Use of some industrial wastes as energy storage media

Solar energy is stored using different solid storage materials, both chemical and metallic industrial wastes. The materials tested in the present study are paraffin wax, copper slag, aluminium slag, iron slag, cast iron slag and copper chips. Solar energy is stored in these materials, and the energy is then recovered with a water stream at different how rates, and the storage capacity and period for different materials were compared. The same set of experiments is run on solid metallic materials mixed with wax. The results indicated that iron slag has the highest storage capacity followed by cast iron slag then aluminium slag and copper chips and copper slag. It is also noted that the addition of paraffin wax to the solid metallic material greatly improves its storage capacity and duration. The storage efficiency of different units is calculated and compared.