Investigation on Ternary Salt-Water Solutions as Phase Change Materials for Cold Storage

Cold storage attracts increasing interest in applications where cooling can be generated more efficiently or in different locations. Phase change materials (PCM) which have high thermal storage capacity are promising materials that can be used to maintain product temperature within safe limits during frequent door openings, on-off cycling of the compressor and power shut off or failure. This study considered candidate phase change materials for application in freezers for product temperature range below -17 ℃. The latent heat and phase change temperature of different ternary salt-water systems with different salt combinations and concentrations have been measured to find suitable eutectic material, which has proper phase change temperature and high latent heat of fusion for applications.