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Renewable Energy 33 (2008) 567574

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Energy and exergy analysis of a latent heat storage system with phase
change material for a solar collector
Ahmet Kocaa, Hakan F. Oztopb, Tansel Koyunc, Yasin Varola,
a
Department of Mechanical Education, Firat University, 23119 Elazig, Turkey
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Firat University, 23119 Elazig, Turkey
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey
Received 25 December 2006; accepted 16 March 2007
Available online 8 May 2007

Abstract

Analysis of energy and exergy has been performed for a latent heat storage system with phase change material (PCM) for a at-plate
solar collector. CaCl2  6H2O was used as PCM in thermal energy storage (TES) system. The designed collector combines in single unit
solar energy collection and storage. PCMs are stored in a storage tank, which is located under the collector. A special heat transfer uid
was used to transfer heat from collector to PCM. Exergy analysis, which is based on the second law of thermodynamics, and energy
analysis, which is based on the rst law, were applied for evaluation of the system efciency for charging period. The analyses were
performed on 3 days in October. It was observed that the average net energy and exergy efciencies are 45% and 2.2%, respectively.
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Solar collector; Thermal energy storage; PCM; Exergy

1. Introduction mechanisms in the PCM [1]. The most important PCMs

Storage of solar energy is an important issue as solar
radiation is a time-dependent energy source, i.e. has an
intermittent character. Thus, the energy source and the
heating demands of the systems do not match. Solar
thermal energy can be stored as sensible heat (water and
rock), latent heat (water/ice and salt hydrates), heat of
reaction, or combination of these. Parameters including
storage period required, economic viability or operating
conditions are effective on selection of these methods.
Latent heat storage system via phase change material
(PCM) was preferred in this study. The reason for this
selection is the fact that the use of PCMs for thermal
energy storage (TES) in solar heating systems has received
considerable attention in the literature. PCMs can store
large amounts of heat changing the phase from solid to
liquid. In a latent heat TES system, determining of the
PCM plays important role in addition to heat transfer
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 424 237 0000, 90 424 237 4219;
fax: +90 424 236 7064.
E-mail address: ysnvarol@gmail.com (Y. Varol).
include Glaubers salt, calcium chloride hexahydrate,
sodium thiosulfate penthydrate, sodium carbonate decahy-
drate, fatty acid, and parafn waxes. These applications are
listed in Zalba et al. [2]. Both fatty acids and parafns are
cheap, readily available, and melt at different temperatures.
However, PCMs are good TES from the point of view
security of energy supply. There are many applications of
PCM for different areas in the literature for solar
collectors, greenhouses, building heating. [37].
The analysis of quality and quantity of energy in a
thermodynamic system is important for energy saving and
obtaining efciency of the system. In this context, the
second law of thermodynamics assesses the quality of
energy, but the rst law focuses on the quantity of energy.
Meanwhile, exergy analysis is a method that uses the
conservation of mass and energy principles together with
the second law of thermodynamics for the design and
analysis of energy systems. It can reveal whether or not it is
possible to design more efcient energy systems by reducing
inefciencies in the systems [8]. The exergy analysis method
gives information on the quantity of the energy transferred
in latent heat energy storage systems such as PCMs [8] and

0960-1481/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2007.03.012
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568 A. Koca et al. / Renewable Energy 33 (2008) 567574

Nomenclature T temperature
V volume
E x;H i exergy of inlet energy
E x;Q_ exergy losses during transfer to water of heat Greek letters
stored in collector
E x;H o exergy of outlet energy from the collector r density
E x;Q_ i exergy of solar energy Z efciency
Q_ heat transfer
Q_ latent heat Subscripts
E x;Q_ exergy loss of energy in collector
m mass of water in collector ave average
Q_ s stored energy env environment
Cp specic heat of PCM gen generation
H enthalpy i inlet
h latent heat of phase transition l liquid
Irr irreversibility loss
M mass of PCM o outlet
PCM phase change material s solid
S entropy sys system
t time t total

