Projects

For this research project, the floatability of Jinda coal slime using kerosene and Microemulsion Collector (MEC) has been investigated. Results have determined that the MEC is stable, easily dispersible in water and forms very small oil droplets compared to the kerosene. The performance of MEC has been compared with Kerosene, and mechanisms for the interaction of these compounds with coal have been suggested.

The flotation performance of microemulsion collector (MEC) was investigated by coal slime flotation test; a traditional coal collector, Kerosene, was used for possible comparisons. Experimental measurements including Dynamic Light Scattering, Rheological Measurement, Interfacial Tension and Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscope were used to determine the properties of MEC. The coal-MEC and coal-kerosene interactions were emphatically analysed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and contact angle to determine the better performance of the MEC compared to kerosene.

Flotation results confirm that MEC can significantly enhance the clean coal yield and present high flotation selectivity. Furthermore, the mechanism of MEC as a flotation collector was examined. The adsorption of MEC increased the carbon content and decreased the oxygen content on the coal surface.

The effects of the MEC and kerosene on the flotation performance (i.e., recovery and selectivity) were also investigated. The results show that only 44.51% recovery was obtained for fine coal flotation by using conventional kerosene and octanol as the collector and frother, respectively.

Project Funders: Shenzhen Clean Energy Research Institute and Shenzhen Engineering Research Center for Coal Comprehensive Utilization 

Project Partners: Fen Yang and Binglong Zhao

This project aims to develop novel thermal energy storage based air-conditioning technology for next-generation underground trains. The specific objectives of the project are to reduce the weight and volume of underground train air-conditioning systems by 20%, increase energy efficiency by 25% and reduce noise level due to frequent on-and-off and load variation operations of the air conditioning systems, and increase the extent of thermal comfort of rail passengers by decreasing temperature fluctuations.

This project covers the following aspects:

• Whole system design based on the requirements of underground trains, taking into account real operation data, the establishment of predictive models for the system for dynamic modelling and optimisation;
• Materials screening based on the whole system design above, design and fabrication of materials modules and components, and characterisation and measurements of the materials and components;
• Design and fabrication of thermal energy storage heat exchange devices, and dynamic performance modelling and experiments of the devices;
• Lab scale thermal energy storage based air-conditioning unit assembly and experiments;
• Design of a prototype and fabrication of the prototype;
• Prototype demonstration in testing trains and performance assessments.

Recent Achievements: As a part of this project seven patents and six journal papers have been published. Six prototypes have been manufactured which are expected to be demonstrated on the pilot metro trains in late 2020. 

Project funder: CRRC Qingdao Sifang Co., Ltd

Amount of funding: £ 490K

 Publications:

1. Nie B, She X, Yu Q, Zou B, Zhao Y, Li Y, et al. Experimental study of charging a compact PCM energy storage device for transport application with dynamic exergy analysis. Energy Convers Manag 2019;196:536–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.06.032.
2. Nie B, She X, Zou B, Li Y, Li Y, Ding Y. Discharging performance enhancement of a phase change material based thermal energy storage device for transport air-conditioning applications. Appl Therm Eng 2020;165:114582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114582.
3. Nie B, Zou B, She X, Zhang T, Li Y, Ding Y. Development of a heat transfer coefficient based design method of a thermal energy storage device for transport air-conditioning applications. Energy 2020;196:117083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.117083.
4. Nie B, She X, Navarro H, Smith DP, Sciacovelli A, Ding Y. Charging properties of a compact energy storage device for transport air conditioning applications. Energy Procedia 2017;142:3531–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.12.241.
5. Nie B, She X, Du Z, Xie C, Li Y, He Z, et al. System performance and economic assessment of a thermal energy storage based air-conditioning unit for transport applications. Appl Energy 2019;251:113254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.057.
6. Nie B, Du Z, Zou B, Li Y, Ding Y. Performance enhancement of a phase-change-material based thermal energy storage device for air-conditioning applications. Energy Build 2020;214:109895. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENBUILD.2020.109895.

