COMPANY NEWS
CUMI to acquire controlling stake in PLUSS
Carborundum Universal Ltd. (CUMI) has agreed to buy a controlling stake in PLUSS Advanced Technologies Pvt. Ltd. at an initial investment of ₹115 crore, or about $15.7 million USD.
Pluss, based in Gurgaon, India, develops and manufactures phase change material and other specialty materials for use in the automotive, health care, construction, energy and temperature-control packaging sectors.
“We started as a bootstrapped business in 1994,” Samit Jain, right, managing director of PLUSS, said in a news release. “Now, we are getting into Phase 3 of growth, where our focus is on quick introduction of commercialized products through infrastructure creation, continuous innovation, license technologies and strategic partnerships. We welcome the investment from CUMI, part of the Murugappa Group, as our strategic partner. With CUMI’s experience in material sciences, global footprint and coupled with their investment capabilities, we are confident of accelerating the progress of PLUSS.”
Sridharan Rangarajan, director of finance and strategy at CUMI, described PLUSS as “a niche technology company with good growth prospects.”
“Opportunities in pharma cold chain, refrigeration & food supply chain, medical devices, buildings and HVAC are emerging in India as well as globally,” Rangarajan said. “PLUSS with CUMI’s global footprint and investment support is well poised to address these opportunities.”
PATENTS
Composite construction panels
U.S. patent application 20210262228 (applicant Phase Change Solutions, Asheboro, N.C.):
“In one aspect, composite construction materials are described herein. In some embodiments, a composite construction panel comprises a substrate layer, a cover layer separated from the substrate layer by one or more spacers, and at least one mat disposed between the substrate layer and the cover layer, wherein the mat comprises at least one phase change material disposed in at least one phase change region.”
Garment for reducing hot flushes
U.S. patent application 20210251312 (applicant MAS Innovation Pvt. Ltd., Colombo, Sri Lanka):
“A wearable device, such as a garment or containing garment portions, for managing and/or reducing the symptoms of a hot flash in a subject. The device comprises: a first set of components, each comprising a fabric comprising a cooling yarn; a second set of components, each comprising a quick-dry wicking fabric; and a third set of components, each comprising a phase change material fabric, wherein the first set of components are adapted to cover at least a neckline region and a peripheral region that extends adjacently around the armpit and the clavicle of the subject; the second set of components are adapted to cover at least the abdominal muscles and the lumbar regions of the subject; and the third set of components are adapted to cover at least the mammary and the dorsum regions of the subject.”
Cooling arrangement for a high-voltage power device
U.S. patent application 20210257144 (applicant ABB Power Grids Switzerland AG, Baden, Switzerland):
“The invention is concerned with a cooling arrangement for a high voltage power device in an enclosure and immersed in an insulating fluid. The arrangement includes a cooling device for placing in the interior of the enclosure and having a channel formed as a duct for the insulating fluid the duct having a first wall including a phase change material for cooling insulating fluid that passes through the channel. The invention is also concerned with a method of operating a valve of a cooling device in such a cooling arrangement.”
More U.S. patent applications:
Self-healing hydrophobic composites (Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois) | Inductively heated thermal actuator (Safran Landing Systems Canada Inc., Ajax, Ontario) | Thermal management system (BAE Systems, London) | Thermal liquid container system with heat loss prevention lid (Curators of the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri) | Method of packaging a temperature-controlled product (Packaging Technology Group Inc., Fall River, Mass.) | Thermal energy storage assembly (Azelio AB, Amal, Sweden) | Devices and methods for thawing biological material (Celularity, Florham Park, N.J.) | Protective sleeve for fingers and toes (Belragona LLC, Chicago) | Thermal storage apparatus (City, University of London, London)
IN BRIEF
• Andrew Bissell, CEO at Sunamp Ltd., is featured prominently in a Bloomberg opinion piece on U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson‘s “Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.”
• Sunamp has posted a number of job openings, including three U.S.-based positions: business development manager, project manager and office manager.
• Cardiff University’s Centre for Integrated Renewable Energy Generation and Supply is seeking a research assistant in cooling systems and thermal energy storage.
• Phase Change Solutions Inc. of Asheboro, N.C., has opened an office at Newlab, a multi-disciplinary technology center in Brooklyn, N.C. PCS, formerly known as Phase Change Energy Solutions, has posted two openings in connection with the move: applications engineer and program manager, buildings and structures.
• Malta, a developer of grid-scale long-duration thermal energy storage solutions, announced that Chevron Technology Ventures and Piva Capital have joined Proman, Alfa Laval, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Dustin Moskovitz in its oversubscribed Series B financing, increasing the round to over $60 million.
• Thermal energy storage startup Azelio’s renewable energy storage units will be used in a sustainable agriculture project in Egypt. Azelio’s TES.POD systems store heat in a phase change material made from recycled aluminium heated to 600°C. A Stirling engine converts the heat to electricity.
• Thermal energy storage startup MGA Thermal of Australia has raised $8 million AUD (about $5.9 million USD), bringing its total funding to $9 million AUD. The company says a 1,000-block stack of its shoebox-size thermal energy storage blocks can store enough energy to power 27 homes for 24 hours. Company founder Erich Kisi says the blocks “essentially comprise metal particles that melt when heated embedded in an inert matrix material.”
