Investigation of thermochemical energy storage capacity with AAO based composite materials

Following developments in the industrial world and the increasing world population, global energy demand too is increasing. The end of existing energy sources has directed studies towards renewable energy sources. The availability of renewable energy sources is not continuous and the imbalance of the supply and demand brings an obstacle for usage of these sources so that energy storage has become an important topic in many areas in the last few years. Thermal energy storage is regarded as a promising technology in renewable energy systems. Renewable energy applications are efficient using thermochemical heat storage which also decreases waste of energy. As an emerging technology, thermal energy storage (TES) is an efficient method to realise sustainable usage of energy. In this study, new composite materials consisting of high energy density storage salts impregnated into Anodic Aluminium Oxide (AAO) template honeycomb form were developed for the low temperature thermal energy storage systems. AAO templates were selected because they had the probability of being an alternative to the natural rocks used for thermal storage in thermal energy storage systems. The vacuum method was used to impregnate complex salts into AAO templates produced by the anodization process. The energy storage capacities of these composite materials obtained using different salts were tested with a prototype system and the energy storage capacities of those were compared.