The Coal chemical industries face a huge challenge in terms of the energy transition. The penetration of renewables (especially variable renewable resources) can solve the challenges surrounding electricity generation from a coal source but in some countries (e.g. China and India) there is a growing demand for substitutes in the coal chemical sector. The aim of this project is to design a hybrid system that can consume excess energy from renewables and use the coal as the feedstock to produce chemicals including ammonia, hydrogen, methane, and methanol. Thermodynamics analysis, technical-economic analysis and multi-scale modelling will be implemented in this project and this project is expected to be completed by 2022. 

Project funder: Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)

DROPLET is a UK-South Korea Smart Energy Innovation Collaboration. DROPLET is an innovative liquid air production and storage system that uses existing spare air compressor capacity and off-peak power to produce and store liquefied air, which has a significantly higher specific energy density relative to existing methods.

The stored liquid air is used in place of running air compressors at selected times, improving the efficiency of existing compression systems by up to 25%, allowing electricity consumption during ‘red-band’ demand periods to be shifted to cheaper ‘green-band’ rates and allowing the provision of demand-side response services to the grid.

DROPLET reduces energy costs, enables additional renewable energy penetration to the grid and provides security & continuity of operations through the large storage of compressed air, thereby meeting all aspects of the energy trilemma.

The main objectives of the DROPLET project are:

1. To quantify and validate the extent of the UK and South Korean market for air compressor DSR met by DROPLET.
2. To develop a commercialisation strategy for Demand Side Response (DSR) that leverages well-established compressor efficiency program.
3. To optimise the design and build a 30kW demonstration plant that integrates novel cold storage technology developed in the UK with advanced thermal cycle design.

It is anticipated that the project will also aim at maximising the ratio of energy put into the energy retrieved from storage, also known as round trip efficiency.

Status of project: A novel cryogenic Phase Change Material (PCM) has been developed and characterised by the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage. Meanwhile, a compact test rig with a latent PCMs and sensible heat cold storages have been designed, simulated and built at the University of Birmingham. Liquified nitrogen has been obtained through experimental tests, which has proven the feasibility of the DROPLET technology, and fulfils the aim of the project. The collaborator is preparing to prototype the 30kW system in South Korea based on the preliminary outputs from the UK partners. 

Project Funders: Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the UK-South Korea Smart Energy Innovation Collaboration.

Project Partners:

• Doosan Babcock Limited
• Innovatium
• Advanced Forming Research Centre
• Institute for Advanced Engineering  

This joint project delivers integration of photovoltaics and storage technologies into power networks for improving living standards. Both the UK and India have ambitious targets to deploy renewable energy including wind and solar power but the challenge of integrating these intermittent sources remains. JUICE brings together leading energy researchers from ten UK universities with their counterparts across India to share experiences and develop technologies critical to the future of sustainable energy systems.

Energy generation from photovoltaic devices is promising however they suffer from elevated PV surface temperature that considerably reduce their power generation, particularly in the hot weather regions such as India. Thermal regulation of PV devices using Phase Change Material (PCM) can control the PV temperature. The University of Birmingham and the IIT Kharagpur are mathematically and experimentally investigating the use of this technology to enhance the power generation of the India PV farms. To test this technology, a grid connected of a conventional PV system and a combined effect of PV/PCM configurations for efficiency enhancement with capacity of 1kWp each will be built at outdoor environment in Kharagpur, India.

Project Funders: JUICE is funded in the UK by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and builds on expertise developed in their Supergen projects on energy networks, photovoltaics and storage technologies. In India, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is funding both the India-UK Centre for Education and Research in Clean Energy (IUCERCE) and the UK-India Clean Energy Research Institute (UKICERI).Collectively these projects form the Joint Virtual Clean Energy Centre.

Find out more: http://www.juice-centre.org.uk/

The PRISMA project utilises an innovative Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) plant that stores energy in liquid air form to provide on-site compressed air, allowing inefficient partially-loaded variable-demand compressors to be turned off, thus improving the total system efficiency by up to 65%.

The PRISMA system fills latent energy cold storage tank with a phase change materials (PCM) to store thermal energy and combines this with a number of other off-the-shelf components to form a system that will work with aggregate industries existing compressed air network.

The Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage (BCES) initiated the project by developing a characterised and novel cryogenic PCM. A compact test rig with a latent and sensible heat cold storage was designed, manufactured and built at the University of Birmingham. This project has currently successfully completed the lab-scale system testing and results have proven the feasibility of the PRISMA technology.  

Project Funders: Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and delivered by Carbon Trust’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA).   

Amount Funded: £350,000

Project Partners: Innovatium and Aggregate Industries

Find out more: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/energy/news/2019/bces-awarded-new-project-to-tackle-energy-efficiency.aspx

This project focuses on storage enabled refrigeration equipment with active management. To support this project, researchers from the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage are responsible for the formulation, selection and manufacture of phase change materials (PCM). The research team are also providing integration advice on the novel PCM refrigeration systems.

The research team are currently in the process of integrating the PCM tank with a Hubbard refrigeration system and carrying out underling system testing at Hubbard ltd.

Delivered By: Flexible Power system

Project Funder: Energy Entrepreneurs Fund

Amount Funded: £743,222

Project Partners: Flexible Power system , Hubbard Ltd and Imperial College London. 

The Energy-Use Minimisation via High Performance Heat-Power-Cooling Conversion and Integration: A Holistic Molecules to Technologies to Systems Approach (iHPC) project is a four-year multidisciplinary project aimed at minimising primary-energy use in UK industry.

The project is a collaboration between four UK universities: the University of Birmingham, Brunel University London, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. Alongside these academic participants are 14 core industrial partners and approximately 10 additional associated industrial partners representing a diverse range of industries.

iHPC is studying next-generation technological solutions in the heat-power-cooling conversion area. The team are working to understand optimal implementation of various possibilities to:

• Identify the challenges
• Assess the opportunities
• Outline the benefits to different stakeholders

iHPC focusses on two selected energy-conversion technologies with integrated energy-storage capabilities:

1.      Heat-to-power with organic Rankine cycle (ORC) devices

2.      Heat-to-cooling with absorption refrigeration cycle (ARC) devices

These have been chosen as they are capable of recovering and utilising thermal energy from a diverse range of sources in industrial applications. The heat input can come from highly efficient distributed combined heat & power (CHP) units, conventional or renewable sources (solar, geothermal, biomass/gas), or be wasted from industrial processes.

The in-built, by design, capacity for low-cost thermal storage acts to buffer energy or temperature fluctuations inherent to most real heat sources, allowing smaller conversion devices (for the same average input) and more efficient operation of those devices closer to their design points for longer periods. This will greatly improve the economic proposition of implementing these conversion solutions by simultaneously reducing capital and maintenance costs, and improving performance.

The project involves targeting and resolving pre-identified 'bottleneck' aspects of each technology that can enable step-improvements in maximising performance per unit capital cost. To enable the widespread uptake of these technologies and their optimal integration with existing energy systems and energy-efficiency strategies, leading to drastic increases performance while lowering costs, thus reducing payback to 3-5 years.

The project will optimise application-tailored fluids for high efficiency and power, provide innovative components including advanced heat-exchanger configurations and architectures in order to increase thermal transport while simultaneously reducing component size and cost. A dynamic, interactive whole-energy-integration design and assessment platform will be developed to accelerate the implementation of the technological advances, feeding into specific case-studies and facilitating direct recommendations to industry.

Project Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Amount Funded: £1,573,522

Project Partners: Partners: Imperial College London, Brunel University London and the University of Cambridge

Find out more: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/ihpc/

This project, builds on individual achievements in nanocomposites and thermal storage research. Adopting a multi-institutional and experimental-modelling approach, n-COSH aims to develop new PCM-based nano-materials. These new materials will be suitable for high energy density (6 times higher than existing technology), affordable and sustainable for  PCM-based composite thermal storage device applications.

n-COSH primarily addresses the materials and materials design aspect of the Energy Storage Challenge Call to provide high energy and power density. The project will also develop experimental and modelling diagnostic tools  to monitor and maximise the efficiency of the PCM composite devices.

Project Funders: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Amount Funded: £ 924,591

Project Partners: University of Exeter, University of Nottingham, Cornwall Council, Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) and the Kensa Group Ltd. 