it is widely applied for different engineering systems in

earlier studies to perform exergetic and energetic perfor-
mance of PCMs [912].
Bascetincelik et al. [9] calculated energetic and exergetic
efciencies of latent heat storage system in a greenhouse of
180 m2. In their system, solar energy has been stored using
parafn as PCM. They observed that the average values of
net energy and exergy efciencies of the system were 41.9%
and 3.3%, respectively. Ozturk [10] performed an experi-
mental evaluation of a seasonal latent heat storage system
for greenhouse heating using energy and exergy analyses in
order to obtain system efciency. In their study, the rate of
heat transferred in the LHS unit ranged from 1.22 to
2.63 kW, whereas the rate of heat stored in the LHS unit
were 111.2 and 79.9 W. Sari and Kaygusuz [11] conducted
an experiment to obtain energy and exergy calculations of
latent heat energy storage systems considering storing
cycle, charging, and discharging periods. They showed that
the difference between the results of energy and exergy
analysis is signicant. Aghbalou et al. [12] studied the
exergetic optimization of a solar thermal energy system for
water tank with PCM. They treated an analytical solution
for the melting process in the PCM and showed that exergy
efciency of system is not high. Enibe [13] studied the
transient thermal analysis of a natural convection solar air
heater. It includes a single-glazed at-plate solar collector
integrated with a parafn-type PCM energy storage
subsystem as an application example. El-Bassuani et al.
[14] mixed the ureasodium acetate trihydrate and urea
sodium acetate trihydratelead acetate trihydrate as a
PCM in solar energy storage. Their results showed that the
system composed of ureasodium acetatelead acetate
stored 286 kJ for each kg of the storage mixture. Finally,
an important observation from their study is that the
Solar
Control
Qi Volume I
Ql
Qs
Ql
mi H i mo H o
Control
Volume II
Fig. 1. Schematic conguration for energy and exergy analyses.
addition of different organic/inorganic PCMs is feasible for
raising the melting range of the energy storage system such
that it suits relatively hot weather.
The main purpose of this study is to perform the energy
and exergy analysis for a at-plate solar collector with
PCM-lled tank. The detailed review given above clearly
shows that there is little information on solar collectors
with PCM. Therefore, this work will contribute to solar
collector manufacturers and users for both industrial and
domestic applications (Fig. 1).
2. Experimental setup
Experimental setup consists of a solar collector and a
PCM-lled tank as shown in Fig. 2. Reectors were located
to its side to collect sunlight on solar collector. The
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A. Koca et al. / Renewable Energy 33 (2008) 567574 569

Fig. 2. Experimental setup.

200

Water
Inlet
300

350 300 350

350
300

1000
1100

Fig. 3. Collector dimensions.

collector was well insulated by industrial Floormate foam
isolator. Its thickness is 40 mm with heat conductivity
0.028 W/mK. Copper pipe was used as heat exchanger with
outer diameter and thickness 10 and 1 mm, respectively.
Measurement of PCM temperatures were measured via 11
thermocouples (T-type copper-constantan), which are
located in 30 mm interval. Three thermocouples were also
used to measure the temperatures of heat transfer oil and
inlet and outlet uid temperatures in the copper pipe as
shown in Fig. 3.
CaCl2  6H2O was used as a PCM. Its thermophysical
properties are listed in Table 1. A rectangular PCM-lled
tank was located under the collector as can be seen in
Fig. 2. The tank contains 30 kg of PCM. As given in the
experimental setup, the collector surface is wider than that
of PCM surface. Fig. 3 shows top and side view of the pipe
installation with dimensions for collector. KNO3 (0.6 kg)
was added into CaCl2  6H2O to crystallize the PCM. The
heat transfer uid (HTF) was allowed to ow inside the
serpentine pipe to discharge the heat by the PCMs. The
Mobilterm 605 with thermal conductivity 0.145 W/mK was
used as HTF in this experimental work. Inlet water enters
the pipe from city water network. The energy and energy
performance of the latent heat TES system for solar
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570 A. Koca et al. / Renewable Energy 33 (2008) 567574

Table 1 for the design and analysis of energy systems. An analysis

Physical properties of used phase change material (CaCl2  6H2O) [6] of exergy can reveal whether or not and by how much it is
Melting point (1C) 29
possible to design more efcient systems by reducing the
Density (solid) (kg/m3) 1800 efciencies in existing systems [15].
Density (liquid) (kg/m3) 1560 Exergy balance was written for the considered system as
Specic heat (solid) (J/kg K) 1460 follows:
Specic heat (liquid) (J/kg K) 2130
Heat conduction coefcient (solid) (W/mK) 1.088 E x;Q_ i E x;Q_ E x;Q_ 0 E x;H o  E x;H i Irr, (5)
Heat conduction coefcient (liquid) (W/mK) 0.539
Degree of super cooling (1C) 1 (added crystallizator) where
Heat storage capacity (kJ/m3) 3.182  105  
Melting latent heat (kJ/kg) 187.49
T env _
E x;Q_ 1 Q , (6)
Cycling number for heat transfer 800 T ave
Price ($/kg) 30
Toxic effect No
 
