Jim, Md. Humayun Kabir, Rimon, Shah Tanvir Alam and Mourshed, Monjur  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8347-1366
2026.
Experimental and techno-economic assessment of a bio-inspired hybrid phase change material-based thermal energy storage system.
Journal of Energy Storage
180
, 124073.
10.1016/j.est.2026.124073
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Abstract
An experimental and preliminary techno-economic assessment was conducted on a bio-inspired hybrid phase change material (PCM)-based thermal energy storage (TES) system operated under passive solar tower and parabolic concentrator configurations. Six PCM configurations were evaluated, including pure paraffin wax, pure sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT), chain-mesh-integrated paraffin and SAT, and 5 vol% aluminium-enhanced paraffin and SAT composites. Repeated outdoor charging and discharging cycles were performed to quantify PCM temperature response, local heat-transfer-fluid (HTF) temperature, charging/discharging rate, thermal retention, normalized storage density, and levelized cost of storage (LCOS). Energy storage performance was normalized by PCM mass to support comparative system-level assessment between TES prototypes with different chamber volumes, while recognizing that normalization does not fully remove differences in reflector geometry, optical concentration, and local heat-flux distribution. The SAT‑aluminium configuration achieved the highest PCM peak temperature of approximately 92–95 °C and a normalized storage density of 0.053–0.056 kWh/kg, representing an improvement of approximately 60% relative to pure paraffin. A local near-wall HTF temperature response of up to 127 °C was recorded near the absorber/PCM-wall interface under concentrated solar input; this value represents a local thermocouple response rather than the bulk HTF temperature used for stored-energy estimation. Irradiance-time contour analysis showed faster charging under the parabolic concentrator, whereas the tower configuration exhibited smoother after-sunset thermal retention. The lowest preliminary LCOS was 0.152 USD/kWh for the SAT-aluminium configuration, indicating potential economic feasibility under the stated laboratory-scale assumptions. However, long-term cycling, HTF flow-rate sensitivity analysis, degradation assessment, exergy assessment, and scale-up validation are required before commercial applicability can be established.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > Engineering |
| Additional Information: | RRS policy applied |
| Publisher: | Elsevier |
| ISSN: | 2352-152X |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 25 August 2026 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 9 August 2026 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Aug 2026 13:30 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/189164 |
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