Status and potential applications of thermal energy storage in China, Japan and South Korea

During the 10th IIR Conference on PCMs and Slurries for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning held in Kobe, Japan, the status and potential applications of thermal energy storage in China, Japan and South Korea was presented
During the 10th IIR Conference on PCMs and Slurries for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning held in Kobe, Japan, in July-August 2012, the status and potential applications of thermal energy storage in China, Japan and South Korea was presented

Regarding China, P. Zhang(1) mentions that, depending on the temperature range, applications of phase-change materials (PCMs) and phase-change slurries (PCSs) are very diverse, from high-temperature solar thermal energy storage, energy recovery from flue gas, thermal/cold cold storage for refrigeration and air conditioning, temperature control for electronic devices, etc. Recent advances allow very significant enhancement of heat transfer, which is a critical issue for PCM fabrication. Microencapsulated PCMs (MPCMs) and nanoencapsulated PCMs (NPCMs) attract a lot of attention because of their potential applications in many fields such as textile manufacturing process. There are still no large-scale applications of PCMs and PCSs due to reasons such as high prices and low durability, and therefore further R&D should be undertaken.

Concerning Japan, T. Inada(2) underlines that following the accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants in 2011, re-examination of energy policies is a critical issue, and thermal energy storage and transport technologies have an important role to play in energy savings. Recent technologies developed in Japan are: ice slurry production from supercooled water, clathrate hydrate slurry systems for air conditioning, thermal energy storage using PCMs in the supercooled state, fresh fish preservation using ice slurries produced from sea water, fish preservation by ice containing ozone.

In South Korea, where peak load has gradually increased from 43 000 MW in 2001 to 72 000 MW in 2011, and where 97% of all energy is imported, D. W. Lee(3) emphasizes that the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and the Korean government provide support for a cold heat storage system for electric power demand levelling through reduction of peak load during daytime in summer. At the end of 2011, KEPCO had distributed about 900 MW of cold heat storage systems; as a result, about 540 MW of peak load had been reduced.

(1) Recent progresses of R&D and applications of PCMs and slurries in China, P. Zhang
(2) Recent advances in thermal energy storage and transport systems using PCMs in Japan, T. Inada
(3) Current status of thermal energy storage in Korea, D.W. Lee


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