Preparation and selection of a eutectic phase change material for cooling the PV module under Thailand climatic conditions

¹ Centre for Alternative Energy Research and Development, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, 40002, Thailand.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, 40002, Thailand.

^* Corresponding author: tanwon@kku.ac.th (T. Wongwuttanasatian)

Abstract

Several studies have found that incorporating an appropriate melting temperature (Tmelt) of Phase Change Material (PCM) behind the PV module enhances the cooling effect. In this study, PCM is selected for hybrid cooling for summer and winter using six years of meteorological data obtained from NASA. Considering the hybrid cooling method, winter season Tamb is selected to optimize the Tmelt as the selected PCM must reach the latent heat property in an early sunshine. It is found that during winter, 70 % of the period, Tamb lies around 28 °C whereas the Tmelt of PCM should be in the range of 31-34 °C according to the modified optimization method. In total, twelve combinations of eutectic mixtures are prepared using Lauric Acid (LA), Myristic Acid (MA) and Stearic Acid (SA), and their thermophysical properties are analysed using a differential scanning calorimeter. Only seven eutectic mixtures attain the 31-34 °C Tmelt among that LA:MA (70:30) and LA:SA (70:30) show excellent latent heat of fusion of 194 J/g and 190 J/g, respectively. Furthermore, it is recommended that LA:MA (70:30) and LA:SA (70:30) are suitable for Thailand’s climatic conditions for PV module cooling.