From waste chitosan to hybridized scheme thermal energy storage facility: numerical process optimization

Highlighting the utilization of waste material into a value-added fortune is a sustainable win-win solution. Also, the se of solar energy to avoid the energy crisis is essential. In this regard, solar energy storage using the phase change material (PCM) at the off-sun periods is a solution. Chitosan augmented with magnetite (ChM) is introduced as a filler for the paraffin’s wax (P-Wax) to be a thermal energy storage system. The prepared material is investigated and characterized via X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope; SEM Micrographs that exposed the PCM is well prepared. The ChMP is subjected to the PCM system in various mass fractions of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0% to the P-Wax to 0.1-ChMP-Wax, 0.3-ChMP-Wax, 0.5-ChMP-Wax and 1.0-ChMP-Wax. Afterwards, the thermal system is presented and compared with the pristine P-Wax system. The experimental data revealed that the 0.3-ChMP-Wax system showed the pronounced effect reached to 60 kJ stored heat capacity compared to 7 kJ of the pristine system. Thereby, the ChMP-Wax system is an energy storage enhancement system, which might be used in heating application systems. Furthermore, ChMP-Wax system PCM variables are optimized through the application of Box-Behnken design that are corresponding to 70.1ºC of charging temperature, 0.37% ChM addition to the P-Wax and 1.9 g/s of the water flow rate.