• Dr. Karim Touati, lecturer-researcher at ESITC Caen, Normandy, France, is seeking partners for a research project to be launched in the next months. “The project will focus on increasing thermal inertia of earth-based buildings by using bio-based PCMs,” Touati said in an email to members of the RAL Quality Association PCM. “The project consortium under constitution will ask for a European funding within the Interreg program.”
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
From Journal of Materials Science:
From Applied Energy:
From Energy:
• Performance analysis of packed bed latent heat storage system for high-temperature thermal energy storage using pellets composed of micro-encapsulated phase change material
• Experimental and numerical study on flow characteristic and thermal performance of macro-capsules phase change material with biomimetic oval structure
From Materials Today: Proceedings:
From Egyptian Journal of Chemistry:
• Polyester Fibres Enhanced with Phase Change Material (PCM) to Maintain Thermal Stability
From Applied Thermal Engineering:
• A New Phase-change Cooling Method for the Frequent Start-Stop Electric Motor
• Thermal energy storage using phase change material: Analysis of partial tank charging and discharging on system performance in a building cooling application
• Identification of the effective heat capacity–temperature relationship and the phase change hysteresis in PCMs by means of an inverse heat transfer problem solved with metaheuristic methods
From Energy and Buildings:
• Numerical simulation and experimental research progress of phase change hysteresis: a review
• Evaluation of Phase Change Plaster/Paste Composites for Building Envelopes
• Numerical study of the feasibility of coupling vacuum isolation panels with phase change material for enhanced energy-efficient buildings
From Journal of Energy Storage:
• Melting of phase change materials in horizontal annuli
• Phase change material heat transfer enhancement in latent heat thermal energy storage unit with single fin: Comprehensive effect of position and length
• Control strategies of solar heating systems coupled with seasonal thermal energy storage in self-sufficient buildings
• Numerical investigation of photovoltaic hybrid cooling system performance using the thermoelectric generator and RT25 Phase change material
• The performance improvement of direct injection engines in cold start conditions integrating with phase change material: Energy and exergy analysis
• Using phase change material as an energy-efficient technique to reduce energy demand in air handling unit integrated with absorption chiller and recovery unit–Applicable for high solar-irradiance regions
From Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry:
• Silica-confined composite form-stable phase change materials: a review
From Solar Energy:
From Cell Reports Physical Science:
• Phase change material-based thermal energy storage
From International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer:
From Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells:
• Modified diatomite-based porous ceramic to develop shape-stabilized NaNO3 salt with enhanced thermal conductivity for thermal energy storage
• Recent advances in thermophysical properties enhancement of phase change materials for thermal energy storage
•
From Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects:
From Thermal Science and Engineering Progress:
From Renewable Energy:
From Chemical Engineering Journal:
• Flexible shape-stabilized phase change materials with passive radiative cooling capability for thermal management
• Octodecane-cellulose nanofiber flexible composites for latent heat storage
NETWORKING
Connect with PCM experts and industry leaders on LinkedIn
More than 1,600 people have joined a LinkedIn group devoted to the discussion of phase change material and thermal energy storage. You are invited to join the Phase Change Matters group and connect with PCM and TES experts from around the world.
This month we welcome Markus Hoffmann, managing director at Schaumaplast GmbH & Co., Mannheim, Germany; Sandeep Basmatkar, director at Futuron Specialty Products Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India; Shyamala Rajagopalan, licensing manager at Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station, Texas; Ravi Sharma, Ph.D. thermal energy storage engineer, Jaipur, India; Agnès Harlay, Ph.D. polymer scientist at ARMOR, Les Sorinières, France; Meysam Nazari, Ph.D. candidate in energy storage at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden; and Zeinab Kazemi, textile engineer, Tehran, Iran.
NEWS TIPS
Does your company, agency or university have a job opening, new research, new product or other news you’d like to share? I would love to hear from you. Please contact newsletter editor Ben Welter at benedict.welter@gmail.com.
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR
This newsletter is made possible through the generous support of the RAL Quality Association PCM and the members listed below. To learn more about the association, including membership benefits, please contact Stefan Thomann, executive director, at info@pcm-ral.de.
Axiotherm GmbH | Croda Europe Ltd. | ISU Chemical Co. Ltd. | RuhrTech | Microtek Laboratories | PCM Technology | PLUSS Advanced Technologies | PureTemp LLC | Rubitherm Technologies GmbH | Sasol Germany GmbH | Sunamp Ltd. | va-Q-tec AG
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Sasol Germany GmbH | Marl, Germany
![Sasol logo](https://www.pcm-ral.org/pcm/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/sasol-logo.png"){kind=logo}
Sasol is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-purity linear paraffins, alcohols and ethers, that can be extracted from synthetic or natural sources. These high-purity products are perfect for use as building blocks for PCM applications. Our products are stable, high performing, biodegradable, and can be used over a wide range of temperatures. From cool wicking textiles to temperature-controlled packaging, we have the perfect solution for your PCM applications.