Technology Outline (Process Description)

Solar thermal systems cannot provide a continuous output due to the intermittence of solar energy. Adopting a thermocline thermal energy storage system will overcome the intermittence issue and increase the performance of every solar thermal process heating plant. The thermal energy storage system comprises sensible or phase change material and heat transfer fluid. The thermocline thermal energy storage system capable of 42kWt is designed and developed. The performance of the energy storage system is identified for various flow rates of heat transfer fluid and found the better performance at a lower flow rate. The storage efficiency of the system was found as 97.72% at the highest Stanton number due to the higher heat transfer coefficient. Further, the parametric and sensitivity of the system have been evaluated, and it found Stanton number, porosity, and geometrical ratio are more influential parameters for storage. The developed system supports 6 hrs of discharging for 8.2 hours of charging, which is highly suitable for residential areas, and pilot process heating unit in the dairy, pharmaceutical, and food drying industries.