Erythritol, glycerol, their blends, and olive oil, as sustainable phase change materials

Abstract In searching for new candidates to be used in latent heat storage, it is desirable to explore food-grade materials of renewable origin. Here, erythritol, glycerol, and olive oil have been characterized as PCMs. An assessment of the production process of erythritol (melting between 117-120 °C with an enthalpy around 300 kJ/kg) indicates its renewable aspects as a PCM. In addition, a simplified cost assessment of high-purity erythritol production, using glycerol, indicates a potential cost reductions up to 130-1820 times lower than the current laboratory-grade prices. Glycerol already is cost-effective. However, the glycerol-erythritol system, evaluated using the Temperature-history (T-history) method, did not exhibit phase change suitable for PCMs. Glycerol, and up to 30 mol% erythritol compositions had no phase change due to glass transition; the remainder froze but with large supercooling; and the system underwent thermally activated change. Hence, to realize glycerol or the glycerol-erythritol system as PCMs, further research is needed primarily to device fast-crystallization. Olive oil is a cost-effective food commodity, with potential for further cost reductions by mass-production. An olive oil sample, containing the fatty acids: linoleic, palmitic, oleic, margaric, and stearic was evaluated using the T-history method. This olive oil melted and froze between -4.5 to 10.4 °C and -8 to -11.9 °C respectively, with the respective enthalpies 105 and 97 kJ/kg. As the specific heat (cp) profiles of olive oil displayed two peaks, the composition adjustment of olive oil could yield a eutectic or confirm a polymorph. In either case, olive oil has a potential to be a PCM e.g. in chilling applications, while its properties such as thermal conductivity need to be determined. As a whole, this study exemplifies the potential of renewable organic materials, in pure and blend forms, as sustainable PCMs, making TES with PCMs sustainable