PETRONAS and i-TES present Iona ThermaBatt thermal batteries with bio-based phase change materials
PETRONAS Lubricants International and Turin-based i-TES unveiled thermal batteries in Santena that store waste heat in phase change materials, for industry, buildings and data centers.
PETRONAS Lubricants International (PLI) and i-TES, a Turin company specializing in energy storage systems, have presented PETRONAS Iona ThermaBatt in Santena, Italy, according to adnkronos.com adnkronos.com
adnkronos.comadnkronos.comOpen source ↗. It is a new range of thermal batteries designed to recover heat that is normally lost in industrial processes, store it and make it available again when needed. The stated aim is to reduce energy consumption and emissions. The development follows a collaboration between the two companies that began in 2020.
Latent heat in bio-based materials
The batteries rely on phase change materials (PCM), which the companies describe as entirely bio-based. They work on the principle of latent heat. During charging, the material changes from solid to liquid and absorbs heat. When the energy is needed, the process is reversed and the stored heat is released.
According to the companies, compared with conventional storage systems that use media such as water, this approach stores more energy in a smaller space and operates within controlled temperature ranges. The materials are available with different melting temperatures, so the systems can be matched to different heat sources, including heat pumps, gas and biomass boilers, and industrial plants.
Division of work and intended uses
The range combines PETRONAS research on advanced materials, carried out at its Global Research & Technology Centre in Santena, with i-TES experience in designing thermal batteries adnkronos.com
adnkronos.comadnkronos.comOpen source ↗. The planned applications are industrial processes, buildings and data centers, as well as heating and district heating systems.
Andrea Dolfi, Head of R&D Fluid Technology Solutions at PETRONAS Lubricants International, said that joint work with i-TES made it possible to turn complex studies of advanced materials into practical applications. Noemi Muscarà, Chief of R&D and co-founder of i-TES, said the companies have turned PCM technology into a factor of efficiency, pointing to the wide range of melting temperatures that allows pairing with different energy sources.
With Iona ThermaBatt, PETRONAS expands its portfolio of energy management solutions, while i-TES continues the innovation path it started in Turin in 2016. The article does not give capacity figures, prices or delivery dates for the range.
