Energy Storage Using Sensible Heat Storage Media: Thermal and Economic Considerations

Storage of energy is an important technology to bridge the time and space gap between the source/supply and sink/utilization of energy. Thermal energy storage has emerged as a means to capture heat from both low- and high-temperature sources. Storage of waste heat and solar thermal energy is easier and cheaper with the application of sensible heat storage materials. However, the knowledge of thermal and physical properties of sensible heat storage materials is important for economical and effective heat storage. Therefore, this paper presents the thermal and economic aspects of liquid and solid-state sensible heat storage materials. Thermal aspects are important for designing of the energy storage systems, while economic considerations are important in material selection and payback calculations. From the thermo-economic studies, it is found that water and rocks have great potential as liquid and solid sensible heat storage materials, respectively, primarily due to their low cost. Water also has impressive thermal properties which makes its storage density higher as compared to other liquids. Also, cast iron and steel present good potential as heat storage materials due to their high thermal capacity.