Synthesis and characterization of cementitious composite materials for thermal storage applications

In the European residential sector, heating and cooling are responsible for 85% of the energy demand thus resulting in a total of 256 Mtoe. The vast majority of this energy is needed for heating. Although renewable heat (e.g. solar thermal) is potentially a limitless and fully sustainable source to fulfil the above demand, its discontinuous nature still represents a formidable barrier to its widespread exploitation. In this regard, thermal energy storage is an essential technology for making renewable energy sources reliable and competitive in the future energy market. Thermochemical heat storage (e.g. sorption heat storage) specifically has a strong potential to achieve large energy density values with negligible losses even for seasonal applications. This study investigates the possible exploitation of low-cost cement-based composite materials for long-term (or seasonal) heat storage.