Selective Water Sorbents for Multiple Applications, 10. Energy Storage Ability

The application of new selective water sorbents for storage of low temperature heat is analyzed. Values of energy storage ability E are measured by a DSC technique for more than fifteen samples of selective water sorbents based on silica gels, aluminas, carbon Sibunit and aerogels as host matrices and CaCl₂, LiBr, MgCl₂ as impregnated salts. E-values up to 8.4 kJ/g and 4.0 kJ/g are found for forced and naturally saturated sorbents, which are much higher than for common sorbents, like zeolites and unimpregnated silica gels. The temperature dependence of E gives an estimation of sensible and latent heat contributions as well as the average heat of water desorption and average specific heat of dry sorbents. A comparison between the SWSs and others materials proposed in literature is done.