Advances on slurries and phase-change materials
Laurence Fournaison.
1Irstea GPAN, Antony Cedex, France
Refrigeration industry is facing stronger regulation related to the use of refrigerants. Secondary refrigeration is a technology that can divide up to a factor 10 the amount of refrigerant contained in a system. In order to make the system more efficient the use of diphasic fluids is an interesting solution. Four types of phase change material (pcm) slurries, ice slurries, pcm emulsion, encapsulated phase-change materials, hydrate slurries can be suitable for many refrigerating applications. Currently the industrial use of these diphasic secondary refrigerants is uneven due to their readiness level. This paper presents for each fluid the generation process, their industrial deployment and the issues hampering their development.