Analysis of clathrate solidification

A heat pump/thermal storage system has been constructed to evaluate clathrate thermal energy storage in simulated heating and cooling cycles. The system includes a clathrate builder (crystallizer) system, a heat pump cycle, and subsystems for cooling and heating simulation. The authors report on the experimentally operated clathrate builder system, for which the problem of solid formation on the evaporator coils is nonexistent. This allows forced correction agitation around the cooling surfaces, increasing the heat transfer rate by as much as an order of magnitude per unit area. The solidification of clathrate is macroscopically analyzed