Stability4TES

STABILIzing salT hYdrates for Thermochemical Energy Storage

Finding a stabilization that enlarges the present number of (dis)charging cycles with a factor of ten.

Fifty percent of our daily energy usage is in the form of thermal energy. In view of the energy challenges ahead of us, compact heat storage offers opportunities to bridge the mismatch between supply and demand of energy. Inorganic crystal hydrates have the potential to be used as storage media in heat batteries. Discharge happens via hydration reactions involving a phase transition of the crystal lattice due to water incorporation. A heat battery consists of a packed bed of millimeter-sized salt hydrate tablets. The challenge is to stabilize beds of these particles as they undergo significant volume changes during (de)hydration cycles and agglomerate.

A hierarchically porous silica (HPS) will developed for stabilizing salt hydrates by sol-gel emulsion methods. You will study the structure and morphology of HPS by multiscale (in-situ) electron microscopy. To understand the impact of the stabilizer on the crystal hydrate, you will investigate the impregnation of the HPS particles and study the hydration/dehydration reactions of these composite particle: the cyclic stability and the (de)hydration kinetics with TGA-DSC and XRD. These newly developed composite particles will be tested in a particle bed representative for a real heat battery.