A home heating system equipped with a PCM battery put up encouraging numbers in a small trial in northern Italy earlier this year. The monthlong test “shows that is possible [for such a system] to supply the whole heating demand of a house reducing close to zero the costs,” says Domenico Feo, who developed the system. The full report, prepared by ThermaLink, a trademark of Sunservice Srl of Treviso, Italy, is available here. The system is composed of a 6 kW solar array, an air/water heat pump and a thermal battery filled with BioPCM Q42, a biobased phase change material supplied by Phase Chang ..read more

•Sonoco ThermoSafe and ACL Airshop have announced a global agreementfor the handling and repair of ThermoSafe’s Pegasus ULD bulk temperature-controlled containers ACL Airshop, of Greenville, S.C., provides cargo support equipment and logistics solutions for airlines and air cargo carriers. Sonoco says the unit load device is made of composite materials that are lighter and more damage-resistant than traditional metal containers. It uses a gelled phase change material to maintain pharmaceutical-safe temperatures for five days or more, depending on the PCM used. • Has long-term th ..read more

U.S. patent application 20200260882 (applicant Dreamwell Ltd., Atlanta, Ga.): "A mattress assembly comprising: at least one layer proximate to a sleeping surface of the mattress assembly spanning at least a portion of the length and/or width of the sleeping surface comprising: a two-ply preformed capsulate sheet comprising a plurality of cells; and a phase change material within at least a portion of the plurality of cells." http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20200260882.pdf ..read more

From Journal of Molecular Liquids: • The research progress on phase change hysteresis affecting the thermal characteristics of PCMs: A review From Journal of Building Engineering: • Thermal behavior of a phase change material in a building roof with and without reflective coating in a warm humid zone From Renewable Energy: • A comprehensive study on thermal storage characteristics of nano-CeO2 embedded phase change material and its influence on the performance of evacuated tube solar water heater From Sustainable Cities and Society: • Numerical analysis of phase change materials for opt ..read more

A four-man canoe team will put Glacier Tek cooling vests to the test this week at the Missouri 340, a 340-mile paddle race from Kansas City to St. Charles, Mo. Competitors have 88 hours to complete the Missouri River course. The race, first held in 2005, typically draws hundreds of canoeists and kayakers. The event record, set by a two-person canoe team in 2018, is 34 hours, 34 minutes. Team Mississippi, led by Scott Miller, 44, of Minneapolis, will be paddling a 23-foot Wenonah Minnesota IV. “The MR340 is usually held in July or August and is famous for being hot,” Miller said. “This year, ho ..read more

Hundreds of INUTEQ cooling vests developed for use by Dutch athletes at the Tokyo Olympics this summer have been donated for use in Dutch hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PCM-equipped pullovers, designed to help athletes cope with heat stress, became available when the Tokyo Games were postponed until 2021. The pullovers can be worn under the heavy, heat-trapping protective gear used by doctors and nurses. The pullovers are manufactured in Netherlands. The cooling material is Croda's CrodaTherm 21, a biobased PCM with a melting temperature of 21 degrees C. The 1.3-kg pullover i ..read more

U.S. patent application 20200132897 (applicant TruIris LLC, Columbus, Ohio): "Wearable ocular devices (such as ocular prostheses or contact lenses) utilizing diffraction gratings to produce color, as well as methods for producing such devices, are provided. A diffraction grating on the device may diffract the incident light to the observer. The result may be colored light that appears to originate from the wearer's eyes. The diffraction grating may achieve a look or feeling that is qualitatively or quantitatively different from the look or feeling achieved by previous devices that use dyes or ..read more

U.S. patent application 20200136209 (applicant Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., Plano, Texas): "A battery module including a battery cell and a thermal management system for removing heat from the battery cell. The thermal management system includes two or more unit cells in an array. Each unit cell includes a primary shell comprising a primary phase change material (PCM), and a secondary shell comprising a secondary PCM that is thermally coupled to the primary shell. The battery cell is thermally coupled to the primary shell at a heat transfer interface and the ..read more

U.S. patent application 20200131363 (applicant Rogers Corp., Chandler, Ariz.): "A method of manufacturing a polyurethane phase-change composition comprises forming a curable composition comprising a homogeneous mixture of an organic isocyanate, a polyol having a hydroxyl functionality of 1.5 to 5, and a phase-change material; and curing the curable composition to obtain a polyurethane phase-change composition, wherein the polyurethane phase-change composition has a transition temperature, determined by differential scanning calorimetry according to ASTM D3418, of 5 to 70° C." http://www.freepa ..read more

U.S. patent application 20200072523 (inventors Chang Yup Seo, Woodridge, Ill.; Soujanya N. Jampala, Chicago, Ill.; Sameer H. Israni, Darien, Ill.; and Robert R. Sever, Arlington Heights, Ill.): "This invention relates to a novel two-stage dry ice system for preserving perishable items during transport and methods thereof. The improved two-stage dry ice system includes dry ice and a phase change material specifically configured within a single and continuous holding volume with perishable items. Preservation of the perishable items for extended durations in comparison to other refrigeration tec ..read more