Short-term thermal energy storages allow excess heat energy to be stored for a few hours or days. Currently, coal and gas-fired thermal power plants for heating and hot water are inefficient, obsolete and have high heat losses. Therefore, the high consumption of coal and gas, which are the traditional energy sources for heating, has led to severe environmental pollution and serious environmental and health problems.
In this article the heat exchange processes of short-term storage of thermal energy using phasetransition material were investigated. Paraffin was considered as a phase-transition material that can be used in short-term thermal energy storages. A numerical model of the phase change process of paraffin is shown. The basic methods of latent heat energy storage were studied. Phase change paraffin for thermal energy storage can be used in many applications such as solar energy storage, air conditioning in buildings, heating of multi-storey buildings, greenhouses and hot water supply. The paraffin wax under study has several practical values. These include the phase transition temperature of paraffin, high latent heat, fast heat transfer, high density, small volume change and thermal stability. Paraffin is one of the noncombustible materials, can be found at low cost and is environmentally friendly due to the non-toxicity of the material.
Keywords: latent heat, phase transition, Stefan problem, phase transition velocity, paraffin, moving grid method, thermal energy storage.
