NEWS
Phase Change Matters newsletter settles in at Quality Association
The Phase Change Matters newsletter, launched by PureTemp LLC more than six years ago, is now officially an exclusive feature of the RAL Quality Association PCM. Association members voted in June to extend their financial commitment to the newsletter, which has 1,400 subscribers, through March 2022.
To continue receiving the free newsletter, readers must confirm their interest by subscribing on the association’s website, using a GDPR-compliant form at www.pcm-ral.org/pcm/en/newsletter. Past issues are available on that page, along with a link to more than 250 issues published by PureTemp since 2015.
PATENTS
Absorbent article
U.S. patent application 20210169711 (applicant Essity Hygiene and Health Aktiebolag Göteborg, Sweden):
“The absorbent article comprises at least a topsheet layer and a backsheet layer, each layer having a body facing surface and a garment facing surface, and longitudinal and transversal edges, the article having a longitudinal front portion, a longitudinal back portion and a crotch portion located between the front and the back portion. The article comprises a first and a second zone of microencapsulated phase change material on a surface of a layer of the article.”
Starch-based cooling material
U.S. patent application 20210161203 (applicant China Tobacco Guangdong Industrial Co. Ltd., Guangdong, China):
“A starch-based cooling material of the invention is prepared by 8.0 to 9.0 parts of a starch, 0.5 to 1.0 part of a phase change material, and 0.5 to 1.0 a part of polyol. The starch-based cooling material of the invention is prepared by coordination of the starch, the phase change material and the polyol, wherein the phase change material has effects of absorbing and storing heat, a temperature of smoke can be significantly reduced, an effect of fast and strong cooling is realized, and a cooling effect can reach 70° C. to 120° C. All the raw materials for preparing are biodegradable materials, and a prepared heat-not-burn cigarette filter stick can be degraded after use, which is environmental friendly, and can be widely used in the field of preparing heat-not-burning cigarette products.”
Cooling systems adapted to be thermally connected to heat-generating equipment
U.S. patent application 20210168970 (applicant OVH, Roubaix, France):
“A cooling device comprises a first casing for direct mounting on a heat-generating component and a second casing mounted on the first casing. One casing includes an internal channel connected to a cold inlet and to a hot outlet allowing a heat-transfer fluid to flow in the internal channel. The other casing includes a storage containing a phase change material (PCM) changing from a solid state to a liquid state to transfer thermal energy from the heat-generating unit to the PCM, the PCM changing from the liquid state to the solid state to transfer thermal energy from the PCM to the heat-transfer fluid. The cooling device may be integrated in a cooling circuit of a cooling system including an external cooling unit, or in a closed loop cooling circuit of a cooling arrangement that transfers heat from the closed loop to an open loop.”
More U.S. patent applications:
Cooling mattresses (Soft-Tex International Inc. (Waterford, N.Y.) | Ultra-long thermally insulated pipeline (Shinda Creative Oil & Gas Equipment Co. Ltd., Tangshan, China) | Element for cooling the air of a motor vehicle (Valeo Systemes Thermiques, Le Mesnil Saint Denis, France) | PCM-coated heat exchange tubes (Henkel IP & Holding GmbH, Dusseldorf, Germany) | Portable apparatus for creating a temperature stabilized environment (Fruition LLC, Lexington, Mass.) | Drilling fluid composition for cooling in high-temperature formations (Eavor Technologies Inc., Calgary, Canada) | Thermal management structure with integrate channels (Hutchinson, Paris, France) | Compartmentalized shipping container (American Aerogel Corp., Rochester, N.Y.)
IN BRIEF
• Dulas Ltd. of Great Britain has donated two of its solar-powered refrigerators to Cameroon, where they will be used to speed delivery of temperature-sensitive vaccines. Phase change material built into the refrigerator walls helps maintain a stable temperature of 5 degrees C.
• Croda International Plc is one of seven companies recognized by the American Chemistry Council’s Sustainability Leadership Awards. In sharing news of the honor on LinkedIn, Croda’s Jamie Pocklington wrote: “These awards have highlighted the amazing work by our colleagues at Avanti, recognising the ‘societal contribution’ their smart science has made to the development and deployment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.”
• Nostromo of Israel reports that it has raised $13.6 million in funding for its ice-powered thermal energy storage system. The IceBrick system stores cold energy during hours when electricity demand is low or there is a surplus of renewable energy, and discharges the energy during peak hours of energy consumption.
• An associate professor of engineering at Northeastern University has created a sustainable material that can be used to help cool buildings without relying on conventional cooling systems. Using a blender, Yi Zheng combined waste paper and components of Teflon to create pulp material for what he calls “cooling paper.” He and his colleagues found that the cooling paper can reduce a room’s temperature by as much as 10 degrees F. The process for creating and testing the material was described in a paper published last month in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials & Interfaces.
