The M-TES (Metallic Phase Change Material-Composites for Thermal Energy Management) project, led by Politecnico di Milano and funded by the European Innovation Council (EISMEA) under the Pathfinder action “Mid to Long Term and Systems Integrated Energy Storage”, has kicked off.
In the next three years, the project aims to address energy-saving challenges by focusing on heat recovery, storage, and heat management in processes involving the production or re-use of energy in the form of heat.
The objective is to develop eco-friendly and cost-efficient materials for thermal energy storage and management, leveraging the heat stored or released during the phase transition of Phase Change Materials (PCM). The innovation lies in the creation of metallic phase change material-composites (m-PCMs), where structural and PCM metals are integrated into a single body. These m-PCMs offer both thermal functionality and mechanical structural properties. Furthermore, the project will explore the processing of these m-PCM composites to achieve shapes and performance characteristics suitable for future applications in the energy and industrial sectors.
The research will be coordinated by Professor Elisabetta Gariboldi, with Andrea Lucchini as Vice-coordinator, and will involve researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Energy. The M-TES consortium includes Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ICMATE), Łukasiewicz – Krakow Institute of Technology (Poland), and The University Otto Von Guericke in Magdeburg (Germany).