Find out more: https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/P003435/1

Publications: 

• Li C (2019) Heat transfer of composite phase change material modules containing a eutectic carbonate salt for medium and high temperature thermal energy storage applications in Applied Energy
• Anagnostopoulos A (2019) Molecular dynamics simulation of solar salt (NaNO3-KNO3) mixtures in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
• Nie B (2019) Experimental study of charging a compact PCM energy storage device for transport application with dynamic exergy analysis in Energy Conversion and Management
• Li Q (2019) A review of performance investigation and enhancement of shell and tube thermal energy storage device containing molten salt based phase change materials for medium and high temperature applications in Applied Energy
• Li C (2019) Investigation on the thermal performance of a high temperature packed bed thermal energy storage system containing carbonate salt based composite phase change materials in Applied Energy
• Li C (2019) A novel high temperature electrical storage heater using an inorganic salt based composite phase change material in Energy Storage
• Li C (2019) Investigation on the effective thermal conductivity of carbonate salt based composite phase change materials for medium and high temperature thermal energy storage in Energy
• Nie B (2019) System performance and economic assessment of a thermal energy storage based air-conditioning unit for transport applications in Applied Energy

The Active Building Centre’s research project aims to transform the UK construction and energy sectors through the deployment of Active Buildings that will encourage efficient energy use and decarbonisation.

The project comprises of 20 work packages (WP) covering a board range of research areas. The Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage is supporting WP3, which is focused on Modularise Inter-Seasonal Thermochemical Storage (ISTS).

The key responsibility for BCES is to investigate the ISTS technique from both a material and device level. The research team also intended to prototype a 1.5kW/7.5kWh scale energy storage system.

Project Funders: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), InnovateUK and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 

Amount Funded: £36 million

Project Partners: Swansea University, Cardiff University, University of Bath, Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, Loughborough University, Newcastle University, University College London and the University of Nottingham.

The scope of this study is to develop a new low-temperature solar thermal energy storage system by using low-cost thermochemical material hydrated salt, which could store heat in a chemical bond. Researchers from the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage use an encapsulation technique to improve the stability and dynamic performance of raw materials.

A novel solar directly heated packed-bed reactor has also been designed, which could dry the particle under one-sun irradiation and then release the energy by absorbing the moisture from air flow. The aim of this project is to develop a practicable system with ~kWh-level capacity.

Project Funder and Project Partner: Southern University of Science and Technology

Publication:

Xusheng Zhang, Zheng Du, Yudong Zhu, Chuan Li, Xianfeng Hu, Tingbin Yang, Bin-Bin Yu, Rui Gu, Yulong Ding, Zhubing He. A novel volumetric absorber integrated with low-cost D-Mannitol and acetylene-black nanoparticles for solar-thermal-electricity generation, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. Volume 207, April 2020, 110366. DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2019.110366 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927024819306920

The BeerTHERMOSTOCK projects aims to develop a highly innovative latent heat storage system based on phase-change materials (PCMs). The proposed heat storage system will reduce the use of fossil fuels in the brewing process by improving energy resources management. The new system will increase the currently storage capacity of Estrella Levante factory and reduce its carbon footprint.

This new system design began with the selection and formulation of a PCM with a suitable thermal behaviour that fulfills the energy storage requirements of the brewing industrial process. The design of the heat exchanger is tested at laboratory scale and a final design and construction at pilot scale is used to validate the prototype under real conditions using waste heat from a brewing industry.

The expected benefits of this innovative heat storage technology will be:

• Fossil energy reduction in the brewing process.
• Increased storage capacity .
• Improving the management of energy resources .
• High replicability of the process.
• Decreased carbon footprint of the beer manufacturing process.

As a part of this project, a pilot scale storage and recovery system will be designed and implemented. The pilot will store low-temperature waste heat from the factory that can then be stored and used at another time or in another location, ultimately saving energy during the industrial process. The key innovation of the project is the use of PCM technology for the storage of energy from waste heat. Currently, no manufacturing plant in the food sector is known to use such technology in their facilities.

Project Funders: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)

Amount Funded: € 558,966

Project Partners: Estrella Levante

This project focuses on high-temperature phase change materials and a heat storage device. The aim is to address the challenges of using high-temperature phase change materials in practice, and to optimise the material’s properties including thermophysical properties, mechanical strength, corrosivity and hygroscopicity, etc.

As a part of this project, a prototype of the heat storage device will be manufactured with high-temperature phase change materials and the devices performance will be investigated and optimised for practical use. 

Project Funder: Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Europe GmbH

Project Partner: GEIRI: Energy Storage Materials and Technology (ESMT)

New energy storage solutions and innovations play a vital role in fully realising solar energy potentials, particularly in large-scale integration into future low-carbon energy systems. For concentrated solar power, one of the key challenges lies in low-cost high-performance thermal energy storage. Latent thermal energy storage holds the key to resolving such a challenge and keeping energy supply over periods of inadequate irradiation.

The THERMES project will develop a new generation high-temperature phase change microemulsion both as the latent heat storage material and heat transfer fluid for low temperature solar field of a dual-loop solar field system. The high-temperature phase change microemulsion is characterised by high energy density, enhanced heat transfer performance through the addition of nanoparticles, and cost-effectiveness due to the use of commercial grade paraffin as the latent heat storage medium.

By integrating the expertise of the host and Dr. Wenzheng Cui, THERMES will combine cutting-edge experimental, computational and theoretical analysis methods to develop the next generation working medium for latent thermal energy storage in order to meet the key challenge faced by concentrated solar power and fill the research gap of lacking of knowledge on high-temperature properties of phase change microemulsion. THERMES will aggrandise commercialisation of utility-scale concentrated solar power, provide adaptability and support solar energy integration in the energy system. Therefore it is in line with European Union's Energy Strategy and Energy Union for secure, competitive, and sustainable energy. 

Project Funder: The European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant 

The aim of this project is to develop transformative GaN-on-Diamond HEMTs and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), the technology step beyond current microwave devices. This next generation technology will underpin future high power radio frequency and microwave communications, space and defence systems, paving the way towards 5G and 6G mobile phone networks and much more comprehensive radar systems. BCES

The consortium is developing a new diamond growth approach that will maximise diamond thermal conductivity close to the active GaN device area. In present GaN-on-Diamond devices a thin dielectric layer is required on the GaN surface to enable seeding and successful deposition of diamond onto the GaN. However, the high heat flux at the bottom surface of the diamond layer limits the performance of the radio frequency device. Novel diamond growth combined with innovative micro-fluidics design and materials, will lead to a dramatically more powerful approach than conventional micro-fluidics, to further aid heat extraction.

Project Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Amount Funded: £4,325,358 

Project Partners: University of Bristol, University of Glasgow, University of Cardiff, University of Cambridge, Airbus Group Limited, Element Six Ltd, European Space Agency, IQE Ltd, Logitech Ltd, M/A Com Technology Solutions Ltd, NMI (National Microelectronics Inst) and Plessey Semiconductors Ltd. 

Publications: 

• Aqueous based Boron Nitride nanofluids for thermal management applications: formulation, stabilisation and characterisation, 1st European Symposium on Nanofluids (ESNf2017),    Gan Zhang, M. Elena Navarro and Yulong Ding
• Ethylene glycol - water suspensions containing reduced graphene oxide particles for thermal management applications: formulation and Characterisation,  2018 1st International Conference on Nanofluids, Gan Zhang, M. Elena Navarro and Yulong Ding
• Numerical simulation of heat transfer enhancement for copper foam heat sink in electronic devices using water based bn nanofluids, Proceedings of the 16th International Heat Transfer Conference, IHTC-16       G. Zhang; H. Cao; M. E. Navarro, J.W. Pomeroy, C. Yuan, M. Kuball, Y. Ding
• Thermal management of microelectronic devices with 3d printed polymeric micro-jet impingement channel     , UKNC Winter Conference 2020 , G. Zhang, H. Cao, M. E. Navarro, J.W. Pomeroy, M. Kuball, Y. Ding

Find out more: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/physics/research/cdtr/epsrc-programme-grant-gan-dame/

The modelling of energy storage systems is an extremely challenging task due to the very large temporal and spatial scales, and the complexities in bridging these time and/or length scales. This project aims to improve our understanding of physical processes and materials, the validity of multi-scale models and the operation of energy storage technologies on the electricity grid.

The Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage is leading the cryogenic liquid air/nitrogen storage as well as heat and cold storage (for harvesting compression heat and expansion cold for enhancing the round trip efficiency). The full-length models, from atomic scale to the grid scale, will be reviewed, and gaps for these models will be identified and bridged. Experimental validation of multi-scale modelling will be carried out with the facilities (DSC, LFA, XRD, etc) for materials and modules scales and the pilot plant of liquid air energy storage (350 kW/2.5 MWh) for device and grid scales. The platform of combined cooling, heating and power generation is expected to be delivered in Aug 2020 for demonstrating the enhancement of liquid air energy storage.

Project Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Amount Funded: £4.98m

Project Partners: Imperial College London, University College London, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Cardiff University, Newcastle University, The University of Manchester, University of Liverpool, University of Sheffield, Aston University, University of Southampton, Loughborough University, University of Warwick, University of Nottingham, STFC – Laboratories. 

Publications:

• X She, T Zhang, X Peng, YDing, et al. Liquid air energy storage for decentralised micro energy networks with combined cooling, heating, hot water and power supply. Journal of Thermal Science, 2020 (under review)
• X She, T Zhang, L Cong, X Peng, C Li, Y Luo, Y Ding. Flexible integration of liquid air energy storage with liquefied natural gas regasification for power generation enhancement. Applied Energy, 251 (2019) 113355 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113355
• X Peng, X She, C Li, Y Luo, T Zhang, Y Li, Y Ding. Liquid air energy storage flexibly coupled with LNG regasification for air liquefaction enhancement. Applied Energy, 250 (2019) 1190–1201 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.040
• X She, X Peng, T Zhang, Y Ding. Configuration optimisation of stand-alone Liquid Air Energy Storage for efficiency improvement. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 502 (2019), 012015 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/502/1/012015/meta
• Q Yu, T Zhang, X Peng, L Cong, L Tong, L Wang, X She, X Zhang et al. Cryogenic Energy Storage and Its Integration With Nuclear Power Generation for Load Shift. Storage and Hybridization of Nuclear Energy, 2019, 249-273. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813975-2.00008-9
• G Qiao, H Cao, F Jiang, X She, L Cong, Q Liu, X Lei, A Alexiadis, Y Ding. Experimental Study of Thermo-Physical Characteristics of Molten Nitrate Salts Based Nanofluids for Thermal Energy Storage. ES Energy & Environment, 2019, 4, 48-58. http://www.espublisher.com/journals/articledetails/93/
• X Peng, X She, L Cong, T Zhang, C Li, Y Li, L Wang, L Tong, Y Ding. Thermodynamic study on the effect of cold and heat recovery on performance of liquid air energy storage. Applied Energy 221 (2018), 86-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.03.151
• X She, X Peng, B Nie, G Leng, X Zhang, L Weng, L Tong, L Zheng et al. Enhancement of round trip efficiency of liquid air energy storage through effective utilization of heat of compression. Applied Energy 206 (2017), 1632-1642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.09.102
• X She, Y Li, X Peng, Y Ding. Theoretical analysis on performance enhancement of stand-alone liquid air energy storage from perspective of energy storage and heat transfer. Energy Procedia, 2017;142:3498-3504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.12.236
• EUROPEAN ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP towards 2030, 2017 update, EASE/EERA https://eera-es.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EASE-EERA-Storage-Technology-Development-Roadmap-2017-HR.pdf 

This research is focusing on exploiting the super-cooling of phase change materials (PCMs) to fabricate long-term thermal energy storage (TES) or seasonal TES. In such PCMs, thermal energy can be stored in the super-cooled liquid and then release heat when needed to supply the heating system or generate the power by specific trigger method. 

Project Partner: Southern University of Science and Technology

Publication: Xusheng Zhang, Zheng Du, Yudong Zhu, Chuan Li, Xianfeng Hu, Tingbin Yang, Bin-Bin Yu, Rui Gu, Yulong Ding, Zhubing He. A novel volumetric absorber integrated with low-cost D-Mannitol and acetylene-black nanoparticles for solar-thermal-electricity generation, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. Volume 207, April 2020, 110366. DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2019.110366.