T env _
E x;Q_ 0 1 Q 0 , (7)
T ave

collector was analysed during three different days in E x;H i mH i  H env  T env S i  Senv , (8)
October 2000 in Elazig, Turkey.
E x;H o mH o  H env  T env So  Senv . (9)
3. Energy and exergy analyses for the charging period of Irreversibility can be dened as
collector with PCM Irr T env S gen . (10)
Energy and exergy analyses were carried out to evaluate Entropy generation,
the system efciency of solar collector with PCM. Control Sgen DS sys DS env X0, (11)
volume of the system was specied. The schematic
conguration is depicted in Fig. 1 to show the control DS sys mSo  Si , (12)
volumes and inlet and outlet parameters. Energy and
exergy calculations were performed based on this cong- X Q_
uration. DS env . (13)
T
The heat transfer rate was calculated during the charging
3.1. Energy analysis
period as follows:
Energy balance was considered in two parts according to dT
Q_ s MC p (14)
control volume in schematic conguration. In the control dt
volume I, and latent heat as
Q_ i Q_ s Q_ (1) DV s rs h
Q_ l . (15)
and from control volume II, Dt
Q_ s Q_ 0 mH o  H i , (2) Entropy variation was calcuated using
X Q_
Q_ i Q_ Q_ 0 mH o  H i . So  Si Sgen , (16)
T
The following equation was used to calculate energy
efciency of the solar collector: dS X Q_ X X
Sgen;sys mo S o  mi S i , (17)
Transferred heat to the water dt T
Zenergy;net . (3) where
Solar energy input
It can be formulated as X X X Q_
Sgen mi S i  mo S o X0, (18)
Q_  Q_ 0 T
Zenergy;net s . (4)
Q_ i Q_ i Q_ Q_ Q_ 0
Sgen mS o  S i   s  . (19)
T env T ave T ave T ave
Finally, net exergy efciency is calculated from its
3.2. Exergy analysis denition by

Exergy uses the conservation of mass and energy Exergy recovered from unit
Zexergy;net (20)
principles together with the second law of thermodynamics Exergy input
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A. Koca et al. / Renewable Energy 33 (2008) 567574 571

and formulated as follows as
E x;H o  E x;H i
Zexergy;net . (21)
E x;Q_ i
4. Results and discussion
Energy and energy analyses were performed for a solar
collector with TES unit using CaCl2  6H2O as a PCM. As
is well known from the literature, the exergy efciency of
the LHS systems is a new method to evaluate the system
efciency. Analysis of exergy takes into account the loss of
availability of heat in TES systems. Thus, it reects the
thermodynamic, energy and economic value of the system.
In this study, results obtained from analyses of energy and
exergy belong to charging period of the system.
Variations of stored energy and measured solar radiation
for different times during the days are presented in
Fig. 4(a)(c). Fig. 4(a) shows the results for October 7.
Variations of solar radiation become almost constant
during morning and it increases until noon. It has a
decreasing value at the midd-noon. However, stored energy
shows similar variation except at morning due to smaller
temperature difference and solar radiation. For October
12, the bell-shaped variations were obtained for stored
energy. Solar radiation also showed a similar variation
with stored energy until noon. It has again a decreasing
value at the mid-noon as obtained with previous gure.

a
500 1000

400 800

Instantaneous Solar
Stored Energy (kJ)

Radiation (W/m2)
300 600

200 400

Qs
100 200
R
0 0
8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
Time of day
b
500 1000
450 900
400 800
Stored Energy (kJ)

Instantaneous Solar
Radiation (W/m2)
350 700
300 600
250 500
200 400
150 300
100 Qs
200
50 R 100
0 0
8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
Time of day

c
500 1000

400 800
Stored Energy (kJ)

Instantaneous Solar
Radiation (W/m2)

300 600

200 400

100 Qs 200
R
0 0
8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
Timeof day (hour)

Fig. 4. Variations of storage heat with radiation on different dates: (a) 7 October 2000, (b) 12 October 2000 and (c) October 15, 2000.

