Thermal energy storage (TES) is increasingly important due to the demand-supply challenge caused by the intermittency of renewable energy and waste heat dissipation to the environment. This paper discusses the fundamentals and novel applications of TES materials and identifies appropriate TES materials for particular applications. The selection and ranking of suitable materials are discussed through multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques considering chemical, technical, economic and thermal performance. The recent advancements in TES materials, including their development, performance and applications are discussed in detail. Such materials show enhanced thermal conductivity, reduced supercooling, and the advantage of having multiple phase change temperatures (cascade PCMs). Nano-enhanced PCMs have found the thermal conductivity enhancement of up to 32% but the latent heat is also reduced by up to 32%. MXene is a recently developed 2D nanomaterial with enhanced electrochemical properties showing thermal conductivity and efficiency up to 16% and 94% respectively. Shape-stabilized PCMs are able to enhance the heat transfer rate several times (3–10 times) and are found to be best suited for solar collector and PV-based heat recovery systems. Cascade and molten slats PCMs find their best applications in the thermal management of buildings and the power sector (concentrated solar plants). Microencapsulated, nanoPCMs and shape-stabilized PCMs effectively reduce the supercooling of hydrated salts. The recent trends of TES materials in various applications, including building, industrial, power, food storage, smart textiles, thermal management, and desalination are also briefly discussed. Finally, future research in advanced energy storage materials is also addressed in this study, which is intended to help create new insights that will revolutionize the thermal management field. 

Advances in thermal energy storage: Fundamentals and applications

Global warming is the most serious problem humanity faces in the twenty-first century. To avoid additional global warming, the world must transition away from fossil fuels and toward carbon-free energy sources such as solar energy. However, the current generation of solar collectors is incapable of fulfilling the worldwide need for energy supply, and new creative technologies are required to close the gap between solar energy production and demand. Phase change materials (PCM) are among the most effective and active fields of research in terms of long-term heat energy storage and thermal management. Due to their excellent properties, they can be coupled with solar collectors to conserve surplus solar energy and regulate the temperature of photovoltaic solar collectors. However, PCM's actual applications are limited due to their poor thermal conductivity, availability, cost, and various challenges. This review focuses on recent advancements in integrating PCMs into different types of solar collectors. Furthermore, it aims to detail numerous strategies as well as diverse improvement approaches and modifications that have been developed to improve the performance of PCMs incorporated into solar collectors. Finally, based on the thorough results of this analysis, future suggestions have been made to offer the researcher ideas and feasible concepts for future research into PCM/Solar collectors’ system development. 

Recent advances on the applications of phase change materials for solar collectors, practical limitations, and challenges: A critical review

Experimental investigation of the thermal performance of a box type solar cooker using a finned cooking vessel

Various thermal energy storage (TES) materials are used to increase the efficacy of solar cooker in off-sun hours. For the past few decades, phase change materials (PCMs) used as heat storage medium have become research interest. Selection of optimum PCM is important for the effective and efficient heat storage. Therefore, the main objective of the current study is to select the optimum PCM among the alternatives to be used for TES unit incorporated in solar box cooker (SBC). The PCMs are pre-screened among the alternatives used in earlier works based on the melting temperature. The optimum PCM is then selected with the aid of different multi-criteria decision -making (MCDM) techniques like TOPSIS, EDAS and MOORA. The criteria weights required for the optimization algorithm is found by using AHP, ENTROPY and CRITIC methods. Also, compromised values between the weights obtained through these methods are computed. The optimization algorithms are solved using MATLAB. The results of all MCDM techniques show that erythritol is the best alternative for the TES medium incorporated in the SBC. Further, the optimum mass of PCM and dimensions of the TES unit required for the SBC to operate during sun down hours for some specific duration is calculated by using a simple iterative solver developed with MATLAB. There is good agreement between the computational procedure and experimental study using paraffin wax as the TES medium. The iterative solution procedure also selects erythritol to be the best alternative as it required lesser quantity compared with other PCMs. Therefore, we recommend erythritol as the best PCM for the SBC incorporated with TES unit.

Optimum selection of phase change material for solar box cooker integrated with thermal energy storage unit using multi-criteria decision-making technique

A state-of-the-art survey of evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS): Developments and applications

The solar energy as a renewable energy has been the primary interest of many researchers for the last four to five decades due to its wide applications such as domestic cooking systems. The present study aims to investigate the effect of various box geometries such as rectangular, trapezoidal, cylindrical and frustum of a cone on the performance of solar cookers. In this study, various heat losses (convective and radiative) from the cooker cavities are analysed by simulating the condition using commercial software ANSYS16. The results of numerical analysis of rectangular cavity box-type cooker are validated by comparing with experimental results. The results show that trapezoidal cavity box-type solar cooker has higher absorber plate temperature and minimum heat losses than all other geometries operating under the same conditions.

Numerical Investigation on the Effect of Various Geometries in a Solar Box-Type Cooker: A Comparative Study

Solar energy as an inexhaustible source of energy has been the primary interest of many researchers for the last four to five decades due to its wide applications such as domestic cooking systems. The current work aims to determine the optimum cooker surface area with the aid of analytical heat loss and design equations. The top, bottom and side heat loss coefficients are calculated by an iterative procedure solved using MATLAB. Also, it seeks to obtain the performance parameters of a solar cooker having sensible heat storage materials. For an anticipated average solar irradiation of 800 W/m2 and for boiling 1.5 kg mass of water, the cooker surface area is found to be 0.36 m2 and fabricated accordingly. Also, in this study, iron grits, sand, brick powder and charcoal powder are taken in the optimum ratio (mass) of 1:2:2:3 respectively as heat storage material. The performance indicators namely first and second figures of merit (F1 and F2), thermal and exergy efficiency are found to be 0.085, 0.319, 16.1% and 0.61% respectively. It is found that water temperature in the developed thermal energy storage incorporated solar cooker is maintained above 70 °C until 6 PM in a day.

Design, fabrication and performance assessment of a solar cooker with optimum composition of heat storage materials.

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Optimum selection of phase change material for solar box cooker integrated with thermal energy storage unit using multi-criteria decision-making technique

Numerical Investigation on the Effect of Various Geometries in a Solar Box-Type Cooker: A Comparative Study

Design, fabrication and performance assessment of a solar cooker with optimum composition of heat storage materials.