"The next stage of their work will be to reduce production costs, further optimize the system and adapt it for a variety of applications. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to store heat both in industrial installations and in small combined heat and power plants such as those used in larger residential buildings"

Evidently it's to be used in a variety of applications....

Apparently nothing that we can think off by now??! ^(Sarcasm)

The only difference I see with this waste heat is that you might be able to transport it and that the storage is with rather thin losses.

Transport seems not so feasible and longer storage just prolongs the agony.

I am a pessimist so help me!

The concept is interesting but where is the real value?

This is not using water for storage. Zeolite pellets are used for heat storage - for long periods of time (unspecified) as long as it is kept perfectly dry, and the heat is released by adding water.

I could definitely see applications for eg maintaining even heat in a greenhouse, where there is excess heat gain during the sunny day, with large losses at night and in cloudy weather or seasonally. What I'd like to know, how easy would it be to store the solar heat in the greenhouse into the zeolite..... the process for storing waste heat from industry is not really described in the article. I've never heard of the 'boiling stone' before.

One use of this heat storage method would be to use it to run a Stirling engine. The heat could be acquired from the sun via a fresnal lense or other device. Then, that heat could power a Stirling engine to power a generator.

What do ya think?

PAPADOC

RMFR

Have some fun today.

I'll live life my way until Willie sings.

If it stores heat indefinitely and we can produce vast quantities of it cheaply then we could use it to combat global warming.

Here's an experiment comparing natural and synthetic zeolite for solar heat storage purposes:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/T4470E/t4470e0j.htm

The synthetic is a better product for industrial waste heat since it performs better in the high temperature range 100-200 C. Natural zeolite was as good at temperatures from 50-100C which are typical for a solar collector, according to the author, and is a more affordable material.

So.... I wonder what kind of heat capture one could get in the 50-100C range, what volume of zeolite we'd be talking about to make a meaningful difference to the heat issues in a greenhouse....