572
Variation of stored energy and solar radiations of October
7 and October 15 are similar except near noon. At this
time, contrary of other days, storage energy is higher than
that of solar radiation.
The net energy and exergy efciencies for charging
period are shown in Fig. 5 for 3 days in October 2000. The
changes of the rates of heat and thermal energy for an LHS
unit through the charging periods are presented in Fig. 5(a)
as a function of time. The net energy efciency is increased
with the increases in inlet temperature of the heat transfer
uid. The net energy efciency changed between 38% and
59%. The higher net energy efciencies are observed a
October 12 except for morning hours. Also, results are very
close during noon. As can be seen from the gure, daily
average values of net energy efciencies were calculated as
45% for October 12 and 42% for October 7 and 15.
Fig. 5(b) shows the variation of net exergy efciency with
time for 3 days in October 2000. The values show little
increase with time. The net exergy efciency changed
between 1.5% and 3.3%. The maximum exergy efciency
a
100
80
Net Energy Efficiency (%)
60
40
20
0
08:00
b
10
8 October 12,2000
Net Exergy Efficiency (%) .
0
08:00
Fig. 5. Variations of efciency with time of day on for different dates: (a) energy efciency and (b) exergy efciency.
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A. Koca et al. / Renewable Energy 33 (2008) 567574
values were obtained on 12 October. It is observed that the
average exergy efciency was only 2.2% during charging
period. Thdsd results show that this value of the average
exergy efciencies is not enough in terms of exergy
efciency. When values are compared with the net energy
efciency, the net exergy efciency of the system was lower
than that of the net energy efciency for all days. It is
expected that the net energy efciency will be higher than
the exergy efciency. Because the quality of the net energy
transferred is taken into account to calculate the net energy
efciency, the quality of energy transferred is neglected.
Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows the effect of the temperature
difference of the heat transfer uid at the inlet and the
outlet of solar collector with PCM on net energy efciency
(Fig. 6(a)) and net exergy efciency (Fig. 6(b)) for three
different days. Both the net energy and exergy efciencies
increase with increase in temperature difference in solar
collector, which makes the temperature difference an
effective parameter. The variation of temperature differ-
ence is also related to time. It increased with time during
October 7,2000
October 12,2000
October 15,2000
09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00
Time of day (hour)
October 7,2000
October 15,2000
09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00
Time of day (hour)
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A. Koca et al. / Renewable Energy 33 (2008) 567574 573

a
80

70

Net Energy Efficiency (%) .

60

50

40
October 7, 2000
30
October 12, 2000
20 October 15, 2000

10
10 20 30 40
Temperature Difference (K)
b
October 7, 2000
6 October 12, 2000
Net Exergy Efficiency (%) .

October 15, 2000

0
10 20 30 40
Temperature Difference (K)

Fig. 6. Variations of efciency with temperature difference on for different dates: (a) energy efciency and (b) exergy efciency.

day time. Values were decreased for the value of
temperature difference at 28 K due to decreasing solar
radiation as given in Fig. 4(a)(c). This value of tempera-
ture difference was obtained near noon. Both energy and
exergy efciencies show zigzag variations for higher
temperature differences. The highest temperature differ-
ence in LHS units of collector obtained was 37 K.
5. Conclusions
Energy and exergy analyses for a solar collector with
PCM were performed during charging period. From the
experimental study and calculations the following conclu-
sion can be drawn.
(1) Both stored solar energy and instantaneous solar
radiation show bell-shaped variation during all days.
(2) There is a signicant difference between the results of
energy and exergy. The net energy efciency is higher
than that of exergy efciency. The obtained experi-
mental data and calculations clearly show that exergy
efciencies of latent heat storage systems with PCM are
very low.
(3) Area of collector surface is smaller than that of PCM
surface area. As a result of this, low outlet temperature
was obtained but it increased the cost of the latent heat
storage system.
Acknowledgment
The authors thank to Dr. Mehmet Esen for his valuable
contribution is building the experimental set-up and is
measuring parameters.
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574 A. Koca et al. / Renewable Energy 33 (2008) 567574
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