A promising form-stable phase change material prepared using cost effective Jute stick Biochar as the matrix of stearic acid for thermal energy storage

Abstract

Due to the higher use of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy, environment friendly sustainable energy from waste materials is attracting attention of the researchers. Considering that, jute stick (JS) biochar has been considered for this study for ecofriendly and sustainable thermal energy storage application. Waste jute sticks (JS), which are being mainly used as a fuel for cooking purpose, have been pyrolyzed to produce porous biochar and have been used for shape stabilization of stearic acid (SA) as phase change material (PCM). SA at 1:1 ratio has been incorporated into the activated JS biochar to concoct shape-stabilized phase change composite (SAJS). The SAJS has been evaluated by different techniques such as Fourier transform- infrared spectroscope (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The obtained composite PCM has shown excellent shape stability with a high latent heat storage, suggesting its suitability for thermal energy storage applications.