Thermal performance and economic evaluation of a newly developed phase change material for effective building encapsulation

Ever-growing construction industries worldwide require energy saving, environmental friendly, inexpensive, and thermally efficient materials. Driven by this demand, we evaluated the thermal performance and economy of a newly developed PCM called local paraffin. These PCMs as potential thermal energy storage (TES) systems were extracted from Iraqi crude petroleum waste product and encapsulated in the building construction. Two identical test rooms were constructed by incorporating such paraffin (40% oil + 60% wax) on the roof and walls for determining its effect on the heat transfer over the temperature range of 40–44 °C. Experiments were conducted for achieving the controlled comfort temperature of 24 °C (below the PCM melting temperature). Room without PCM encapsulation was demonstrated to consume higher energy at 24 °C than the one with PCM. The energy economy of the PCM incorporated room was assessed by comparing the estimated electricity cost with the building that contains the traditional air conditioning system. Analytical calculation was performed to validate the experimental results. These paraffin based TES systems were established to be suitable alternative for efficient and green energy implementation in the building design for hot climate nations

Nanoparticles based drilling muds a solution to drill elevated temperature wells: A review

Demand of the oil and gas energy is increasing very drastically. Conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs contain below the sealing cap rock (shale) and easily move towards wellbore are at the depletion stage. Therefore, drilling engineers in collaboration with mud engineers, geologists and geophysicists are looking for innovative materials to drill unconventional hydrocarbons reservoir which are distributed at the basin scale and cannot approach easily. Geo-thermal energy wells and most of unconventional reservoirs are occurred at high pressure high temperature (HPHT) conditions. Conventional micro-macro organic drilling mud additives with heat insulator in nature can minimize efficiency while drilling HPHT wells. Oil-based muds (OBM) are strictly restricted due to high toxic level and poor emulsion stability at HT. However, this review suggests that addition of macro size organic particles and inorganic nanoparticles can enhance rheological performance, reduce filtrate loss volume and improve shale inhibition characteristics of environmental friendly water-based mud (WBM). Despite an impressive amount of experimental work has been done over drilling additives and their effect over rheological and shale inhibition, taking into account their literature review are rare. In addition, there is no review work of the knowledge gained to date. This work will hope fully trigger further development and new research topics in the area of drilling muds system

Mortars with phase change materials (PCM) and stone waste to improve energy efficiency in buildings

The main objective of this contribution is the study of mortars with the incorporation of polymer-based phase change materials (PCM) for the improvement of energy efficiency in buildings. The mortars are intended for an indoor thermal comfort in the typical climatice conditions of the Southern European countries. Production waste, such as stone powder from quarry, will also be incorporated in the mortars. The finer powder is proposed as mortar aggegate and, at the same time, as support for the PCM. Firstly, different procedures aimed at effectively introducing the selected polymeric material (PEG) into the Lecce stone have been performed. The chemical and thermal characterization of these compounds has been carried out. The LS/PEG composites have been, then, added to a mortar. Experimentsare in progress in order to characterize from chemical, physical, and thermal poit of view the mortars with and without PCM, following the recommendations of the international standards in this field. In addition, the studied materials will be used to build laboratory-scale prototypes taht will be tested in real environmental conditions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio