Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The need for energy has an impact on the nation's politics, economy, environment and sustainable development. It is therefore crucial to have a broad array of technological solutions available to meet the future energy needs of the country. Thermal energy storage (TES) systems are promoted as a potential solution due to their increased energy efficiency, environmental benefits and appropriateness for industrial, commercial and residential settings, amongst others Recently, utilization of TES systems has increased drastically for both heating and cooling applications, and is becoming essential in thermal applications to offset the mismatch between demand and supply and provide less expensive energy solutions. The overall objective of the proposed research program is to investigate the energetic, exergetic, economic, environmental, sustainability and life cycle performance of TES systems. The specific project tasks are: (i) to study energetic performance through energy analysis and develop energetic performance criteria, parameters, labels, such as efficiencies, performance coefficients, energetic renewability ratio, energy loss ratio, etc., (ii) to study exergetic performance through exergy analysis and develop exergetic performance criteria, parameters, labels, such as efficiencies, performance coefficients, exergetic renewability ratio, exergy loss ratio, etc., (iii) to study economic performance through cost accounting and find the most cost effective applications and operating strategies, (iv) to study environmental performance through various environmental impact measures (e.g., global unrest, impact ratio, global impact factor, environmental effectiveness) to address the impact caused on human health and welfare, environment, ecology, etc., (v) to study sustainability performance through various sustainability parameters (i.e., sustainable index) based on the respective criteria defined by indicators, e.g., parameters, which quantitatively determine mutual relation between different options under consideration, and (vi) to assess life cycle performance for all systems, components, processes, and subprocesses, etc. In summary, the proposed research program will provide significant insight into TES systems, leading to improved performance and potential solutions to local and global energy supply problems.