Investigation on a Vermiculite-Based Solar Thermochemical Heat Storage System for Building Applications

Industrial processes and the building sector (e.g., for space water heating) are responsible majority of total energy consumed heat. Although fossil fuels remain to dominate heating sector, renewable technologies have been lately widely deployed. Thermochemical storage (TES) can be a promising advanced technology in addressing mismatch between supplies end-user’s demand. In this paper, novel Vermiculite-based Solar Heat Storage (VS-THS) system was proposed domestic applications, which could also overcome intermittency challenges realise long-term solar storage. A small-scale prototype set up evaluate performance using patented ChainStore panel accommodate vermiculite-based composite. The unique design arrangement offers great heat mass transfer good flexibility resizing case varying Due low regeneration temperature (63 °C) high density (253.8 kWh/m3) adsorbent impregnated with MgSO4 CaCl2, it chosen as THS composite experiments. experimental results showed that VS-THS is feasible heating, highest supply 37.6 °C, COP reaction process 7.9–10.4. addition, demonstrate vermiculite adsorption performance. This concept sized different applications.