Scientific breakthrough: University invents heat-regulating building material
In a major scientific breakthrough with important long-term environmental consequences, researchers at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) have developed a material that will cut the amount of energy a building uses by more than one-third.
The material has the remarkable quality of being able to retain and release heat according to the specific temperature requirements for a building and will help dramatically reduce heating and cooling bills.
It has the unique advantage of possessing a larger energy storage capacity with faster thermal response than existing materials and could be cheaply manufactured.
If, for example, the required optimum temperature in a room is 22°C, the material can be fixed so that it starts absorbing any excess heat above that temperature.
The heat-regulating material can be used in existing buildings as well as during the construction of new real estate and could be applied anywhere, from walls and roofs to wallpaper.
The material looks like a circular tablet with the circumference of a large coin in the laboratory. It can be manufactured in a variety of shapes and sizes, including so small that it can be sprayed as an unobtrusive microscopic film to surfaces.
The building material was recently awarded a patent application approval in China, the University was in a position to announce this week, and patent applications are in the pipeline in other countries.
It was invented by researchers at the University’s Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies.
The scientists responsible for the invention are: project leader Professor Jo Darkwa, who is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies; Research Associate Oliver Su; and, PhD student Tony Zhou.
“The construction industry produces more carbon emissions than any other industry in the world – even more than aviation. In China, the building sector is one of the highest energy consuming sectors, accounting for about 30% of total energy usage and also a significant proportion of pollutant emissions,” noted Professor Darkwa.
“This material, if widely used, could make a major impact in the world’s efforts to reduce carbon emission,” he said.
The basic structure of the material has to be engineered for a specific temperature before it is used. The next developmental steps will include creating material which can be used for both heating and cooling applications.
“The material won’t make air-conditioners obsolete, because you still need an air conditioner to control humidity and air movement. This material purely reduces the amount of excessive heat energy in a room,” said Professor Darkwa.
Professor Darkwa said the University is looking to develop the material further as well as commercialise it.
It already has a number of sponsors and partners involved in the research, including the Ningbo Science and Technology Bureau – which provided important funding and support for the initial two-year research – and private companies based in China.
The material could save up to 35% of energy in a building and scientists believe it could also be used in solar panels and LED (light-emitting diode) lighting to enhance the efficiency of these alternative energy-generating technologies.
Also on the cards for further research at UNNC are:
• Exploring which types of paints can be used with the unique material;
• Studies to determine the long-term environmental impacts of the use of the materials; and
• Ways to improve the production of the material to enhance cost efficiency and ensure the process is environmentally-friendly.
The new material is called: novel non-deformed energy storage phase change material (PCM).
The scientists at the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies, meanwhile, are involved in various other projects aimed at finding ways to reduce the global carbon footprint emitted by the world’s buildings.
Professor Darkwa and Dr David Chow, who leads the Architectural Environment Engineering degree programme, have played a major role in work behind new building regulation laws in Ningbo, China. Building developers in the city are compelled to include at least one sustainable energy technology, among other steps, to reduce any environmental harm associated with construction.
China’s national government is on a major drive to improve the country’s environmental track record and the University’s scientists are increasingly involved in making recommendations to policy makers at the highest levels.
In October, UNNC will be the site of China’s second international symposium on low carbon buildings when scientists, researchers, government officials and practitioners will gather to present and discuss recent research outputs and demonstration projects.
Professor Nabil Gindy, Vice-Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at UNNC, said: “The University’s strategic investment in research infrastructure to facilitate the advancement of knowledge in sustainable energy technologies is reaping rewards.
“We are very proud of the research excellence of this particular team of scientists, who have proven to be world-class specialists in the field of sustainable energy technologies. The University of Nottingham has a longstanding commitment to the global environmental agenda,” he said.
The University’s cutting-edge research feeds into all teaching programmes and PhD students, like Mr Zhou, also get the opportunity to make valuable contributions to the advancement of science, he noted.
Professor Gindy said: “Vital for our scientific progress here, too, is the huge support we receive from the Ningbo city authorities, who also recognise the importance of minimising environmental harm and placing sustainability at the forefront of all endeavours.
“We are, of course, also grateful for assistance from our research collaborators at other universities and in the private sector,” he said.
The full cost of the research entailed in developing the new building material has not been disclosed. However, it was made possible through various grants, including from the Ningbo government, KK Chung Educational Group, Hong Kong-based Sustainable Sourcing Ltd and China’s Suntech Ltd.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Their material will be a competitor to this, older technology, called PCM Drywall. The PCM used in ThermalCORE is Micronal, made by the German chemical giant BASF. Micronal was introduced about 2004.
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/storing-heat-walls-phase-change-materials
It’s going to be 110˚ F. in Arlington today. Please! Hurry! Get this stuff developed fast! We could use some of it here!
I made the decision to use this stuff over ten years ago: http://www.becowallform.co.uk/build.html
It works fine but you still need some heating for when externel temps drop to freezing.
