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Thermal, exergy and economic analysis of a cascaded packed-bed tank with multiple phase change materials for district cooling system

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  • Shao, Y.L.
  • Soh, K.Y.
  • Islam, M.R.
  • Chua, K.J.

Abstract

In Singapore's industry, the required temperature of a district cooling system's outlet and return water are 5 °C and 12 °C, respectively. Thus far, few researches have been reported on the cascaded phase change material (PCM) tank focusing on this temperature duration. In this study, a cascaded packed-bed tank for a district cooling system is proposed to improve heat transfer efficiency and decrease tank cost with the same cold energy capacity. The cascaded PCM system, employing PCM-1 and PCM-2 (volume ratio 50%–50% and 30%–70% tetradecane-hexadecane mixtures), is designed, modeled, and validated through experimental data. Key results revealed that the PCM-1 tank performs poorly during its charging phase, while the PCM-2 tank performs poorly in discharging phase. However, the proposed cascaded packed-bed tank that simultaneously PCM-1 and PCM-2 can achieve high average exergy efficiencies during the charging and discharging phases. Additionally, the cascaded system incorporating 0.42 of PCM-1 and 0.18 of PCM-2 demonstrates higher exergy efficiency and tank volume but incurs higher construction costs than other tank designs. Comparatively, the same cold energy capacity tank with 0.18 of PCM-1 and 0.42 of PCM-2 reduces construction cost by 6.8%, with a depreciation of exergy efficiency by 14.1% during the discharging phase.

Suggested Citation

  • Shao, Y.L. & Soh, K.Y. & Islam, M.R. & Chua, K.J., 2023. "Thermal, exergy and economic analysis of a cascaded packed-bed tank with multiple phase change materials for district cooling system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:268:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223001408
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.126746
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    References listed on IDEAS

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