Sensible Heat Storage (SHS)
The most direct way is the storage of sensible heat. Sensible heat storage is based on raising the temperature of a liquid or solid to store heat and releasing it with the decrease of temperature when it is required. The volumes needed to store energy in the scale that world needs are extremely large. Materials used in sensible heat storage must have high heat capacity and also high boiling or melting point. Although this method of heat storage is currently less efficient for heat storage, it is least complicated compared with latent or chemical heat and it is inexpensive.
From thermodynamics point of view, the storage of sensible heat is based on the increase of enthalpy of the material in the store, either a liquid or a solid in most cases. The sensible effect is a change in temperature. Heat stored can be obtained by the equation:
Heat Capacity
Different substances are affected to different magnitudes by the addition of heat. When a given amount of heat is added to different substances, their temperatures increase by different amounts. This proportionality constant between the heat Q that the object absorbs or loses and the resulting temperature change T of the object is known as the heat capacity C of an object.
C = Q / ΔT
Heat capacity is an extensive property of matter, meaning it is proportional to the size of the system. Heat capacity C has the unit of energy per degree or energy per kelvin. When expressing the same phenomenon as an intensive property, the heat capacity is divided by the amount of substance, mass, or volume, thus the quantity is independent of the size or extent of the sample.
Thermal Energy Storage
In thermodynamics, internal energy (also called the thermal energy) is defined as the energy associated with microscopic forms of energy. It is an extensive quantity, it depends on the size of the system, or on the amount of substance it contains. The SI unit of internal energy is the joule (J). It is the energy contained within the system, excluding the kinetic energy of motion of the system as a whole and the potential energy of the system. Microscopic forms of energy include those due to the rotation, vibration, translation, and interactions among the molecules of a substance. None of these forms of energy can be measured or evaluated directly, but techniques have been developed to evaluate the change in the total sum of all these microscopic forms of energy.
In addition, energy is can be stored in the chemical bonds between the atoms that make up the molecules. This energy storage on the atomic level includes energy associated with electron orbital states, nuclear spin, and binding forces in the nucleus.
Thermal energy can be also very effectively stored. Nowadays, situation on energy markets is different. The increasing on the prices of the conventional energy sources and the environmental awareness have leaded to increase the use of renewable energies and the energy efficiency. Thermal energy storage forms a key component of a power plant for improvement of its dispatchability, especially for concentrating solar power plants (CSP). Thermal energy storage (TES) is achieved with widely differing technologies. There are three methods used and still being investigated in order to store thermal energy.
- Sensible Heat Storage (SHS)
- Latent Heat Storage (LHS)
- Thermo-chemical Storage
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