Need lots of ventilation in summer to limit the internal “greenhouse” effect. Lotsa glass. 🙂
My more than half-century experience of life tells me that “…and could be cheaply manufactured” will turn out not to be so. Here in England we were told (back in the late 1960s, I think) that nuclear power was going to be so cheap that it probably couldn’t be metered. We thought energy was going to be almost given away. Whatever happened to that?
Never realised that The University of Nottingham has a campus both in China and Malaysia. Things have changed since I was a student.
I could use a spray on version of such a material to control the temperature, preferably cool, an enclosure. I wonder if it will be available commercially?
1) where is the meat? How much energy does the material store? How does it compare to e.g. Wax?
2) how does it work? Melting as with wax?
3) in most places you cant just cool a space without taking care of humidity. Relative humidity will be high enough to cause problems with mildew and mold. An air conditioner cools air and removes moisture.
[meat? do you mean heat? – mj mod]
This sounds like an amazing material from the Darkwa side of the University. If it works, it will be as valuable as Kryptonite.
It is a pity that they cannot refrain from the usual comments about relating it to saving carbon emissions, even in China. What is wrong with saying that it will save energy and improve comfort levels.
Nottingham Ningbo, huh? April 1st was several months ago.
My wife and I made the decision to use this stuff over ten years ago:
http://www.homeimprovementpages.com.au/article/mud_bricks
It works fine but you still need some heating for when external temps drop to freezing. We use a geothermal heat pump and renewable firewood in slow-combustion heaters.
In summer, we open the windows at night and close them by day. A carefully designed overhang lets sunshine in in winter but blocks it in summer, ie, passive-solar design.
OK, so the new high-tech may be better, but our low-tech ain’t bad.
Whatever your thoughts on man’s contribution to changes in the climate, it has generated some interesting developments.
If the basic structure of the material still has to be engineered for a specific temperature before it’s used, something tells me this won’t show up on the local DIY shelves anytime soon. Give it 25 years, minimum.
The press release was pretty skimpy on the details. What kind of raw materials are needed to engineer it? Any rare earth elements involved, stuff to be mined? They’re touting reduction in pollution on the buyers’ end but what about on the manufacturing end?
Soon to be sold on an infomercial near you.
I will believe it when I see it in use.
I’ll believe it when I see it work.
Too much propaganda pep-talk in this article.
Chinese and Japanese are usually taking up ideas already developed in Europe or North America; sometimes they refine them (as in the case of blue laser diode), sometimes it’s just talk.
And even in the case of the blue laser diode, Nakamura moved to California and proclaimed that “his foot will never step on Japanese soil again.”
I remember how much noise was made about some Chinese scientist deciphering and applying the dragonfly’s principles of flight. Nothing ever came out of it.
Larry in Texas,
110 in Arlington? That’s nothing – I was in Ningbo last week when it was 42 deg C (about 108) with 50% relative humidity. That’s a heat index of 143 deg F. Yes, it was insanely hot…
I can see why they developed this material; Ningbo tends to get some of the highest temperatures in China!
Although they have attached the word Nottingham to this and the usual AGW apologia it is fairly obvious that this is research in China by Chinese scientists, looking for a useful product to sell on the open market. Meanwhile in America the “scientists” are worried about vegetables sneaking across state borders and are pumping Co2 into the ground to find out if corn grows faster with higher CO2, (duh!). They are telling us that building a dam means the plants rot under the water and that the tides have magically changed since half the known land mass was covered in an ice sheet. Is anyone else concerned that we have provided education and government funding for this garbage.
Hi
Since this uses capsules of a phase change material, I can understand it will absorb heat from a the air in a room UNTIL the phase change has occurred.
After the phase change has occurred, surely the material then becomes a layer of insulation on the walls / ceiling of the room, causing the temperature of the room to increase more than if the material was not employed at all.
I am assuming that the phase change temperature is in the normal domestic range, otherwise the material would not store energy.
I am assuming again that the energy stored would be released back into the room as the temperature falls.
I have a couple of emergency warming packs containing a clear fluid and a metal ” snapper” . When you want to activate the pack you click the snapper through the bag, and the liquid immediately gives off heat, turning into a solid as it does so over an hour or so. To re-energise the pack I have to heat it in a pan of hot water until it turns liquid again. It can be stored indefinitely, ( unless you knock the pack accidentally ).
If this new lining material does not need a mechanical shock to activate the phase change, then I would assume that it has a fairly tightly defined hysteresis loop and phase changes at at two temperatures on the rise and fall.
As a previous poster wrote, some facts would be appreciated.
P
Sounds phishy. Or did they break the second law? First law has already been disproved by climate models, and now this. And for some reason, they never ever mention in their press-releases how this stuff works. Patent pending, so what are they afraid of? But ‘moire fund will be necessary’ they say.
