Publication detail

Life-Cycle Assessment of Phase-Change Materials in Buildings: A review

STRUHALA, K. OSTRÝ, M.

Original Title

Life-Cycle Assessment of Phase-Change Materials in Buildings: A review

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Contemporary construction industry is one of the major energy consumers and polluters. Therefore, recent pledges for decarbonization and mitigation of human-related environmental impacts necessitate transition of the industry to more efficient energy sources such as solar radiation and other renewables. These efforts are hampered by instable energy supply of the renewables, which creates the need for energy storage systems. One of the proposed solutions is utilization of phase-change materials for latent heat storage. This field of research is intensively studied and many applications of PCMs were already introduced. However, the research focuses on energy and cost efficiency of the PCMs and their environmental impacts are seldom analysed. This paper therefore reviews available literature and maps the state-of-art in the in this field, identifies contemporary challenges and viable future research prospects. The review shows notable lack of accurate data describing environmental impacts of the PCMs. Most reviewed works utilize generic datasets, which reduces their accuracy. Still, it could be said that application of contemporary PCMs with relatively high energy storage density could be advantageous in technical systems such as space heating or cooling. Environmental and economic payback time of such applications could be less than two years. In contrast, applications in building structures are not desirable due to notable increase of embodied environmental impacts related with addition of a PCM and (if necessary) its container. This is true especially for organic PCMs based on fossil fuels, such as paraffins.

Keywords

Environmental Impact, Energy Storage, Life-Cycle Assessment, Phase-Change Material, Review

Authors

STRUHALA, K.; OSTRÝ, M.

Released

6. 1. 2022

Publisher

Elsevier

ISBN

0959-6526

Periodical

Journal of Cleaner Production

Year of study

2022

Number

336

State

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Pages from

1

Pages to

21

Pages count

21

URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130359

BibTex

@article{BUT175466,
  author="Karel {Struhala} and Milan {Ostrý}",
  title="Life-Cycle Assessment of Phase-Change Materials in Buildings: A review",
  journal="Journal of Cleaner Production",
  year="2022",
  volume="2022",
  number="336",
  pages="1--21",
  doi="10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130359",
  issn="0959-6526",
  url="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130359"
}