Novel Encapsulated Phase Change Thermal Storage technology for Residential and Cold-storage Sectors

Project Title:

Novel Encapsulated Phase Change Thermal Storage technology for Residential and Cold-storage Sectors

Supervisors:

Associate Professor Ibrahim Sultan, Dr. Apurv Kumar, and Dr. Rakibuzzaman Shah

Contact Person:

Dr. Rakibuzzaman Shah (m.shah@federation.edu.au)/ Dr. Apurv Kumar (apurv.kumar@federation.edu.au)

Project Outline:

Australia’s demand for energy has increased over the last ten years. Transport and electricity supply are responsible for over 50% of energy consumption. Meanwhile, residential building accounts for 52% of energy consumption caused mainly by the heating and cooling loads, costing millions in electricity bill payments. Besides, the cold storage of food in the warehouse and during transport over large distances are major consumers of energy. The present project proposes to utilise phase change thermal storage technology to aid the energy demands of the food cold-storage and household energy sectors by storing thermal energy during off-peak times. The stored energy can be released when demands and electricity costs are high. Similarly, the technology can be used to aid cold-storage transport by storing energy during regenerative braking and utilising the stored energy during peak energy demand in a storage trailer. The project will also intend to develop a low cost and effective energy management system to reduce overall energy consumption. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the Australian National University and our industry partner, Maxitrans.