Southwest Research Institute

Terrafore Technologies, LLC

Terrafore, Inc.

Rajan Babu Kasetty

Anoop Kumar Mathur

James D Oxley

Methods of encapsulating a phase change material in a capsule including suspending a particle of the phase change material in an air stream, coating an entire surface of the suspended particle with at least one layer of a sacrificial compound, coating an entire surface of the layer of the sacrificial compound with at least one layer of a second material, and encapsulating the phase change material within a shell formed by the second material. The step of encapsulating comprising heating the particle coated with the sacrificial compound and the second material, thermally decomposing the sacrificial compound, and vaporizing the sacrificial, wherein the sacrificial compound has a decomposition temperature less than a phase change temperature of the phase change material and a phase change temperature of the second material.

Thermal energy storage system comprising encapsulated phase change material

Methods for optimizing a thermocline in a thermal energy storage fluid within a thermal energy storage tank are disclosed. The methods comprise identifying a thermocline region in the fluid, adding thermal energy to a fluid stream extracted from the thermocline region, and returning the fluid stream to the tank at a plurality of locations above the thermocline region. The methods further comprise regulating the temperature of the fluid returned to the tank at a set point temperature by modulating the flow rate of the fluid stream and by changing the location from where the fluid is extracted from the tank.

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Riverside, CA, United States of America

Rajan Babu Kasetty