Heat exchange system for freezing a phase change material and methods thereof
AssigneeActive Energy Systems
InventorsMitchell Ishmael, Levon Atoyan, Grady J. Iliff
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heat exchange system including a tank, a phase change material (PCM) held in the tank, an immiscible liquid layer held in the tank, a heat exchanger located within the immiscible liquid layer, and a distributor located above the heat exchanger. The immiscible liquid layer has a density lower than a density of the PCM and is located above the PCM. The distributor is configured to introduce a plurality of PCM droplets into the immiscible liquid layer and above the heat exchanger.
Claims17
A heat exchange system comprising:
- a tank;
- a phase change material (PCM) held in the tank;
- an immiscible liquid layer held in the tank, wherein the immiscible liquid layer has a density lower than a density of the PCM and is located above the PCM;
- a heat exchanger coated with an icephobic polymer coating, the heat exchanger located within the immiscible liquid layer and in contact with the PCM configured to freeze at least a portion of the PCM;
- a distributor located above the heat exchanger configured to introduce a plurality of PCM droplets into the immiscible liquid layer and above the heat exchanger;
- and
- one or more secondary storage vessels containing liquid PCM and located externally to the tank, the one or more secondary storage vessels configured to add the liquid PCM to the tank, thereby bringing frozen PCM into contact with the heat exchanger, and
- wherein the heat exchanger is further configured to receive a warm heat transfer fluid pumped through the heat exchanger to melt the frozen PCM, thereby lowering a temperature of the warm heat transfer fluid.
A heat exchange method for exchanging heat between a heat transfer fluid and a phase change material (PCM), the method comprising:
- holding an immiscible fluid layer in a tank;
- feeding a plurality of liquid PCM droplets into the tank proximate a top of the tank;
- contacting the plurality of liquid PCM droplets on a heat exchanger and freezing the liquid PCM, producing a solid PCM;
- prohibiting accumulation of the solid PCM on a surface of the heat exchanger via an icephobic polymer coating on the surface of the heat exchanger and the immiscible fluid layer;
- accumulating the solid PCM in the tank;
- adding liquid PCM from a secondary storage vessel to the tank, thereby bringing the frozen PCM into contact with the heat exchanger;
- pumping a warm heat transfer fluid through the heat exchanger;
- melting the frozen PCM;
- and
- lowering a temperature of the warm heat transfer fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.