Technologies

Developing PCMs for Practical Energy Storage

The Challenge: Ensuring that Phase Change Materials (PCMs) remain stable and durable in real-world energy storage conditions is a major challenge.

Current Situation: Right now, we mainly test PCMs at the material level, which doesn’t fully tell us how they’ll perform in actual use. Another problem is that PCMs tend to lose some of their charging and discharging power when they get close to being full or empty. This happens in systems that use latent heat for energy storage (like many thermal energy storage systems). We’re currently at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4, which means we’ve done some initial testing, but there’s more to do.

Our Innovation and Progress: We’re taking a step forward by testing these PCMs in a larger shell and tube system (with a 40-liter volume) that’s closer to real-world conditions. We’re measuring how these materials age over time, their hysteresis (how they behave during charging and discharging), and whether they supercool. This will help us verify how robust and long-lasting our energy storage can be. We’re making progress and moving toward TRL 6, which means we’re getting closer to a practical, real-world solution.