Techno-economic optimization and feasibility of PCM-based seasonal thermal energy storage systems for district heating and cooling

Phase change materials (PCM) are an attractive seasonal thermal energy storage solution for load shifting due to relatively high energy density. Nevertheless, the choice of the right design parameters, such as storage size and phase-change temperature, is nontrivial, as these are tightly linked to the expected seasonal operation of the storage. This paper presents a combined design and operation optimization framework for sizing PCM-based seasonal thermal storage, which can capture dynamic behaviour of the storage in sensible and latent phases, and its impact on the efficiency of connected heat pumps and chillers. The proposed method, formulated as a mixed integer quadratically-constrained programming problem, was applied to a case study of heating-dominated district. It was found that the optimal PCM melting temperature equals to the heating demand supply temperature, thus removing the need of a heat pump to discharge the storage. The optimal operation of storage requires a full charging and discharging cycle of both latent and liquid phase. Higher CO2 emission price does not lead to a significant reduction of CO2 emissions, but the storage size does, leading to a higher heating coverage ratio of the storage, and consequently CO2 emissions and cost savings, which can be further enhanced with PV integration. The economic analysis indicates that, unless other benefits such as storage volume reduction are accounted for, PCM cost should drop by a factor 4 to make this solution economically viable for seasonal storage. © 2024 The Author(s)