, i.e. space heating & cooling, solar cooking, greenhouses, solar water heating and waste heat recovery systems. Measurement techniques of thermophysical properties, studies on thermal cycles for long term stability, corrosion of the PCMs and enhancement of heat transfer in PCM are discussed. New PCM innovations are also included for the awareness of new applications. This paper contains a list of about 250 PCMs and more than 250 references.