Ben Welter - Monday, November 24, 2014
By examining heat flows in a three-bedroom house, the
UK Energy Research Centre has found that phase change materials can store heat three times more effectively when combined with heat pumps than existing methods such as storage heaters. "What's great about storage is that heat can be generated off-peak while 'waste' heat can be saved for later use, thus increasing energy efficiency and cutting cost, assuming, of course, we have an appropriate tariff structure that incentivizes storage," the project's lead researcher, Philip Eames, told
Phys.org.
Ben Welter - Friday, November 21, 2014
Subramanian Sendilvelan of Bharath University in Chennai, India, asks, via
ResearchGate: What phase change materials are available at 300˚C for use in catalytic converters? A professor at Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology in Hyderabad suggests
a 2012 paper on the use of PCMs in vehicles might be useful in exploring that topic.
Ben Welter - Friday, November 21, 2014
Jei McKinney of
Encapsys has won the Herman Stone Technical Excellence Award for her presentation “Art and Science of Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials,” presented during the
Polyurethane Foam Association's fall meeting. McKinney, a senior business development manager at Encapsys, received the highest score of seven presented at the November program in Chattanooga, Ten. The topic: microencapsulation technology application in flexible polyurethane foam production.
http://urethaneblog.typepad.com/my_weblog/2014/11/pfa-technical-excellence-award.html
Ben Welter - Thursday, November 20, 2014
Ice Energy of Glendale, Calif., has won a Los Angeles Business Journal 2014 Patrick Soon-Shiong Innovation Award. The company, which makes the Ice Bear thermal energy storage system, was honored as one of the region's "most impactful innovators." The Ice Bear system makes ice at night, when electricity is cheaper, and uses it to cool buildings during the day.
Ben Welter - Wednesday, November 19, 2014
MicroMarket Monitor is projecting that Europe's biobased advanced phase change material market will reach $46.4 million in four years. "The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.5% from 2013 to 2018," according to the report, scheduled for release Dec. 8. MicroMarket attributes the growth to demand for eco-friendly HVAC applications and "cost-effective prices" of biobased PCMs.
Ben Welter - Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Former University of Maryland star Ekene Ibekwe is playing pro basketball in New Zealand, where he is touting Sleepyhead's Sanctuary bed. Phase change material is used to "absorb and distribute excess heat from around the body and dissipate it down through the mattress." "I’ve definitely noticed a difference since switching to Sanctuary,” says Ibekwe, a 6-9 forward who has also played professionally in Israel, France, Turkey, Iran, Spain, Germany and Puerto Rico. "I was after a firmer bed and now my aches and pains have disappeared!”
Ben Welter - Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Phase Change Energy Solutions' BioPCM is being used in the upstairs walls of a house in Victoria, Australia. “Everything is effectively the same as a reverse brick veneer system," said Jeremy Spencer, director of the Melbourne firm that designed the house. "But instead of bricks we have the phase change material that sits inside the cavity and behind plasterboard internal wall." The project is profiled in InfoLink, "Australia's Architecture, Building, Construction and Design Directory."
Ben Welter - Tuesday, November 18, 2014
"The Embrace warmer has now saved over 100,000 infants across nine countries," Jane Chen tells Forbes magazine. "We’ve gotten support from Beyoncé, who made a gift in the amount of $125,000 to Millenium Promise to bring Embrace infant warmers to 100 rural health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa. Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, recently made an investment into Embrace Innovations, our for-profit social enterprise arm."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/deniserestauri/2014/11/18/a-personal-story-how-low-cost-technology-is-saving-babies-lives/
Ben Welter - Saturday, November 15, 2014
EGO’s new line of cordless electric lawn mowers, hedge cutters and chain saws is powered by a 4.0Ah lithium ion battery surrounded by phase change material that helps dissipate heat. The battery provides up to 45 minutes of mowing and recharges in 30 minutes, the company said.
Ben Welter - Friday, November 14, 2014
Outlast Technologies’ new Universe climate-control material is designed for use in bedding and apparel. The material is a combination of 70 percent down and 70 PCM-laden viscose fibers. Thicker fibers carry a greater amount of phase change material. “The performance compared to a standard PCM viscose fibre here is four times higher,” says Martin Bentz, managing director of Outlast Europe.