I call shenanigans.
Always announcements along with the usual flyer on future uses and studies. And the world will get warmer with all those Chinese houses radiating their stored heat at night next door to their temperature station artfully placed by Hansen and his buddies at UEA and where Michael Mann is these days. Believe it when you see it on the shelves at Lowes and Home Depot.
A really great “research” study would be temperature sensitive materials that alter the reflectivity of the material. The hotter and/or sunnier it becomes, the closer it gets to full reflectivity (even to a mirror – just kidding). Most homes in the developed world are heavily insulated so drawing heat out of a room won’t help much. Having a material that helps block the heat that builds in an attic in summer would be simply huge.
The Ghost Of Big Jim Cooley says:
August 3, 2011 at 11:59 pm
My more than half-century experience of life tells me that “…and could be cheaply manufactured” will turn out not to be so. Here in England we were told (back in the late 1960s, I think) that nuclear power was going to be so cheap that it probably couldn’t be metered. We thought energy was going to be almost given away. Whatever happened to that?
Don’t forget that it was going to be fusion power, not fission, and that in 1960 it was only 50 years away. And that there is enough Deuterium, and Tritium in the oceans to last forever. And don’t forget that we were also promised jet packs. Where is my damned jet pack?
Applying for a patent in China. Isn’t that an oxymoron?
`Phase change` materials for use in inside buildings on walls is not new in good old Blighty, but their particular process/material may be. The Shell springboard awards in the u.k. had this out around three years ago.
All we have to do now is get it out of everyones `bright ideas box` and start making it commercially, and then convince people to buy it. Thats the tricky bit.
This sounds like a hoax to me. First the fact that the building industry is the largest CO2 producer (It’s the making of cement that uses over 12% of all energy) has nothing to do with running the building. A complete red herring, so why mention it at all unless to “impress” us? Then the remark that it can be sprayed as microfilm onto existing walls, and presumably still have this wonderful effect is the giveaway: the heat absorbed from the room has to go somewhere and the specific heat capacity of this material must be truly gigantic not to raise the temperature of the material. Otherwise this article tells us that heat will start to flow from cold to warm materials, which, if I remember the courses in thermodynamics from my student days correctly, is rather opposite how nature actually works.
Nottingham, by the way, was the place where Robin Hood came from. Odd name for a Chinese institute, but perhaps an indication of the real agenda here?
Friends:
The article about the novel material is strong on claims but devoid of useful information.
It is an old idea to reduce temperature variation in a building by absorbing excess heat of the day in the building’s structure and releasing that heat in the cool of the night. In the Middle Ages castles were built with thick internal walls to do this.
But the article claims the novel material does more than that. It claims;
“The material has the remarkable quality of being able to retain and release heat according to the specific temperature requirements for a building and will help dramatically reduce heating and cooling bills.
It has the unique advantage of possessing a larger energy storage capacity with faster thermal response than existing materials and could be cheaply manufactured.
If, for example, the required optimum temperature in a room is 22°C, the material can be fixed so that it starts absorbing any excess heat above that temperature.”
But it is not possible to evaluate those claims unless and until each and every of the following questions is answered.
What type is this material?
(This affects bulk manufacturing capability.)
What does the material really cost (in both money and availability of source minerals)?
How does the material “retain and release heat according to the specific temperature requirements”?
(Perhaps it absorbs by a phase change, e.g. melting?)
How is the material “fixed” so it “starts absorbing any excess heat above” more than one specified temperature?
(If it absorbs heat by a phase change then this could be difficult to achieve.)
How much heat can it absorb per unit of its mass and per unit of its volume?
(This directly affects its affectiveness for its intended purpose.)
How fast can it absorb heat from a room that is too warm?
(This directly affects its usefulness for its intended purpose.)
How fast can it release heat to a room that is too cool?
(This also directly affects its usefulness for its intended purpose.)
Richard
Sounds extremely useful, I hope that it does not turn out to be ‘to good to be true.’
The big appeal is that it can be used on buildings without the need to adapt the building. For example, I live in Spain and the house does not have cavity walls (so can not use cavity wall insulation) nor is it insulated. In the winter although night temperatures are rarely below 8 degC (usually they are just in double figures), it gets extremely cold. The converse in Summer, when night temperatures are near the mid twenties. The property has high ceilings for coolness in the summer but that makes effective heating in the winter more difficult and more expensive. To make the house energy efficient would require major adaption/building work the costs of which would be prohibitive.
Obviously, it is easy to paint the internal walls of the building and if this material does ‘what it says on the tin’, it will make a huge difference.
I intend keeping an eye on this and hopefully the product will find its way to market in the next few years at a competitive cost and live up to its maker’s claims.
Mike Jonas says:
August 4, 2011 at 1:10 am
We use a geothermal heat pump and renewable firewood in slow-combustion heaters.
What the hell is “renewable firewood”, and where can I get some?