Making slurries more marketable
Phase Change Material Slurries (PCMS) are able to better system efficiencies, scale down thermal storage volume requirements, effectively smooth peak heating and cooling loads and reduce pumping power requirements. Reliable market studies concerning specific PCMS technology were necessary in order to facilitate PCMS market penetration paths for certain applications. There were several key issues that needed to be considered and they are categorised into five major groups of the most relevant market assessment domains. These groups include: information, risk, environmental, financial and market characteristics. It is important that technical and economic risks related to the application of PCMS systems are avoided through trustworthy empirical studies. Furthermore, the most suitable way to then market these applications is to integrate them into the already well-established and conventional distribution channels of thermal energy management. As an example, using PCMS in building cooling applications alone could help reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 10% It therefore becomes apparent that these applications could indeed display long-term benefits not only on an industrial but also on an environmental scale.