• The Electric Power Research Institute is working with the New York Power Authority to explore the use of crushed-rock thermal energy storage. The project, funded by a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, will investigate the feasibility of TES technology developed by Brenmiller Energy.
• Global-E-Systems Europe, a Dutch company that installed its PCM technology in several commercial buildings in Netherlands, filed for bankruptcy in April.
• Phase Change Solutions‘ BioPCM is among the passive-cooling technologies highlighted in a profile of a solar-powered “tiny house” in Sonoma County, Calif. The 170-square-foot portable structure, shown here, was designed and built as part of a graduate school project.
• NASA has awarded the University of Mississippi a grant for an undisclosed amount to pursue research on the use of PCM in suborbital flight. The university’s proposal is titled “Thermal Transport Characterization of Phase-Change Material (PCM) Infused in Annular Passage Filled with Additively Manufactured Metal Foam Obtained Through Octet-Shaped Unit Cell Reticulation Under Micro-gravity Conditions.”
• RayGen Resources of Australia has secured funding for a grid-scale power generation and long-duration energy storage project that combines solar power and thermal energy storage.
• Viking Cold Solutions of Houston has made Food Logistics‘ list of Top Green Providers for the fifth year in a row. The company’s PCM-based thermal storage system, designed for use in cold storage facilities, is designed to reduce energy consumption by more than 25 percent.
• “PCM and Heat Pipes for Temperature Reduction in Electric Vehicle Batteries,” by Dr. Sohail Zaidi of San Jose State University, is among the presentations at this year’s Advancements in Thermal Management, a virtual conference to be held Aug. 4-5. A full-rate pass to all presentations is available for $495 through July 30.
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
From Energy:
From Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments:
From Journal of Energy Engineering:
From Energies:
From Renewable Energy:
From ASHRAE Transactions:
• Time-Lag Analysis of PCM in Floor Radiant Heating System
From Food Chemistry:
From Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry:
From Powder Technology:
From Construction and Building Materials:
• Preparation and characterizations of hydroxyapatite microcapsule phase change materials for potential building materials
• Exterior insulation finishing system using cementitious plaster/microencapsulated phase change material for improving the building thermal storage performance
From Solar Energy:
• Phase change materials in solar photovoltaics applied in buildings: An overview
• Experimental and numerical investigations on the charging and discharging performances of high-temperature cylindrical phase change material encapsulations
From Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews:
• Research progress on utilization of phase change materials in photovoltaic/thermal systems: A critical review
• A review on thermal management performance enhancement of phase change materials for vehicle lithium-ion batteries
From Nanomaterials and Composites for Energy Conversion and Storage:
From Journal of Applied Physics:
• Understanding supercooling mechanism in sodium sulfate decahydrate phase-change material
From Materials Today:
• Preparation and characterization of microencapsulated organic phase change material for cool thermal energy storage applications
• Design analysis of heat exchanger for the solar water heating systems using phase change materials
From Journal of Energy Storage:
• Experimental Study on the Use of Enhanced Coconut Oil and Paraffin Wax Phase Change Material in Active Heating Using Advanced Modular Prototype
• Study on Modification of Room Temperature Vulcanized Silicone Rubber by Microencapsulated Phase Change Material
• Experimental and numerical simulation investigation on the battery thermal management performance using silicone coupled with phase change material
From Energy Storage Materials:
• Flexible phase change materials for thermal energy storage
From Innovations in Ventilative Cooling:
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 Jason Ong, business development manager at Tower Cold Chain Solutions, Singapore; Anthony Alleva, director of packaging engineering and validation at TempAid, Keansburg, N.J.; Will Howell, production manager at Sunamp Ltd., Edinburgh, Scotland; Dev Anand, research assistant at Institute of Turbomachinery and Fluid Dynamics, Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany; Ashkan Movaghar, senior thermal engineer at Qualcomm, San Diego, Calif.; and Gaurav Shresth, manager of application development at Pluss Advanced Technologies, Gurgaon, India. Gaurav writes:
“I am facing issues in figuring out how to simulate phase change materials on energy plus. I am seeking advice/consultancy from experts in the group to create simulations incorporating PCMs for this task. Kindly send me a message with your contact details and I will reach out to you with detailed requirement.”
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: PureTemp LLC | Minneapolis, Minnesota
PureTemp specializes in biobased phase change material. Eighteen PureTemp products, with melting points ranging from 4 degrees C to 68 degrees C, have been designated as 100 percent biobased by the U.S. Department of Agriculture‘s BioPreferred Program. Contact PureTemp for more information on these products.