Experimental Investigation of a Vertical Flow Moving Bed Thermochemical Heat Storage

Abstract

Thermochemical heat storage has the potential to enhance solar share in building heating systems. However, the limitation of heat and mass transfer in fixed-bed thermochemical heat storage is one of the main barriers in implementation of this technology in real life applications. In order to address this problem, a new solar driven vertical flow moving bed thermochemical heat storage system has been developed and tested in present study. According to the testing results, discharging temperature lift up to 30 ᵒC was achieved. Meanwhile, the total moisture uptake of the sorbent was varied between 310-435 g. On the other hand, solar radiation was in the range of 0.74-0.81 kW/m2 during the charging process. Air temperature between 66-72 ᵒC was obtained during different tests. Based on the solar heat gain of air and the rate of heat transfer to the sorbent inside the reactor, charging efficiency of the system was found between 0.37-0.51. Study results revealed that moving bed THS design is promising for enhancing and stabilizing the heat storage performance. However system optimization and process control are key aspects for further development of moving bed reactors.