HECTAPUS: Heating and Cooling Transition and Acceleration by use of Latent Heat Storage

The “HECTAPUS” project aims at investigating the potential for use of Phase Change Materials (PCM) storage for accelerating the heating and cooling transition. Among the thermal energy storage technologies, the use of PCM is a promising technology for short term storage of heat or cold for periods of hours to days. The phase change of a medium, e.g ice to water, absorbs large amounts of energy without temperature change. Thermal storage by use of PCM with high energy density is a space efficient storage solution. Despite the potential both for short term storage of cold and heat, PCM storage has not yet had its commercial breakthrough. A rudimentary requierment for using PCM for thermal storage is that the storage needs to be specifically designed with proper temperatures and high number of charge & discharge cycles in accordance to the energy supply and needs. There are currently only a limited number of PCM installations in Europe. The HECTAPUS project will cover the whole range from simulations via dedicated laboratory experiments to full scale tests of existing PCM tanks, all with the aim of monitoring and analysing the performance of energy systems with PCM storage. To address the defined knowledge gaps, the project activities will be grouped in four scientific work pakages (WPs) as follows: WP1 Case Studies. Monitoring and performance studies WP2 PCM Storage. Simulation and lab experiments WP3 Integrated UTES and PCM storages WP4 Expoitation of PCM storage